Meg Waite Clayton

Author of the international bestsellers The Postmistress of Paris, The Last Train to London, and 7 other novels

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Award Winner took a Decade to Find a Publisher

Journal Avatar to Link Back to Blog HopThe 2014 Bailey Prize winner (formerly the Orange Prize) for Women is Eimear McBride, for her debut novel A Girl Is A Half-Formed Thing. And here’s the thing: it took her six months to write (I know, I know), and TEN YEARS to find a publisher. She was rejected by every publisher she sent it to, and finally found a home for it with a small press which had only published one prior book.
Imagine if she had given up, or dismissed small presses.
It reminds me of Tatjana Soli’s path to winning the James Tait Black award for The Lotus Eaters, also a debut that had a ten-year history about which she wrote so eloquently here in “Silencing the Voices of No.”
Just in case you’re thinking of taking rejection as a sign that you don’t have what it takes…
Meg

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Meg Waite Clayton


Meg Waite Clayton is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of nine novels, including the forthcoming TYPEWRITER BEACH (Harper, July 1, 2025), the Good Morning America Buzz pick and New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice THE POSTMISTRESS OF PARIS, the National Jewish Book Award finalist THE LAST TRAIN TO LONDON, the Langum-Prize honored THE RACE FOR PARIS, and THE WEDNESDAY SISTERS, one of Entertainment Weekly’s 25 Essential Best Friend Novels of all time. Her novels have been published in 23 languages. She has also written more than 100 pieces for major newspapers, magazines, and public radio, mentors in the OpEd Project, and is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and the California bar. megwaiteclayton.com