Derek Thompson

Sure.

I would say the delta was probably about 2x, but that includes people who were sort of in the bid.

But there were a lot of publishers that I sent the proposal to who were like, this idea doesn't make any sense.

We're not going to bid on it at all.

So I think what's important to recognize is that almost every single book proposal from a first-time author in particular is rejected.

Harry Potter was rejected over and over and over again.

And this is a really powerful point, I think, about people across...

entertainment and media landscape is how lucky sometimes these hits are that Harry Potter was rejected.

The name Led Zeppelin comes from the fact that members of the Who told Jimmy Page this band was going to sink like a Led Zeppelin.

that story's in the book of course um the american idol which was the most popular television show in america for a decade um and then it birthed this whole uh industry of um the voice and things like that um rupert murdoch's daughter uh saw an iteration of it um in uh england i think in in europe and told her father she wanted to make something like that in the u.s and rupert murdoch um uh

presented the idea to his board, and they were like, this is a terrible idea.

You're insane.

You're not going to do it.

Obviously, we know how it turned out.

Every single industry has its own sort of the toadish rejects turning into princes' stories.

They like to tell themselves this because it gives them, I think, the inspirational idea that rejects can always become hits.

You know, you can even look at the political landscape now and think about the number of people who left Donald Trump off the stage in the early weeks of his candidacy.

And now look where we are.

So predicting the future of popularity is a very tricky business.

And you shouldn't feel bad about yourself if you're not very talented at it.