Richard Bach Success Story
Richard Bach was rejected by 26 publishers because they failed to recognize the potential in his book – Johnathan Livingston Seagull. The book is
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short by traditional standards since it’s a little less than 10,000 words long and the main character of the book was simply a seagull that enjoyed flying.
The only editor that saw any value in the book was an editor at McMillan Publishing by the name of Eleanor Friede. She finally persuaded her company to publish the book, but was only allotted a first printing of just 7,500 copies and a miniscule advertising budget to publicize the book. She did this all under the scrutiny of other publishers making claims that the book would never make it to a paperback edition, which is the sign of a successful book in the publishing industry. Strangely enough though, Avon Book purchased the paperback publishing rights, and before the paperback version could even be released fans were already raving about Jonathan Livingston Seagull.
A mere two years later in 1972, the book reached the top of the New York Times best-seller list where is stayed for 38 consecutive weeks, was featured on the cover of Time magazine and sold more than a million copies. Within five years of the publication date the book had sold over 5 million copies in the United States alone and 30 million copies world-wide. Richard Bach was swamped with additional book deals, film offers and requests to appear on television shows.
There are no mistakes. The events we bring upon ourselves, no matter how unpleasant, are necessary in order to learn what we need to learn; whatever steps we take, they’re necessary to reach the places we’ve chosen to go. – Richard Bach
