J.K. Rowling shares photos of her rejection letters for 'inspiration'

Advertisement

Advertisement
Before J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" series was a commercial and critical hit, Rowling was struggling to make Potter's story come to fruition. 

Her manuscript was rejected by 12 different publishing houses before she finally found a publisher. But even with the incredibly successful "Harry Potter" franchise under her belt, one of Rowling's newer manuscripts was also recently denied. 

On Friday, the author took to Twitter to talk about rejection and share some photos of rejection letters she received for her 2013 novel "The Cuckoo's Calling," which she wrote under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. She offered the rejection notices for "inspiration, not revenge" and masked the signatures.

In a letter from Constable & Robinson, a representative wrote that the company couldn't publish the novel "with commercial success" and offered tips for publishing and said that "vital information" could be found in "The Writer's Handbook."

Advertisement

The novel was eventually published and has since spawned a series of its own. 

Rowling revealed that she pinned her first rejection letter to her kitchen wall, but she didn't share any "Harry Potter" rejections because they are in a box in her attic. 

 She added that one of the publishers that rejected "Harry Potter" sent a rude rejection for "Galbraith" as well. 

Advertisement

 But, she said, she had to persevere, and it all paid off in the end - quite literally.

 

NOW WATCH: Jimmy Kimmel lost a ton of weight on this radical diet