“We’ve rejected this turkey two times already and we don’t want it.”
So said members of the editorial committee at Warner Books in the late 1970s. And they weren’t the only ones issuing a thumbs down. The “turkey” in question — a manuscript by writer Jerry Hopkins — had already been shopped to and rejected by more than 30 publishers in the U.S. and U.K. Then a man named Danny Sugerman stepped in.
Sugerman added his own material (a foreword, some anecdotes), assembled some photographs, acquired the rights to some song lyrics, and merged two of Hopkins’ drafts. It was now a manuscript that Jerry Hopkins agreed to have co-authored with Danny Sugerman.
And when editor Marcy Rudo of Warner Books got behind the book, a deal was made: Warner agreed to publish Hopkins and Sugerman’s work, and it went on to sell in the millions of copies in more than two dozen languages.