Tag: rejections

Publication

by eileentroemel, posted in Uncategorized

I’ve been working hard on submitting a lot of work to a variety of places.  I’m trying to build a following for my writing and getting all sorts of my work out there.  It has been a lot of work and a lot of time spent making decisions on what poems to send where. 

When I open my email I’ve been cringing every time I see a correspondence from one of these publishers.  I think – can I handle a rejection right now.  In my email last week I had five such emails where I looked at them and said I’m not sure I’m up to someone telling me my work didn’t make the cut.  However, I must be a masochist or something because I said okay – I’ll open them. 

They weren’t rejections.  I am going to have four short stories published in two different places.  I was surprised, excited, pleased, proud and a whole lot of other emotions.

Last night I avoided my email just because.  When I finally sat down to my email I noticed a response from one of the publications I’d sent my poetry to.  It was such a quick turn around I figured it couldn’t be good news.  Still I opened it.  It was a nice long email explaining how my work will be published and where it could appear.  I was so excited.  The only bad part is everyone was asleep so I couldn’t tell anyone. 

I’m putting my work out there.  I feel sometimes like I’m sending out bits of my soul to be judged.  However, I try to remember that it is a poem or story.  I like it and if others don’t so be it.  Also it could very easily be that it isn’t that they don’t like it but that they didn’t have room for it or that the story was good enough but didn’t fit with the rest of the stories / poems for the issue they were working on. 

Rejection is hard.  It is hard to put yourself out there.  However, you have to remember if your positive the work is good (not just your opinion but others as well) then keep trying.  Probably only one or two in ten submissions get accepted (if that).  It doesn’t mean you aren’t a good writer.  It just means that it didn’t fit.

As things become available I’ll announce where I’m getting published.  I can’t wait to see my work in an ezine or in a paper copy.

Rejection

by eileentroemel, posted in Uncategorized
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.