Turned down book from Eimear McBride

comes up trumps.

Here’s a tale that will gladden the heart of all struggling writers everywhere, and indeed small publishers too.

Eimear McBride wrote a book called “A Girl is a Half Formed Thing” and sent it off to nine publishers and, guess what, it was turned down every single time.

Then a small independent publisher from Norwich, Galley Beggar Press, took on the book and published it. Sales were small but steady, but when the book recently won the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction suddenly the book began selling in the thousands!

And guess what, Galley Beggar Press began receiving manuscripts in the thousands too!

So it just goes to show, the big publishers don’t always get it right, they don’t always spot the successful books from their piles of manuscripts, and it gives hope and encouragement to the thousands of writers out there who dream of emulating Eimear’s success.

Keep at it! has to be the mantra, and who knows, good things do happen, sometimes.

Big congrats to Eimear, and to the publishers too who had the bottle and forethought to give it a go in the first place.

Well done to all concerned!