I stopped counting after 20 rejections, says bestselling author Amish

Last week, a Princeton professor’s resume of rejections went viral with twitterati embracing it as ‘inspiring’ and ‘brilliant’. The idea, he said, was to put life’s failures in perspective so they don’t overwhelm us. TOI asked author Amish Tripathi to draft his own bio-data of bad times.

The book I struggled to write

2003-2004: I started writing my first book, The Immortals of Meluha, in my spare time while working at IDBI Bank. Writing the first book was a challenge since my only creative foray in this area, till then, was school-level essay writing and some terrible poetry. I had a strategic plan on how to write my book, but it flopped. I’d read some self-help books on writing that advised drawing character sketches for each character. I did this, but none of the characters were willing to follow the sketches; they insisted on doing their own thing. Ultimately, I dropped the ‘strategic plan’ and wrote the story the way it came to me, instinctively.



I stopped counting after 20 rejections

2007-2009: I was now at IDBI Federal Life Insurance, as their National Head for Marketing, Product Management and Service Quality. I was also a member of the Senior Management Committee there. The manuscript was now ready to be taken to publishers. I knew no one in publishing and the only relationship I had with the industry was as a reader of its books. My agent and I drew up a plan, listing the publishers to whom we would send the manuscript. It was rejected by every single one, big and small. I stopped counting after 20 rejections. Some of them gave me well-meaning feedback on why my book would be, in their own words, ‘a guaranteed failure’. They said that I insisted on inserting philosophies and a religious theme, which meant that the youth would not like my book. The everyday English used would distance the literati. And the novel interpretation of religion meant that older, religious people would not like it. I was told that I had alienated every possible reader segment. As rejections go, it could not have been a more comprehensive one, and it was reasonably damaging to my confidence. The one publisher who was willing to even consider publishing the book, said, “Though the story is fast-paced, there are too many gyan sessions in your book. If you’re willing to edit out the philosophising, we may evaluate your work”. I declined and in 2010 decided to self-publish.