No April Fools Here

“Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.” F. Scott Fitzgerald

April can be a troublesome month. April showers (continual in my part of the world), taxes, spring cleaning, April, as T.S. Elliot observed “...can be the cruelest month.”

But, raise your heads, my fellow readers and writers! In the spirit of I Will Wade Through the Puddles and Get New Boots if Necessary - here is a list of 10 authors initially rejected by publishers.

• 38 rejections - Gone with the Wind (Margaret Mitchell) 
• After 5 rejections, this author put her manuscript away in a hat box. Two years later she resubmits - Anne of Green Gables (Lucy Maud Montgomery)
• “Stick to teaching” advice given by publisher rejecting her manuscript titled Little Women. Louisa May Allcott 
• 140 rejection letters saying ‘Anthologies don’t sell’ - Jack Canfield & Mark Victor Hansen authors of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series 
•  “An irresponsible holiday story that will never sell” wrote one publisher rejecting Wind in the Willows (Kenneth Grahame) 
• “The girl doesn’t, it seems to me, have a special perception or feeling which would lift that book above the ‘curiosity’ level.” which is why this publisher passed on The Diary of Anne Frank
• 5 literary agents turn it down. This author submits it herself as an unsolicited manuscript to a small publisher. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger) 
• Three years of rejection letters pile into a bag which becomes too heavy to lift. The Princess Diaries (Meg Cabot) 
• 5 years of rejection letters - Agatha Christie
• Advised to get a day job, since the odds were she would not make much money writing children’s literature - J.K. Rowling

Elspeth Futcher is an author and playwright. Her murder mystery games A Fatal Fairy Tale, Deadly Ever After and Curiouser and Curiouser are among the top-selling mystery games on the Internet. All thirteen of her murder mystery games and two audience-interactive plays are published by host-party.com. Her newest game, Once Upon a Murder, is now available and published by Red Herring Games. Her 'writing sheep' are a continuing feature in the European writers' magazine Elias. Connect with her on Twitter at @elspethwrites or on Facebook at Elspeth Futcher, Author.