From an article about his passing:

Bradbury recently wrote a short essay responding to his favorite Snoopy comic strip about how much rejection he faced when he first began writing. "Starting when I was fifteen I began to send short stories to magazines like Esquire, and they, very promptly, sent them back two days before they got them! I have several walls in several rooms of my house covered with the snowstorm of rejections, but they didn’t realize what a strong person I was; I persevered and wrote a thousand more dreadful short stories, which were rejected in turn," he wrote.

When I started sending articles and stories for possible publication it was nothing but rejection, rejection and more rejection…with some success in the comic book field. When I was a young adult with my own home, I took all my rejection slips and plastered my office with them. They composed my wall paper. Then I started to get an article here or a story there published. I was starting (I hoped) a career.

Then I had a couple of plays produced. Then I discovered the Captain and sent out my query letter to 77 book publishers with a first chapter of a proposed book. Two publishers were interested and I signed with the one who contacted me first (they were within a day of each other). I was still getting rejection letters from those 75 other publishers, one coming three years after the book had already become a major best seller in the gambling field!

Now I have 25 books published and a bunch of books under my own monica, "Get the Edge Guides," where I introduced some damn good writers to the world including our own Bill "Ace-Ten" Burton.

I’ve had a few television shows on some of the major cable channels — all about gambling.

Still, I haven’t stopped. I have been sending out science fiction short stories, all of which have been rejected. I’ve had several movie scripts "almost" bought by some big companies — but ultimately rejected.

I even queried my current publisher for whom I have six books accepted about a new book titled It’s Fun Being Catholic – and without any explanation, the answer was "no." The publisher didn’t even ask to read a chapter or two just to make me feel good. Instead he signed me to a two book deal, yes, two more gambling books.

I am currently working on my second novel titled Trev and I am loving every minute of writing it. Will this novel be published? Who knows?

But those of you who wish to become professional writers, you better prepare yourself for rejection because no matter how successful you become, so much of what you write, maybe even most things you write, will not see the light of day.

Ray Bradbury was a great writer but he knew the truth about what it’s all about. May he rest in peace and not have to paper heaven with any more rejection slips.

Replies:

No replies were posted for this topic.