What Book Did You Pass Up and Later Regret?

By Hannah Johnson

At this year’s StoryDrive conference at the Frankfurt Book Fair, Hollywood producer David Gerson said, “We all make mistakes and pass on great stories. In Hollywood everyone ran around saying ‘who the f*ck passed on the Stieg Larsson books?’”

One of the most interesting things about creative businesses like book publishing and filmmaking is that it’s hard, if not impossible, to accurately predict which projects will become top sellers and which will flop.

Whether you are an agent, editor, publicist or publisher, you have no doubt turned down books or projects that have gone on to become hits in the hands of someone else. Or perhaps there is the one book you wish you had worked on, but it just didn’t fit into your list or you didn’t have time.

So tell us your story in the comments about the one that got away.