American Quote by Howard Jacobson

My first novel was rejected by some of the most eminent publishers in the world. Starting again was a real wrench.

— Wilbur Smith

As I said, I had no publisher for What a Carve Up! while I was writing it, so all we had to live off…

— Jonathan Coe

Having 'The Expats' not be 'wholesale-y' rejected by the world made it possible for me to write the second book and have a publisher…

— Chris Pavone

I had, like any other young novelist, started out by believing the difficult thing was to get published and that, once you managed that,…

— Mordecai Richler

I finished my first book seventy-six years ago. I offered it to every publisher on the English-speaking earth I had ever heard of. Their…

— George Bernard Shaw

I'd probably still be a financial journalist now if it weren't for writing novels. Mmm. Fun! I'm much happier writing novels!

— Sophie Kinsella

I wrote a novel for my degree, and I'm very happy I didn't submit that to a publisher. I sympathize with my professors who…

— David Eddings

But if I worried too much about publishers' expectations, I'd probably paralyze myself and not be able to write anything.

— David Baldacci

Publishers never tell writers anything. They're all crazy and they drive me crazy.

— Anne Bernays

“…I had a good title already. My book was originally called Loser: A Brief History of Notable Failures. But American publishers don’t like this.…

— Paul Collins

“It began to falter not when the book publishers who loved books gave way to those who preferred profits to reading. It happened when…

— Al Silverman

I've had good publishers and bad publishers, and you've got to learn when the advice is sensible and when it's not.

— Dean Koontz