Rejection

By the time I was done on Sunday I’d submitted over thirty poems and articles.  So far one short story has been rejected and five poems have been rejected.  About a sixth of them total have been blown up. 

I’m bummed sort of but not in a “oh my I have to stop writing” bummed.  I’m just bummed that I wasn’t able to fulfill the needs of those publishers.  I know the story and poems are good.  It is just a matter of finding a home for them.

Still I have thirty babies out there being perused and critiqued.  It feels good to put them out there.  Even if they are all rejected, I can at least say I tried.  What more can I do?  I don’t have the funds to start my own publishing company so that all my stuff gets published.  Therefore, I have to try to get published based on the whims and needs of editors and publishers. 

I’ve spoken with other writers who are brilliant but fearful of trying to publish their work.  My advice to them (for what it’s worth) is to do it.  All the publisher can do is say no.  You have to trust in yourself enough to believe that your work is good enough to be published.

The first step is scary.  I remember my first steps in getting published and they were terrifying but the reality is if you want to be a writer this is the avenue you have to go.  A rejection is just one company’s comment that your work doesn’t fit that particular issue they are publishing.  It’s like a say my poetry is a snapshot of a moment in my life.  The rejection is a snapshot of the moment in which the publisher / editor read your work.  It didn’t fit the needs of that moment.

If you get a rejection say okay and move forward.  Put that piece back in your pile of work and look for a new home for it.  Keep trying.  Eventually you will find a home for it.  If your message, your writing is engaging then keep at it.  Eventually someone will see the value in it and publish it.