JK Rowling, Agatha Christie, Hunter S. Thompson, James Joyce and George Orwell all received their share of publishers' rejection letters. Stephen King got so many that he used to nail them on a spike under a timber in his bedroom.

Margaret Mitchell got rejection letters from 38 different publishers before finally finding one to publish her novel, Gone With The Wind. William Saroyan may now be rated a literary great, but he amassed a stack of rejection slips 30 inches high — some seven thousand — before he sold his first story.

Beatrix Potter, the poet ee cummings and even Leo Tolstoy all took a more positive, Lulu-style approach by publishing their own early work.

No one, however, has ever found a really worthwhile use for the sort of rejection letters which an estimated half a million authors in America alone — and countless others across the world — still receive each year.

Step forward, at last, none other than Lulu.com, which is offering authors whose work has met similar rejection the chance to put it behind them... by printing their rejection letters onto rolls of customized toilet paper.

Lulu is offering the new facility to highlight the fact that we reject the idea of rejection — and will let anyone publish anything that is legal and decent (according to our Member Agreement).

This groundbreaking new Lulu service recalls the remark attributed to (among others) the great Sir Winston Churchill, who is said to have written in reply to an unwelcome letter:

Dear Sir, I am in the smallest room of the house. I have your letter before me. Soon it will be behind me.

Rejection Letter Toilet Paper Put rejection behind you, print your old rejection letters on hearty two-ply, facial-quality paper. Suitable for the loo, the WC or the outhouse of your choosing. From: $90.00

Note: The facility for printing letters onto toilet paper is offered in good faith for your private use only and not for use in any way designed to cause offense or harm to any third party. Please respect this spirit and intention.