5 SURPRISING BOOKS THAT ALMOST WEREN ’ T PUBLISHED - KEEP THE FAITH
Some of these are well-known stories of rejection , but what would have happened if some open-minded person had not seen the potential ?
# 1 Chicken Soup for the Soul by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen
When the now globally famous book of inspirational stories , Chicken Soup for the Soul , was published it launched an amazing brand — the title not only became one of the world ' s best-known phrases , but the series now encompasses over 200 books ranging from Chicken Soup for the Mother ' s Soul , to Chicken Soup Shopper ’ s Soul , to titles as far-ranging as Chicken Soup for the Aspiring Meth Addict ' s Soul , with total worldwide sales of half a billion copies . And , it almost didn ’ t happen .
Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen , shopped it around to over 140 publishers , and not a single one of them wanted anything to do with it . According to Canfield , " They all said it was a stupid title , that nobody bought collections of short stories , that there was no edge -- no sex , no violence . Why would anyone read it ?"
Health Communications , a small company specializing in recovery books on subjects like alcoholism and drug addiction , were seriously hurting financially . It appeared that no one wanted to read about that stuff . When they saw Chicken Soup for the Soul , they immediately loved it and snapped it up for a hefty advance of zero dollars . Then the amazing thing happened — every Englishspeaking person on Earth bought a copy . # 2 A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
The story behind how A Confederacy of Dunces , a Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy considered by many to be one of the funniest books ever written , got published is almost as insane as the story itself . It was published in 1980 , ten years after John Kennedy Toole committed suicide and it won the Pulitzer the following year . John Belushi , John Candy , Chris Farley and Will Ferrell all attempted to make it into a movie , but that has not happened to date . It was produced as a play .
After John Kennedy Toole , a struggling young author , shipped his manuscript off to Simon & Schuster , it immediately caught the attention of senior editor Robert Gottlieb . He saw the novel ' s potential , but thought it wasn ' t quite where it needed to be . He sent several requests for revisions , which Toole readily com-
MAY - JUNE 2016
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