Happy Thursday..
Not long now until the weekend...
I hope you are all having a good week. We have all heard the stories about how JK Rowling took her book Harry Potter to all the literary agents and eventually someone decided to publish the book. Well that was a great day for them although not so good for the other publishers who didn't listen to her.
I have found this great list of what happened to other people before they became famous and I bet that there are a lot of people out there kicking themselves. It shows a lot of tenacity from the human spirit that if you try, try and try again amazing things can happen.
A fun light read for a Thursday.
Enjoy
Love
Miss Jones xx
GOING GAGA
Maybe it was Lady Gaga’s Poker Face that put off US record exec and Whitney Houston producer LA Reid, who gave the quirky pop star the boot three months after signing her in 2006, having heard some of her ‘work in progress’ demos. Gaga is now signed to Universal and set to release a new album, ARTPOP, in November. Three tours grossing £300 million, 87 million record sales, five Grammys and one meat dress later, Reid says, ‘Dropping Gaga was the biggest mistake I ever made in my life.’
POWER OF SEUSS
‘Too different from other juveniles on the market to warrant its selling’ ran the somewhat sniffy rejection letter from one of the 27 publishing houses that turned down the first of the now iconic children’s books in the 1930s. Good thing that Dr Seuss, author of The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, and creator of the Grinch and the Lorax, didn’t listen. As the madcap comic whirlwind once said, ‘Why fit in when you were born to stand out?’ He went on to sell 500 million books, making him the ninth bestselling fiction author of all time.
LOSING THE WARHOL
Before the Campbell’s soup cans and Coca-Cola bottles, Andy Warhol made a living from ink drawings for shoe advertisements. In 1956 he offered one of his drawings, entitled Shoe, as a gift to MoMA. The museum’s collections committee wrote a letter notifying Warhol that ‘after careful consideration, they ought not to accept it’. To add insult to injury the letter’s postscript reads: ‘P.S. The drawing may be picked up from the Museum at your convenience.’ Just seven years after the rejection Warhol made his Double Elvis silkscreen, which fetched a hefty £23 million at a Sotheby’s auction last year.
WHAT A SAGA
Stephenie Meyer wrote her first novel after she woke up from a dream about its characters, snatching moments while looking after her three small sons and finishing it in an impressive three months. So far, so good. But then, alas, she was rejected by 14 literary agents before somebody decided to take a punt. The book in question was Twilight, now a full-scale saga and movie franchise worth £3.7 billion.
SWEET LORD
The Lord of the Rings’ white-haired wizard Gandalf would have been even more badass had he been Mr Bond in a previous incarnation. But 007 actor Sean Connery turned down the role in the LOTR trilogy on the grounds that he never understood the script: ‘I read the book. I read the script. I saw the movie. I still don’t understand it…’ Being a Dr No-No reportedly cost Sean £283 million (a £19 million fee plus 15 per cent of box-office takings). Maybe that will teach you to never say never again, Sean.
O, HOW COULD YOU
Oprah Winfrey practically is TV, but when she started out as an evening news reporter on Baltimore’s WJZ TV channel she was fired after being told she was ‘unfit for television’ because she got too emotionally invested in her stories. O had the last laugh — her talk show ran for 25 years in 150 countries, and remains the highest-rated programme of its type in American television history; she is worth a whopping £1.75 billion and has topped the Forbes list of most powerful celebrities five times. Who’s emotionally invested now?
EDITOR’S EYE
British Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman didn’t feel Natalie Massenet was the right fit for a role at her fashion bible. Massenet went on to start up the hugely successful Net-a-porter, which was sold to luxury conglomerate Richemont in 2010 for £350 million. Now chair of the British Fashion Council, Massenet got her own back recently, telling a room full of fashionistas that she was turned down by the Vogue editor. ‘This is very humiliating,’ said Shulman. ‘I hope there are no other Natalies out there whom I have failed to notice.’
Not long now until the weekend...
I hope you are all having a good week. We have all heard the stories about how JK Rowling took her book Harry Potter to all the literary agents and eventually someone decided to publish the book. Well that was a great day for them although not so good for the other publishers who didn't listen to her.
I have found this great list of what happened to other people before they became famous and I bet that there are a lot of people out there kicking themselves. It shows a lot of tenacity from the human spirit that if you try, try and try again amazing things can happen.
A fun light read for a Thursday.
Enjoy
Love
Miss Jones xx
GOING GAGA
Maybe it was Lady Gaga’s Poker Face that put off US record exec and Whitney Houston producer LA Reid, who gave the quirky pop star the boot three months after signing her in 2006, having heard some of her ‘work in progress’ demos. Gaga is now signed to Universal and set to release a new album, ARTPOP, in November. Three tours grossing £300 million, 87 million record sales, five Grammys and one meat dress later, Reid says, ‘Dropping Gaga was the biggest mistake I ever made in my life.’
POWER OF SEUSS
‘Too different from other juveniles on the market to warrant its selling’ ran the somewhat sniffy rejection letter from one of the 27 publishing houses that turned down the first of the now iconic children’s books in the 1930s. Good thing that Dr Seuss, author of The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, and creator of the Grinch and the Lorax, didn’t listen. As the madcap comic whirlwind once said, ‘Why fit in when you were born to stand out?’ He went on to sell 500 million books, making him the ninth bestselling fiction author of all time.
LOSING THE WARHOL
Before the Campbell’s soup cans and Coca-Cola bottles, Andy Warhol made a living from ink drawings for shoe advertisements. In 1956 he offered one of his drawings, entitled Shoe, as a gift to MoMA. The museum’s collections committee wrote a letter notifying Warhol that ‘after careful consideration, they ought not to accept it’. To add insult to injury the letter’s postscript reads: ‘P.S. The drawing may be picked up from the Museum at your convenience.’ Just seven years after the rejection Warhol made his Double Elvis silkscreen, which fetched a hefty £23 million at a Sotheby’s auction last year.
WHAT A SAGA
Stephenie Meyer wrote her first novel after she woke up from a dream about its characters, snatching moments while looking after her three small sons and finishing it in an impressive three months. So far, so good. But then, alas, she was rejected by 14 literary agents before somebody decided to take a punt. The book in question was Twilight, now a full-scale saga and movie franchise worth £3.7 billion.
SWEET LORD
The Lord of the Rings’ white-haired wizard Gandalf would have been even more badass had he been Mr Bond in a previous incarnation. But 007 actor Sean Connery turned down the role in the LOTR trilogy on the grounds that he never understood the script: ‘I read the book. I read the script. I saw the movie. I still don’t understand it…’ Being a Dr No-No reportedly cost Sean £283 million (a £19 million fee plus 15 per cent of box-office takings). Maybe that will teach you to never say never again, Sean.
O, HOW COULD YOU
Oprah Winfrey practically is TV, but when she started out as an evening news reporter on Baltimore’s WJZ TV channel she was fired after being told she was ‘unfit for television’ because she got too emotionally invested in her stories. O had the last laugh — her talk show ran for 25 years in 150 countries, and remains the highest-rated programme of its type in American television history; she is worth a whopping £1.75 billion and has topped the Forbes list of most powerful celebrities five times. Who’s emotionally invested now?
EDITOR’S EYE
British Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman didn’t feel Natalie Massenet was the right fit for a role at her fashion bible. Massenet went on to start up the hugely successful Net-a-porter, which was sold to luxury conglomerate Richemont in 2010 for £350 million. Now chair of the British Fashion Council, Massenet got her own back recently, telling a room full of fashionistas that she was turned down by the Vogue editor. ‘This is very humiliating,’ said Shulman. ‘I hope there are no other Natalies out there whom I have failed to notice.’
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