USA TODAY Why are we naming Kathryn Stockett's The Help USA TODAY's Book of the Year? Well, you can't stop reading until you've devoured the last word. Its characters jump off the page and into your heart. Most of all, The Help celebrates how kindness can forge bonds between women divided by race. And how can anyone resist the story of a debut novel — rejected by nearly 60 literary agents — that, through word of mouth, has sold more than 1 million copies in hardcover?
All I can say is that these things happen from time to time. Pretty much every author that has appeared on the best seller list has been rejected many times. But I guess it sucks to be one of the agents that rejected her. A million copies means a lot of money.
You also have to wonder - did she make changes to the manuscript after it was rejected each time? The one that was finally accepted may well have been a far better piece of writing than what was submitted to the first couple dozen agents. To me it says more about perseverance and hard work.
Yes, point taken - rewrites, over 60 perhaps, would certainly evolve into something entirely different than the original manuscript.
Had the luck to do a work experience in a London literary agency, in order to better my understanding. It definitely did that. Within the week i felt the same way as they did, reading through some godawful stuff, felt like there must be kids fooling around with keyboards. There were cardboard characters, unrealistic, hilted and wooden speech, cliched description including 'teeth like that out of a toothpaste commercial', and authors namedropping everyone famous they knew in the hope that it'd give her an advantage and even books which had been selfpublished in another language (arabic i think.)
Her attitude about the rejections tells everything: Perseverance, self-confidence, and willingness to revise separates the published from the wannabes.
