Author’s Success after 5,000 Rejections

After receiving 5,000 rejection letters, Angela Marsons spent 25 years trying to get her novel published. She faced constant setbacks but finally found success. Now, she has sold circa six million copies of her thrillers set in the UK's Black Country.

Angela Marsons is a British crime fiction author who, after years of perpetual rejections, turned her dream to write into a huge success story. Born in the Black Country region of the West Midlands, she worked as a security manager for 19 years before pursuing her passion for writing.

Angela discovered her love for storytelling in junior school, where she was known for observing people and creating stories. Her early writing attempts included relationship-based novels and short stories, but she faced numerous rejections from traditional publishers.

Despite receiving countless rejection letters over 25 years, she never gave up on her dream.

Things finally came to a head for Angela in September 2014: made redundant, in extreme financial difficulty, and even refused employment in an Amazon warehouse, her hopes of being an author appeared to be over when she parted company with one of London's top literary agencies. Publishers variously said "We love it, but not enough", some voicing unease about her Black Country setting and her lead character, Detective Kim Stone.

Everything changed in October 2014, when publisher Bookouture emailed her about Silent Scream. Within a week, she signed a deal for the first four books in the Kim Stone series. Just four months later, Silent Scream became a UK Kindle number one bestseller. That one book has since sold over 1.1 million copies, and the Detective Kim Stone series has sold more than 5.7 million copies worldwide.

After all those rejections, Angela has now sold over 5.7 million books. Her books have topped bestseller lists and have been translated into 31 languages. In addition, Angela has secured a BBC television adaptation of her Kim Stone series.

She said that her success was due to the authenticity of the writing and explained, "I decided to write a story just for me. I set the book in my local area and offered an ear to a character that had been nagging me for years."

She is still writing, with her 20th in this series, titled Guilty Mothers, being published, again proving the point that perseverance combined with authenticity can, finally, result in great success.