One publisher's meat is many publishers' poison

The list below speaks for itself, although it's impossible to vouch 100 per cent for its accuracy as different sources do quote slightly different figures, but the overall impression is of some shockingly bad calls on the part of publishers and agents over the years.  In their defence, they do have the fairly awesome task of second-guessing what novels the reading public will want one year to eighteen months in advance. Also, the version of a novel they reject may not be the one that finally sees print.


Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (J.K. Rowling):
8-14 rejections... SOLD 400 million copies of all her books added together.

Watership Down (Richard Adams):
26 rejections... SOLD  1 million+ copies.

Lord of the Flies (William Golding):
20 rejections... SOLD 14.5 million copies.

Jonathan Livingstone Seagull (Richard Bach):
140 rejections... SOLD 40 million copies.

Catch-22 (Joseph Heller):
29 rejections... SOLD 10 million copies.

Lust for Life (Irving Stone):
16+ rejections... SOLD 25 million+copies.

A Wrinkle in Time (Madeleine L'Engle):
30 rejections (took 10 years to get published)... SOLD 6 million+ copies.   

Carrie (Stephen King):
30+ rejections... SOLD has sold over 350 million copies of all his books together.  

The Thomas Berryman Number (James Patterson):
24+ rejections...SOLD 160 million copies of all his books together.

A Time to Kill (John Grisham):
45 rejections (15 publishers/30 agents)... SOLD 60 million + of all his books together.

Does this list encourage or discourage aspiring novelists? Which of the above novels were taken on in a recession? Would they be taken on in this recession if they had landed on a publisher's or an agent's desk? Were there more publishing houses then than now? How many fewer publishers/agents accept unsolicited submissions? Are there any junior editors in the employ of large publishing houses with the time to discover new talent, or guide a promising writer through a rewrite? 

To close on a positive note, there is still such a thing as the love factor an editor has for a particular novel. It does happen and why shouldn't it happen with my novel or yours? Meanwhile, us aspiring novelists must keep up our self-belief and determination.