Able Quote by Sara Sheridan

I'd sold the book first. Actually to a paperback publisher. I had nothing. I just had the idea.

— William Peter Blatty

I'd pretty much given up hope of being published, so I just wrote the book I wanted to read.

— Kate Morton

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

— Wilbur Smith

My first book was published without any editorial advice. Nobody said, 'You might do this or that,' or 'Why don't we see more of…

— James Salter

My hope when I wrote the first book was that I would get to do it again. But it was not entirely clear that…

— John Hodgman

I sometimes wonder what would have happened if the first book had not sold... doesn't bear thinking about, but I suppose we'd have made…

— Bernard Cornwell

I had written a book. For various reasons, the publishing industry had decided that my book was going to be 'important.' The novel had…

— Akhil Sharma

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

Publishing is the final step in making a book; if I was afraid to publish one, I wouldn't write it in the first place.

— Charles Stross

I wrote my first novel because I wanted to read it.

— Toni Morrison

No book I publish will be perfect, but I need to feel I've taken it as far as I can.

— Curtis Sittenfeld

It took seven years from the day I decided I wanted to write fiction to actually getting a book published.

— Cynthia Kadohata