Battle Quote by Leon Uris

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

— Wilbur Smith

It had been fourteen years and I hadn't had anything published. I had 250 rejection slips. I got my first novel published and it…

— Lisa Alther

I've had a lot of books rejected in my time. My first novel, which didn't get published, was, with hindsight, crashingly dull.

— Helen Fielding

Like pretty much every short story writer, I submitted to every market under the sun and hoped for the best. The rejection letters I've…

— Ken Liu

I've rejected certain books, then gone back later and loved them.

— J. Courtney Sullivan

I have SO many books I didn't sell. Some my agent rejected outright, others made it all the way to my editor to be…

— Sarah Dessen

Nobody told me how hard it was going to be to get published. I wrote four novels that nobody wanted, sent them out all…

— Jerry Spinelli

My first novel didn't sell well. It was really painful and humiliating and shocking to me.

— Maria Semple

My first novel took almost six years to sell and was rejected 37 times in the interim, and then finally sold for the smallest…

— Daniel Handler

“The novel was rejected by thirty publishers”

— Alan Griffin

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

There were about ten years of trying, failing, trying again, suffering rejection, etc. My first published book, 'Story of a Girl', was the fourth…

— Sara Zarr