" When John Grisham finished A Time to Kill, he pitched it to forty different publishers who all rejected the book. Unfazed, he started working on a new novel. At this point, he’d had three years of practice and was beginning to understand that the creative life is a series of small steps more than any single giant leap. While working on his second book, Grisham published his first book with a short run of five thousand copies. When the publisher didn’t offer much support, he bought one thousand copies to market the book on his own. While promoting A Time to Kill, Grisham finished The Firm, which ended up with a major publisher and catapulted his career. "

― Jeff Goins , Real Artists Don't Starve: Timeless Strategies for Thriving in the New Creative Age