Anyone in need of some motivation should cast an eye over JK Rowling’s Twitter account, where the author has shared the rejection letters she received for her first novel written under another name.
Rowling had already authored the seven best-selling Harry Potter novels, all of which had been adapted to screen, by the time she decided to try pitching her new work to publishers under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.
But this unknown writer failed to bowl over publishers Constable and Robinson and Crème de La Crème, with one even suggesting that attending a writer's class could be helpful.
Rowling, who was asked to share her Harry Potter rejection letters, decided to share her more recent rejections for The Cuckoo’s Calling on Twitter, for “inspiration, not revenge”.
“I wasn't going to give up until every single publisher turned me down, but I often feared that would happen,” she wrote in a second post.
Rowling also revealed one of the publishers who turned down Harry Potter also rejected Galbraith’s first novel.
Chocolat author Joanne Harris replied to Rowling’s tweets by saying she received so many rejections for her novel that she used them to build a sculpture.
