Marketing Your Best Seller 87 Reject Rejection How can you tell if you’re going to make it in the book business? One thing virtually all successful writers seem to have in common is a period—often a long period—of nothing but rejection. Stephen King tossed the opening four chapters of Carrie, his 昀椀rst novel, into the wastebas- ket. His wife found them, read them, and urged him to go on with the book. 吀栀e rest, as they say, is history. It’s eerie how almost exactly the same thing happened to Dr. Norman Vincent Peale and Irving Stone, author of 吀栀e Agony and the Ecstasy and many other great histor- ical novels. Both of them had stories involving an early manuscript, a wastebasket—and a wife! 吀栀ere are many variations on this theme. TV anchor Ted Koppel said he could have wallpapered his apart- ment with the rejection notices he received in his pursuit of work as a foreign correspondent. One of my favorite stories is about singer Amy Grant. When she launched her 昀椀rst album, there was going to be a big signing in the record store. 吀栀e record company sent out eighteen hundred hand- engraved invitations. A full house was expected. Not one person showed up. She sang for ninety minutes to the store manager. As Jack and were repeatedly getting rejected, we kept saying, “Next!” If you say, “Next!” long enough, someone will eventually and inevitably say yes. Remember, Jack