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The Biggest Blunders of Publishing Industry

Getting a book published is always a mountain to climb and being a bestseller is even tougher! But what if a masterpiece that has every potential to be a bestseller got rejected by publishers and literary agents? As the literary agents and publishers have rejected either out of their sheer biases or lack of vision, these masterpieces get on to become raving bestsellers and proved them completely wrong. Indeed! These Rejection Letters give us a glimpse of the biggest blunders of the publishing industry.

Alice Walker

The Pulitzer Prize-Winning author was rejected by the Viking Press for his sensational masterpiece “The Colour Purple”. The Viking Press felt it jarring as every sentence ended with an exclamation. The Color Purple won Pulitzer Prize in 1983.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kurt Vonnegut

Can you ever imagine that the potential best satire of the world be called “FUCK” in its rejection letter by a publishing house? Sadly Yes! “Slaughterhouse – Five” by Kurt Vonnegut was rejected by the Farrar Strauss Giroux in such a brutal and demeaning way. And Slaughterhouse – Five emerged as one of the New York Times Bestsellers.

 

 

 

 

 

Gertrude Stein

How would you respond when one of the top publishers warns you in its rejection letter that it won’t even sell a single copy? A lot would get utterly demotivated but thankfully it was not the case with Gertrude Stein when Arthur C Fifiled Publisher rejected her poetries with such a curt rejection. She is today considered one of the pillars of American Poetry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

John Steinbeck

Would it be just a blunder to say a prospective Pulitzer Prize Winning masterpiece is not suitable for a publishing house? The Nobel Prize-winning author’s work “Grapes of Wrath” was rejected by Penguin House as they didn’t find it suitable for themselves. Grapes of Wrath went on to win Pulitzer Prize in 1940.

 

 

 

 

 

John Updike

An author in the exclusive list of winning the Pulitzer Prize more than once was rejected for “Rabbit Series” by Random House saying that it will never be published in the near future.

 

 

 

 

 

 

R.R. Tolkien

The author who is today considered the Father of Modern Fantasy Literature was rejected by Random House. And why? Just because Lord of the Rings by R.R. Tolkien was rejected saying the impact of the book was undermined due to most of the novel being in quotes. The Lord of The Rings sold more than 150 million copies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

William Cuthbert Faulkner

Could we ever imagine that a Nobel Laureate would also be rejected? William Faulkner was rejected by Harcourt, Brace, and Company as they felt “The Sound and the Fury” was fading up with multiple references to a particular character. The Sound and the Fury was sixth on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.

 

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