I came across this article today on CNN, which is an interview with John Grisham. It opens with a really interesting fact:
“Some things John Grisham knows: He got 15 rejections before his first book, “A Time to Kill,” was published.”
Now to any aspiring author, to hear this is good news. We all hear about the mountain of rejections people get, but in my mind if someone is very successful, they probably got accepted right away. It seems that is not the case with Grisham. While fifteen rejections isn’t a huge amount, that’s still sixteen people he had to query to get his work out there. I’m hoping that I may find similar luck when my query process for the Robert story is ready to get out there.
I think the CNN article is misleading. The reporter makes it sound as though John queried 15 agents one at a time. If that were the case, then it would have taken John years to find an agent. Chances are John queried many agents at the same time (well over 16). So he probably received representation within 6 months (probably sooner) of beginning his query process. That is fast.