Every year or so, a debut novel from an unknown writer crashes onto the publishing scene. Buoyed by word-of-mouth recommendations among friends, passionate booksellers, and good timing, these titles give hope to aspiring authors everywhere. They help us believe that great writing can break through the wall of established brands.

Two years ago, one of those come-from-nowhere books was The Help, by Kathryn Stockett. The story of rich white women and their black maids in the 1960s struck a chord with book clubs and readers. To date, The Help has sold five million copies and been published in 35 countries. A blockbuster movie based on the book is currently ruling the box office.

It’s a fairy tale story of an overnight success. Isn’t it? Well, maybe not the overnight part. A few days ago I stumbled across this essay where Stockett shares her publishing story. Hop over to the Yahoo site and read the whole article – how she worked on this book for five years, and how it was rejected by 60 (SIXTY!) agents over another three years before Susan Ramer signed her. (After that, things got smoother. A new imprint at Putnam offered a contract three weeks later.) 

So what can writers learn from this? That there’s more to the fairy tale publishing stories than meets the eye, for one thing. Pursuing publication takes persistence, not to mention some thick skin. Stockett says, “I received 60 rejections for The Help. But letter number 61 was the one that accepted me…. What if I had given up at 15? Or 40? Or even 60?” If you really believe in your book, keep at it.

But there’s a second lesson in Stockett’s experience. She never stopped revising her work. After every agent’s rejection, she would go back and review the book, determined to make it better.

I received a rejection letter from the agent, stating, “Story did not sustain my interest.” I was thrilled! I called my friends and told them I’d gotten my first rejection! Right away, I went back to editing. I was sure I could make the story tenser, more riveting, better….. By rejection number 45, I was truly neurotic. It was all I could think about—revising the book, making it better, getting an agent, getting it published. I insisted on rewriting the last chapter an hour before I was due at the hospital to give birth to my daughter.

I meet a lot of writers who spend six months on a manuscript and want to see it published before the year is out. Once they type “The End,” they decide their work is done. If an agent turns it down, it’s because that agent lacks the vision, and there’s nothing they can do about it.

But what if there is? There are plenty of good manuscripts that need not just a fairy tale opportunity, but more research, more tension, more clarity, or more something to stand out from the piles.  

If you’re in that in-between stage, with a manuscript you feel is polished and ready but without a publishing contract in hand, take heart. Overnight successes sometimes take years.

But also, take another look at your manuscript. Is there anything you can do to make it better?