Holy Kaw! All the topics that interest us

14 bestsellers that publishers rejected

Posted Nov 6th, 2009 at 11:46 AM and seen 5935 times

Who among us hasn’t been rejected by a company, venture capitalist, date, or publisher? Twenty publishers turned down Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl. Sixteen turned down The Peter Principle by Laurence Peter. In fact, publishers turned down fourteen bestselling books. Stanford Business School turned me down—that’s why I don’t donate much money to Stanford. :-)

What truly matters is not whether you are turned down, but what you do after you’re turned down.

More Positive Psychology news and tips.

 Guy Kawasaki

Comments (6)

Nov 06, 2009
Paulo Coelho said...
My book "The Alchemist" was rejected AFTER being published (which is much worse), as it sold only 900 copies in its first year. I started knocking doors, found another publisher who believe in this "flop" and today I am in the Guiness Book of World Records 2009 as the most translated living author (69 languages, 146 countries)
P.S. - the most translated author of all times is Shakespeare
Nov 06, 2009
jrharv said...
Let's hope I'm the 15th. I'm currently working with iUniverse because several publishers have not been willing to take my story on. My gender is a roadblock for the genre I am writing. My nom de plume should hinder that slightly. This is one of several I intend to write, I've sent 2 more to another publisher, if they don't take them on, I'm sure whoever buys this one from iUniverse will.
Nov 06, 2009
Marc Skinner said...
All of those books made the big mistake of being original, interesting, and universally accessible. Do you really think people want that in their reading material?
Nov 07, 2009
Kathy Sierra said...
The tech book series my husband and I created was first turned down by other publishers (and laughed at). 5 years later, the series has sold nearly a million copies, has had a book on Amazon's Top Ten computer bestsellers most years, and is one of the publishers most profitable series of the past decade.

Even the publisher who agreed to do it -- O'Reilly -- had key employees so skeptical they were threatening to quit. They feared for their reputation, but the series helped save many of their jobs. :)

I will add that my husband and I did not intend for it to be a series -- just a one-off book with a very unusual approach.

Nov 08, 2009
Rohin Gupta said...
Wonder why they didn't mention #Fountainhead. http://bit.ly/1unDFO
Nov 09, 2009
Marcus DeHart said...
And the dream lives on!

Leave a comment...

 
Got an account with one of these? Login here, or just enter your comment below.
Posterous-login    twitter