Why writers should never give up…

#TT: Circa 1990 — I had received over 150 rejections from various publishers for my original “Bewitched Book,” which would ultimately go on to be purchased three more times (and revised three additional times in various editions renamed “Bewitched Forever”). But the publisher who purchased the book the first time had initially rejected the idea. Ultimately, by mistake. “No one cares about “Bewitched,” he said, and which I had heard several publishers say before.

After that first publisher met with their marketing and sales department, they realized they were incorrect, and they tried to call me and make me an offer. But they didn’t have my phone number (this was before social media or even email!). So they sent me a letter, via regular mail. And I remember that day so well.

I was staring at the mail carrier in my neighborhood, exhausted from the countless previous rejection letters (that I had also received by snail-mail). But this time, as I peered at the postman through the kitchen window, I felt it was going to be different news. “Good” news, actually. And indeed it was.

After the postman delivered the mail, I walked out my front door to retrieve, and there was the letter from the publisher. It was a simple message on their elegant stationery hand-written in big, block letters, by the publisher himself. “CALL ME!” — and thus began my career in publishing, which led to every good thing that has transpired in every area of my career, in publishing and the entertainment industry in general.

Moral of the story?

Never give up your dreams.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —