Stephen King’s Editor Told Him Not to Publish ‘The Shining’ Because He Would Be Known as a ‘Horror Writer’

The Shining is Stephen King’s third published novel, after Carrie and ‘Salem’s Lot. It follows the Torrance family as they become the sole caretakers of a remote hotel in the Colorado mountains. In addition to being an excellent haunted hotel story, The Shining deals with themes of alcoholism, isolation, abuse and family trauma.

When King first sent the manuscript to his editor at Doubleday Publishing, he was told to reconsider the book as it would create the narrative that King was a horror author. At the time (and to some extent this is still true today), being a horror author was considered low brow. The editor also feared it may have prevented King from branching out into other genres.

However, because King had been reading, writing and publishing horror stories since he was a kid, he was thrilled at the idea of being known as a horror author and pushed for publication.

This story isn’t meant to discredit King’s editor, Bill Thompson, as he was the man who knew King was going to be big and made sure Doubleday published Carrie. In fact, it was Thompson who followed up with King after rejecting an earlier manuscript and King submitted Carrie as a result of that conversation. Thompson’s warning was just making sure King was aware of biases in the publishing industry, not sharing his personal opinion on the value of horror compared to other genres.

Of course, we all know The Shining became a bestseller and was adapted into one of the scariest and most well-known horror movies of all time. Thompson and King continued to work together on The Stand and Pet Sematary before King switched publishers to Viking Press.

Further reading:

• 60 Fun Facts and Lore About ‘The Shining’ and ‘Doctor Sleep’
• Keys to the Kingdom – The Bill Thompson Interview