Desperation Quote by M. H. Abrams

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

I have a lot of stuff that I never published because I always had a sense that novels were not finally going to be…

— William Monahan

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

— Wilbur Smith

I am the luckiest novelist in the world. I was a first-time novelist who wasn't awash in rejection slips, whose manuscript didn't disappear in…

— Vikas Swarup

I'm not an overnight success. My early publishing history, through my first five books, was unfortunate in many respects, typified by a couple of…

— John Lescroart

Madly, futilely, I wrote novel after novel, eight in all, that failed to find a publisher. I persisted because for me the novel was…

— William Nicholson

Not being published would be great. When I say that to other writers they look at me as if I'm totally insane.

— Kate Atkinson

It's easy to get published once you have written a really good book and the hard part, 99 percent of what you need to…

— Laini Taylor

My own best books have not been published. In fact, they've not even been written yet.

— Edward Abbey

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

There are so many people who write really interesting work and try super hard and still don't get published.

— Micah Perks

I wrote for twelve years and collected 250 rejection slips before getting any fiction published, so I guess outside reinforcement isn't all that important…

— Lisa Alther