Issue Two of Hamilton Arts & Letters

By Dennis McCloskey

If you have never received a rejection letter from a publisher, you are not a writer.

And if you’ve received a few, take heart and think of Gilbert Young, of Bath, England, and Bill Gordon, of Ohio. Poor ol’ Gil was a persistent author, according to a past edition of the Guinness Book of World Records, who wrote a 150,000-word manuscript in 1966, titled World Government Crusade. He received 242 publishers’ rejections. Not to be outdone in the failure department, Bill Gordon was on his way to beating Gil’s dismal record with his manuscript How Many Books do you Sell in Ohio? when publisher Aames-Allen sent a written offer to publish his book. He had received 176 previous rejections from publishers.

Persistence pays!