This is a post about something that about 98% of people in the arts have bad memories about.
A Conversation at a Party.
The cases Of Ernest Hemingway, Jack London, And Henry Miller
I was talking to a woman at a party. It was a nice party and the woman–a well-known painter from the Midwest–was good company–cheerful, friendly. Our conversation turned to the arts, as my conversations—and hers–often do, and we talked of this and that. And then, knowing I was a writer and poet, she asked me, “Did you ever not get published because you lacked the credential of previous publications?”
I said “Yes, when I was starting out, which is of course the worst possible time for a writer, the time of greatest vulnerability. I think everyone in the arts has been stymied by the particular problem of credentials.”
She said, “I certainly have.”
I said, “Funny isn’t it, you’re so famous.”
“But that wasn’t always the case. It was a long time before anyone knew I was a good saleable painter.”
I said, “It makes me think of all the great writers who had trouble getting published for that reason. I 
think of my favorite writer, Ernest Hemingway, and ask myself, ‘How could an editor with any judgment at all reading young Hemingway’s beautiful prose say, ‘We can’t publish you because no one knows who you are.’ Hemingway would often cry as he received still another rejection slip. Yet he persevered submitting stories and in not many years he would be recognized as the best writer in the world, and in a few more years he would be the most famous and the most highly paid. The same happened to Jack London–unable to be published, hundreds of rejections, a publication, then within a year the most popular writer in the world.“
Henry Miller was angry with editors who rejected him because literarily he was a nobody. He was living in poverty, his only possessions the clothes he was wearing and a comb. Editors abused him mercilessly. He wrote in a letter to a friend,” Who do these shits think they are to say such things to me?”
“The Matthew Effect”
You may not like it, but unless you write or paint or act solely for the joy of it (as many people do) and have no interest in going any further in the Darwinian survival-of-the fittest, ferociously-competitive modern world of the arts, you have to compete for attention. Opportunities in the arts are limited, yet there are millions of Americans who claim to be “in the arts.” They are trying to get their story rather than yours in the magazine, or their book released by the publisher rather than yours, or get their painting rather than yours in the show, or get the lead in Macbeth.
All any person in the arts asks for is a level playing field. But the playing field is not level. The concept of “The Matthew Effect” derives from the Bible’s book of Matthew (25, 29): “For unto everyone that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.” That refers in writing and painting (and all the other arts and all the sciences and in all of academia) to the rich get richer, the fact that more status is given to the most highly recognizable people in the field (though they might not be the most deserving), while recognition is withheld from writers, painters etc., who aren’t well-known (though they might be the most deserving).
What unpublished author hasn’t had the depressing experience of reading crappy books by writers who have published fifteen other books just as crappy and thought, “I’m better than they are, so how does such a thing happen? Is there no justice?” It’s “The Matthew Effect” in operation—they hath and you hath not. The artist who hasn’t been recognized yet must understand and overcome “The Matthew Effect” to now become recognized—to become one who hath.
© 2024 David J. Rogers
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The manuscript Golding submitted was worn, torn, and stained when Monteith first saw it. It had obviously been rejected by other publishers. Even Monteith agreed that this work of a public school teacher was over-written, disorganized, repetitive–a mess–and seemed never to get started. After many rejections Golding was losing hope of having the book published, of ever being published.
be recognized as a person with a talent that can generate revenue. When a writer is discovered by an agent or publisher, their life changes for the better. This post is about writers who were discovered, then published, and found success–perhaps more success than they expected. There are so many writers with all the talent in the world who are trying very hard to be discovered by an agent or publisher who is trying as hard to discover them. There is a good chance that many writers we read would never have been published had they not been discovered by the right agent and a right publisher.
Finally a small publisher picked it up. However, this editor who discovered the book, was different. He was enthusiastic and said to Harold, “Your book is going to be a best seller.” Finally what Harold had been hoping for: someone had faith in the book and its spiritual message. It became a phenomenal best -seller, the most popular book in the world, selling twenty -five million copies.
Persistent and confident in spite of failures, Jack London submitted his manuscripts hundreds of times to publishers that rejected the work before an editor discovered him. But after that, within a single year London, a self-educated writer, took the literary world by storm and was the most popular, most critically and financially successful novelist/short story writer in the world.
Invariably I would think, “All these incredibly talented performers I see–artists who are looking for a big break and are dying to be discovered.” Much like them, so many writers with so much talent also are trying very hard to be discovered. Without the people who discovered William Golding, Thomas Wolfe, Harold Kushner, or Jack London, would we have ever heard of those famous authors?
have finished a painting that in your judgment is excellent in every respect. Like Ariel you are trained and educated in your craft and recognize your paintings’ consistently high quality and dazzling originality. You know you can’t do better. You feel that no one but you could have executed this project. It required blending many abilities not every painter possesses. You see in your painting, as Ariel saw in hers, something especially flamboyant and fetching. Your hopes for its artistic and financial success are high.
your book. She recognizes its significant sales potential. She calls you In Chicago from New York and says that your book is one of the two or three best books of any type she has ever read. She is entranced with the book and pledges to you to commit to “putting it over” whatever resources are necessary to make it the country’s top best seller (The book is topical and has that kind of potential.) You call your agent and ask him about the publisher reputation and he tells you that they are known for selecting one of their titles each year and making it the kind of best seller the publisher described.
resilient means first of all accepting such adversities and those you have experienced yourself as an unavoidable part of the writer’s and artist’s life. That insight deeply-felt and never forgotten is essential for maintaining a firm, unshakeable spirit.
period the body-builder rests, those muscles are rebuilt, but bigger and stronger than they had been. Don’t be so afraid of hardships, stresses, difficulties, and crises. They strengthen you emotionally, spiritually, and mentally.
working, as confident as van Gogh and became one of the most popular American writers of his era. Ernest Hemingway said that at the beginning of his career every day “the rejected manuscripts would come through the slot in the door…I’d sit at that old wooden table and read one of those cold slips that had been attached to a story I had loved and worked on very hard and believed in, and I couldn’t help crying.” But he had faith that eventually his work would be in demand and never stopped working. The crowning achievement was the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Vincent van Gogh spent a short, intense five-year career producing an astonishing three thousand masterpieces that are now auctioned for many millions of dollars, but in his lifetime sold only one painting, and that was for a few brushes and paints. But he continued working confidently and never doubted that in the future his talents would be recognized
In every era, in creative after creative, three empowering qualities like three ingredients of a potent formula have proven to help writers and artists not to give up when they fail. Those qualities are being resilient, being persistent, and having faith in yourself. Resilient, persistent writers and artists with strong faith in themselves never give up.
Faith in yourself touches every facet of your being–whether you think about your prospects positively or in a self-defeating way, how strongly you motivate yourself, your susceptibility to self-doubt and discouragement, and the positive changes you will be able to make in your life.
successful. Catherine Cox studied greatness and disagreed. She found that persistence is a key. Persistence is so important in almost every endeavor that it compensates for lesser intelligence. Cox concluded: “High but not the highest intelligence, combined with the greatest degree of persistence will achieve greater eminence than the highest degree of intelligence with somewhat less persistence. “
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