CY@CY Says Welcome to my dreamscape. Where a Lim is also a Ling.
A lot of people aspire to be authors but the sad truth is that very few authors actually make a living from writing. Most authors begin by writing only on the side while working at a full time job and most totally give up on their dreams after awhile. It is very tough to remain positive while facing rejections after rejections.
The hugely successful authors did exactly that, persisting in writing even thoughthe prospects seemed hopeless. For such people chasing their dreams, giving up is often not an option. Many successful authors have experienced a very long and arduous path before they met with success. Being an author isn’t easy.
Looking at the very successful authors like J.K. Rowling, Dr Seuss, Stephen King and Agatha Christie, it is hard to imagine that they too have once struggled and faced rejections.
J.K.Rowling
J.K. Rowling’s story is a very inspiring one. She was as “poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless.” She was a single mother living on welfare, living in a rundown apartment, struggling with clinical depression and even contemplating suicide. Still, Rowling would take her infant daughter to coffee shops and write, and in 1995, she finished the manuscript for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone which she sent to 12 different publishers only to be rejected by all of them. A Bloomsbury editor finally picked up the book for an advance of just £1,500. Her editor suggested she get a teaching job as it was unlikely that she would earn a living from writing children’s books. The book went on to become one of the best-selling series in history with over 500 million copies purchased world-wide. She is now worth more than $1 billion. In the modern context, it’s hard to think of a better rags to riches story within the world of writing than that of JK Rowling.
Dr. Seuss
Dr. Seuss was the pen name of a much beloved children’s author whose real name was actually Theodor Seuss Geisel. He is one of the most successful writers of all time with his books having sold over 600 million copies.
He originally drew political cartoons for papers and magazines. Eventually he turned his attention to children’s books where he did both the writing and illustrations. His first children’s book was And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. He sent it around to numerous publishers and they all turned it down. Rejected by 27 publishers, Dr Seuss was on his way home to burn his manuscript when he ran into an old school acquaintance. When asked what he was carrying Seuss replied ‘a book no one will publish. I’m lugging it home to burn’. The acquaintance, an editor of children’s books, insisted on seeing it. The book was published to rave reviews with the publisher Vanguard Press ending up selling more than 6 million copies of the book. Dr Seuss went on to write over 60 children’s books. His most famous, Green Eggs and Ham, has sold over 8 million copies worldwide.
Stephen King
Before becoming a ridiculously prolific writer, Stephen King was a janitor, gas pump attendant, and worker at an industrial laundry. He, his wife and their two kids lived in a drafty doublewide trailer and drove around an old Buick held together by wire and tape. The typewriter he used was actually his wife’s, since he was too poor to have one of his own. He continued to write faithfully even though he had not received much money from selling short stories to magazines such as Playboy and Penthouse.
His first novel, Carrie, was rejected by thirty publishers, and King was so discouraged that he threw the manuscript away. Luckily for him, his wife, Tabitha, retrieved the book and urged him to keep working on it. It was eventually published by Doubleday Publishing from whom he received an advance of $2,500. However, the hardback book Carrie only sold 13,000 copies. Then the paperback rights to Carrie was sold to Signet Books for $400,000, half of that went directly to King. The paperback version of Carrie went on to sell over a million copies and the film adaptation was a very successful one.
Stephen King has gone on to become one of the most prolific writers of our time. To date, King has published 64 novels, including seven under the pen name Richard Bachman, and five non-fiction books. He has written 200 shorts stories, most of which have been compiled in book collections. His books have sold more than 350 million copies to date.
Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie was a horrible speller and struggled mightily with handwriting. Her troubles sprang from a form of dyslexia and she admitted that she was always the slow one in the family.
She completed her first manuscript at the age of 22 and submitted it to many publishers only to receive a stream of rejections. Seeking the advice of a family friend writer Eden Philpots, she was introduced to his own literary agent who rejected the manuscript but suggested she write a second novel. Agatha Christie’s first novel was never published. Her second novel was also repeatedly rejected before being finally published on the agreement that she change the ending.
Agatha Christie went on to have a prolific career writing 72 novels, including 6 under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, and 15 short-story collections. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) for her contributions to literature. Guinness World Records lists her as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies in more than 100 languages. She remains the most-translated individual author. Her novel And Then There Were None is one of the top-selling books of all time, with approximately 100 million copies sold.
In 1955, Christie was the first recipient of the Mystery Writers of America’s Grand Master Award. In 2013, she was voted the best crime writer and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd the best crime novel ever by 600 professional novelists of the Crime Writers’ Association.