Rejection, the Publisher and Publishing

Writing may be a labour of love and a revelation of the soul. However, publishing is a tough business that profits the publisher more than the average writer.



Just having your manuscript read and even considered for publishing is tough. It is exceptionally difficult for genres that publisher's have too much of. Simply having a good manuscript doesn't mean you will be accepted, considering the number of submissions of the same type of book a publishing company receives. The publishers will always choose the one that will gain them the most profit. Publishing books is a business and profits matter if a publisher wants to survive. Most of the time, it's this direct line for profit that deviates from seeing the truly great work.



There are stories, I am sure you have heard, of authors who have submitted to a dozen publishers and have been rejected each time. The only way these writers will make it is by being persistent and beliving in their work. They became best sellers.



Some publishers can even be quite rude to authors as if it were not enough that they reject their works. Have you ever seen the classic teen horror movie "Carrie"? This movie is based on a Stephen King novel. That novel became massively successful when it was published. A movie and a remake of the movie were even made out from the book. This wouldn't have been the case had Stephen King not persisted with his work, especially after having different publishers reject it.



Another really good story on rejected but successful novels is "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone" by J.K Rowling. Harry Potter was rejected by dozens of publishers. Well-known names in the world of publishing like Bloomsbury, HarperCollins and Penguin missed the chance to publish a virtual gold mine because they thought that children do not want to read thick books - or so they thought.



It happened to many famous authors and the same can happen to you. These authors must have some very thick skin to move forward after so much rejection. Or they may have also just given up on finding a publisher and published their own work.



Being a successful author takes a lot of dedication. Writing is solitary work that needs discipline and love. Not everybody can work like that. The most important thing is to stand by your work when contacting a publisher, hope for the best but also plan for the worst.