JK Rowling's rejection letter

Yesterday the Guardian and others published some of JK Rowlings rejection letters from publishers for her adult crime novels that she submitted anonymously.

Rowling shared the painful rejection letter she received for her adult crime novel under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith - which said the book could never be commercially successful.

The author was turned down by several publishers when she submitted her manuscripts anonymously.

She has now disclosed the letter sent by Constable & Robinson, a noted crime imprint, which advised her to learn more about how to pitch and to consider joining a writing class.

"I regret we have reluctantly come to the conclusion that we could not publish it with commercial success," it reads. "At the risk of 'teaching my grandmother to suck eggs', may I respectfully suggest the following."

The publisher went on to list tips and tricks to help a would-be author, including asking a helpful bookshop for advice on who would best represent their style of work, learning how to write an "alluring" 200-word blurb to sell it and picking up the Writers' Handbook.

Apologising for being unable to provide constructive criticism about the manuscript itself, it added: "A writer's group/writing course may help." It went on to wish her "every success in placing your work elsewhere".

Find the letter at the link below

http://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/713298761288708096/photo/1

Some famous rejection letters

"First, we must ask, does it have to be a whale?... Could not the Captain be struggling with a depravity towards young, perhaps voluptuous, maidens?"

Herman Melville's Moby Dick

"For your own sake, do not publish this book."

DH Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover

"You're welcome to Le Carre - he hasn't got any future."

John Le Carre's The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

"We are not interested in science fiction which deals with negative utopias. They do not sell."

Stephen King's Carrie

"If I may be frank, Mr Hemingway - you certainly are in your prose - I found your efforts to be both tedious and offensive. You really are a man's man aren't you?"

Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises

"The girl doesn't, it seems to me, have a special perception or feeling which would lift that book above the 'curiosity' level."

The Diary of Anne Frank

"What was needed, (someone might argue), was not more communism but more public-spirited pigs."

George Orwell's Animal Farm

"I recommend that it be buried under a stone for a thousand years."

Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita