J.K. Rowling
What failed
Her mother died in 1990, months after the idea arrived. A short marriage collapsed and she came back to Britain a lone parent, later saying she had suicidal thoughts. Seven years after graduating she was jobless and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain without being homeless. The manuscript landed on an agent's rejection pile and was only read because the office manager pulled it back out. Then it was turned down, over about a year, by nearly every major publishing house in the country.
What happened next
Bloomsbury bought it in 1996 for an advance of one thousand five hundred pounds, negotiated up to two and a half thousand. The same year a Scottish Arts Council grant of eight thousand pounds paid for a year of childcare, which let her write the second book while the first still had no prospect of success.
The point
The number everyone repeats is twelve publishers. It is not traceable to her, to her agent, or to any named publisher — Bloomsbury's own founder says 'allegedly twelve'. What is documented is worse and better: nearly all of them, for about a year, with no way of knowing it would end.
The sequence
4 documented failures, shown with the successes in between. Every entry carries its own source — the wins are part of the record, and leaving them out is how these stories get distorted.
- 1990
Her mother dies, months after the idea for the book arrives.
- 1993
Her marriage collapses months after her daughter is born. She later says she had suicidal thoughts.
- 1994
Seven years out of university, jobless and on benefits — by her own account, as poor as it is possible to be in Britain.
- 1995
She picks an agent off a list and posts him three chapters.
- 1995
At the agency the chapters are set aside as a rejection. The office manager gets the agent to look at them again, and he writes asking for the rest.
- 1995–1996
Over about a year it is turned down by more or less every major publishing house in Britain.
- 1996
Bloomsbury buys it for an advance of fifteen hundred pounds.
- 1996
A Scottish Arts Council grant of eight thousand pounds pays for a year of childcare, which lets her finish the second book while the first still has no prospect of success.
- 1997
It is published.
Sources
- Text of J.K. Rowling's Harvard commencement speech (Harvard Gazette)
An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless.
- About (jkrowling.com)
The book was first published in the UK by Bloomsbury Children's Books in June 1997, under the name J.K. Rowling.
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Wikipedia)
After it was accepted by Bloomsbury, she obtained a grant of £8,000 from the Scottish Arts Council, which enabled her to plan the sequels.
- Christopher Little Literary Agency (Wikipedia)
In 1996, Bloomsbury Publishing bought the UK Commonwealth publication rights for one Harry Potter book for £2,500.
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Related failures
Others in writing, and nearby.
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Agatha Christie
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George Orwell
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T. S. Eliot rejected him twice, twelve years apart. The second book was Animal Farm.
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Stephen King
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By fourteen the nail on his wall would not hold the rejection slips. He replaced it with a spike.
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