9 Awesome SF/F Novels That Were Almost Never Published

Dune, by Frank Herbert
Herbert’s seminal sci-fi novel was rejected by publishers a grand total of 26 times. The company that finally picked it up in 1965, the tiny Philadelphia-based Chilton Publishing, was best known for producing automobile manuals. It went on to sell 20 million copies, birth an ongoing franchise, and provide the inspiration for the greatest sci-fi film never to happen, a 1970s project that would have been directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky, been scored by Pink Floyd, and starred Orson Welles, Salvador Dalí, and Mick Jagger.

Animal Farm, by George Orwell
Orwell’s classic, known to many a seventh grade English class, struggled to find a publisher in both England and the United States. One American publisher summed up their reasoning by asserting, “it was impossible to sell animal stories in the U.S.A.”
Orwell had it rough: he’s also on my list of epicly burned genre authors, although not for writing about horses.

A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L’Engle
Twenty-six publishers sent L’Engle rejections before she managed to find one that liked her science fantasy novel. None of those 26 publishers won the 1963 Newbury Metal. The beloved novel went on to win a host of other awards, selling 8 million copies along the way.

Carrie, by Stephen King
Picture Stephen King onstage at his high school prom, getting a bucket of rejection slips dumped on his head. That’s what I’m assuming he felt like in 1973 when 30 publishers rejected his paranormal horror novel Carrie.
King almost didn’t complete the first draft of the book that kicked off his lengthy career as a novelist, either; his wife had to fish the first three crumbled pages out of his trashcan and convince him to complete it. It sold one million copies within a year, and King is now the world’s most famous horror author.

The War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells
One publisher said of this pioneering 1898 science fiction novel: “An endless nightmare. I think the verdict would be ‘Oh don’t read that horrid book.'” Over a century later, Tom Cruise is still running away from alien overlords, and his 2005 film’s source material is still in print.

The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K. Le Guin
Le Guin’s Hugo-winning, Nebula-winning, genre-innovating sci-fi novel is “endlessly complicated by… information,” “hopelessly bogged down,” “lacking in pace,” and “unreadable.” At least, according to the 1968 publisher who sent her worst rejection letter, as quoted by Le Guin herself.
Literary critic Harold Bloom had a different opinion in 1994, saying, “Le Guin, more than Tolkien, has raised fantasy into high literature, for our time.”

And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, by Dr. Seuss
All right, I’ll admit that it’s a stretch to call a children’s picture book a fantasy novel, but this one is certainly fantastical. Also fantastical: the fact that 27 publishers rejected Seuss’s first book, calling it “different” and “silly.” That’s right, kid’s books weren’t silly before the good doctor turned the entire industry on its head. His whimsical book was finally accepted in 1937. In all, Seuss has sold some 600 million silly books.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, by JK Rowling
Twelve rejections didn’t stop Rowling from trying one more, lucky 13th time, and you may have heard of that wizard schoolkid series that was picked up as a result. It has sold over 450 million copies, and has made over 20 billion when you include all the films, toys, and assorted theme parks. There’s really not much more to say about this one: it’s the most financially successful book-based franchise ever.

 The Erye Affair, by Jasper Fforde
Fforde withstood no less than 73 rejections before his novel The Erye Affair was accepted and published in 2001. Now widely praised, the bizarre story reads like the work of an ADHD Douglas Adams: vampires, time travel, cloned dodos, alternate history, and the absurdly named literary detective Thursday Next are all jumbled together into an always-entertaining comedy.