There's nothing easy about being an author. Essentially, anyone who manages to get their book published without already being a reality TV star or celebrity hair stylist is an amazing genius. But some authors started out in poverty, buried in rejection slips, and still managed to go on to write bestsellers. They worked multiple jobs, faced multiple failures, and (in a few cases) escaped literal war zones to be able to share their stories with the world. Here are a few authors who have inspiring stories of success.
We all have an image of the starving artist, writing in coffee shops and lounging around in their quaint attic bedroom. Reality is rarely so romantic, though. Sure, some of these writers wrote in coffee shops, but a lot more of them wrote in trailers, or wrote late at night after working at the potato chip factory. They wrote while supporting children, or while processing trauma. They were told again and again that they would never amount to anything. And yet, all of these writers managed to publish bestselling, life-changing books.
So the next time you want to give up on a project, or go live in the forest because everything just seems too hard, draw inspiration from these authors' stories:
1
J.K. Rowling
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We all know J.K. Rowling's story already, but that doesn't make it any less inspiring. She was as "poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless." She was a single mother with no job, living on welfare and struggling with clinical depression. Still, Rowling would take her infant daughter to coffee shops and write, and in 1995, she finished the manuscript for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone... which was immediately rejected by twelve publishers. Bloomsbury finally accepted the book, but warned her not to quit her day job, since it probably wouldn't make much money.
The rest is history.
3
Stephen King
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Before becoming a ridiculously prolific writer, Stephen King was a janitor, gas pump attendant, and worker at an industrial laundry. King's first novel, Carrie, was rejected by thirty publishers, and King was so discouraged that he threw the manuscript away. Lucky for him, his wife, Tabitha, retrieved the book and urged him to keep working on it (even though they lived in a trailer had two small children to support). Carrie was eventually published, starting King on a long and incredibly successful writing career.
5
Ishmael Beah
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Author and activist Ishmael Beah is best known for his memoir, A Long Way Gone. At age twelve, Beah was forced to become a child solider in Sierra Leone, fighting for almost three years until he was rescued by UNICEF. After a difficult transition back to normal life, Beah was forced to flee increasing violence in his new home town. He made his way to New York, continued his education, and eventually started to write down memories of his time in the war. A Long Way Gone became a huge success, and Beah is still writing and advocating for human rights.
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