Never give up!!!

 My first book contract was with Doubleday.  Four science fiction books, any subject Iwanted.  I wrote and published the firstthree (Killerbowl, A Generation Removed, The Resurrectionist.)  For the fourth, I wanted to write somethingcompletely different. Something that incorporated my boyhood loves, cartoons,comic books, and noir mysteries.  Aftertwo years of research and writing, I produced Who Censored Roger Rabbit?

 I sent Who Censored Roger Rabbit? to Doubleday as the finalbook in my four book deal.  To my greatsurprise, they rejected my work.  Thismarked the first time in my writing career that I have ever gotten a reject.

 I asked my editor why she had rejected what I thought was mybest book ever.  She said personally, sheloved the work.  However, the book was sounlike anything I had written before, unlike anything anybody had ever writtenbefore, that she felt compelled to send it to The Marketing Department.  Theywere the ones who rejected it.

 I called the head of The Marketing Department.  I asked him why he had rejected my work.  He said that unfortunately there was nocategory for it on the bookstore shelves. It wasn’t a traditional mystery, not really a general novel, not achildren’s book, not true science fiction. He said they couldn’t sell my book.

 I asked him what he would do if somebody today gave himAlice In Wonderland, or Gulliver’s Travels, or The Wizard of Oz?  He thought for a moment and said, “I couldn’tsell those either.”

 I was heartbroken.  Itold my agent that if I couldn’t sell this book, I didn’t want to be a writeranymore, because this was the kind of story I wanted to write.  He told me not to worry.  That we would find the book a home.

 He started sending the book to other publishers.  Sometimes to multiple editors at thesame  publisher.  Along the way, Who Censored Roger Rabbit? gotrejected 110 times!!!  Always for thesame reason.  There was no category forthis on bookstore shelves.  Although afew publishers came up with another reason to turn me down.  They thought nobody would understand a storyabout a private eye and a talking rabbit.

 In those days, rejects came by mail.  My wife took to calling my daily trip to themailbox the Daily Disappointments because I would always come back with 1, 2,3, once even 6 reject letters.

 On the 111th submission, the book crossed thedesk of an editor at St. Martins who had just published a major best seller forthem.  She was given a vanityproject.  She could publish any book ofher choice.  She chose Who Censored RogerRabbit?  Although, when she showed thebook to the President of the Company, he reneged.  He said he knew he had promised she couldpublish any book, but she couldn’t publish this one because he couldn’t sellit.  She stepped up to the plate and said,“Publish this book or I quit.”

 They published the book, although in very smallquantities.  Less than 5,000 copies.

 The book was incredibly well reviewed and swiftly sold out.

 A few months later, I got a call from Disney asking if I’dbe interested in having them turn my book into a movie.

 The rest is history.

 Who Censored Roger Rabbit went through 16 printings inpaperback.  There has been a book clubedition, a limited collectors’ edition, an audio book, and finally a reprint.

 When I wrote the sequel novel Who P-p-p-plugged RogerRabbit?, 16 publishers bid for the rights to publish it.  All of them had rejected the first book once,6 of them had rejected the first book twice, 2 of them rejected the first bookthree times.

 The lesson here?  Ifyou believe in what you’re doing, never give up.  Sooner or later, you will succeed.

 If you want to read the book that so many publishersbelieved they could never sell, or that readers wouldn’t understand, gohere.  Read the book and see for yourselfhow wrong those publishers were.

 https://www.amazon.com/Censored-Roger...