Publishers don’t always know best. One publisher sent this helpful little missive to Ursula K. Le Guin regarding her novel, The Left Hand of Darkness:
“The book is so endlessly complicated by details of reference and information, the interim legends become so much of a nuisance despite their relevance, that the very action of the story seems to be to become hopelessly bogged down and the book, eventually, unreadable. The whole is so dry and airless, so lacking in pace, that whatever drama and excitement the novel might have had is entirely dissipated by what does seem, a great deal of the time, to be extraneous material. My thanks nonetheless for having thought of us. The manuscript of The Left Hand of Darkness is returned herewith.”
The Left Hand of Darkness went on to win both the Hugo and the Nebula awards.
30 famous authors whose works were rejected by publishers
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My friend Jim Longo announced on Facebook: “Had three dreams in three nights, net result, one thousand word short story. A subconscious is a terrible thing to waste.”
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I always thought that big banks were the enemy, but look at that – we’ve met the enemy and he is us.
“When I decided to walk away from a 14-year career in investment banking to write a novel, I figured I knew what to expect: a devastating pay cut and the possibility that I would fail to write a good book. What I didn’t realize is just how much banking had already prepared me for the writing life.” — Aifric Campbell
How Investment Banking Prepares You To Be a Writer
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Saw it, Loved it, Ate it
Maurice Sendak’s favorite compliment from a reader
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