I’ve had a bit of success with getting a few things published. However, it seems like every time I open my email I’m looking at more rejections. I know they are a part of writing. I know it usually isn’t the style and quality of writing but some days it is hard to take.
I’ve let the pile of rejections (if emails can be a pile) accumulate in my email account. This weekend I spent a bit of time noting it in all the places I track the rejections. I checked off the poems and short stories that were rejected. It was almost cleansing to finally get rid of all the crap in my emails. I spent almost two hours cleaning up emails and dealing with the rejections.
The rejection is hard but I’m trying to look at it as an opportunity. I have several dozen prospective publications where I can submit my work sitting on my desk. I just need to get through the stack. These rejections allow me to send those items back out into the world and see if someone else is interested in them. This is really not a rejection per se but an opportunity to place them somewhere else.
Eileen, rejection happens for so many reasons. With poems and short stories, it's often simply a matter of the magazine (or whatever) being overwhelmed with submissions and simply not being able to publish every good piece they receive. Sometimes, it's because they've already run a story on a similar theme. Sometimes, you get a bitchy editor whose wife just left him, and her name happened to be Eileen, so he isn't going to publish anything written by anyone named Eileen ever again. I know it gets discouraging, but keep it up! Even the best writers get rejection notices. Remember, it's the story that is rejected, not you personally. Perhaps it would help to think of it not as being rejected, but as being politely declined, or turned down. Sounds a lot less negative, doesn't it?
I can't imagine how I would fair in the face of constant rejection, but remember what you do is GOOD! Don't lose your dreams and don't allow rejection to overwhelm you. When you get published in something fantastic, you will remember that it was no easy feat to get it done and you will have that much more of a feeling of accomplishment when it happens. I know it will!!
Thank you. I know all of that, I was just inundated with a lot of rejections all at once. I don't know if it is th publications I've been sending to or my writing but I got a lot of really nice rejections – a couple of them even invited me to submit again. I know I'm lucky if 1 in lik 20 or more submissions gets picked up. It is just sometimes my email is overflowing with them.
Really it is my own fault because I've been trying to submit items to at least 5 – 10 publications a week. This has caused an influx of rejections. I just need to suck it up and deal… 🙂
Kat – Thank you I do know that. I've got a bunch of people like you who are supportive and reinforce that I'm a good writer and doing good. It helps – a lot.