So your book's been rejected by an agent or publisher? Take heart! For many authors, rejection is the very catalyst that springboards them to success.

Here are some awe-inspiring true stories to show you what can be achieved with a little faith and courage. I've had to be selective due to space ~ but I could have easily filled several books with authors' success stories. I hope these writers will inspire you as much as they do me:

o Screenwriter Kenya Cagle went to the Cannes Film Festival in an attempt to cold-sell a script written 15 years previously. He had sent The Undercover Man out to more than 100 movie studios. Not one responded. When he came home from Cannes in 2001, he had a $5 million production deal.

o Professional wildlife photographers Carl Sams and Jean Stoick achieved bestseller status for a book they were told would never sell. Today, there are more than a million copies of Stranger in the Woods in print. It's won seven awards and spent 26 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list.

o Paul Tawrell believed so much in his book that he sold his house and paid a Canadian printer $125,000 for 35,000 copies. This proved a brilliant move. Camping & Wilderness Survival sold over 320,000 copies.

o After rejections from 26 publishers, Vicki Stringer self-published her novel using donations from family and friends. Let That Be the Reason sold 1,000 copies from her car boot in the first three weeks. By 2005, her estimated sales leaped to 1.8 million! She now publishes 16 other authors.

o Fantasy novel Eragon catapulted its teenage author to stardom after it was self-published. After over a year selling his book from town to town, Christopher Paolini, finally received a six-figure deal for the novel and two sequels. The novel has since been made into a film starring Jeremy Irons.

o Vicky Lansky's children's recipe book, Feed Me, I'm Yours, was rejected by 49 publishers. It sold 300,000 copies after being self-published. After Bantam took it over, it sold 8 million more! Vicky now has more than 30 books to her credit and a very successful small press.

I've used only a handful of examples. Yet, there are thousands more writers who have achieved similar success. To quote film director, George Lucas: "In my experience, there's no such thing as luck." Anyone who is committed will make their own good fortune.

Never give up - even when things are going badly for you. Rejection is just one step in your journey, not the end of it.