If you are an aspiring writer, or even just a curious word-smith, you’ve likely heard people in the industry talk about the necessity of having a thick skin, being persistent, and handling rejection. Stephen King (my favourite author) often tells the story about when he was first submitting short stories to publishers, he would keep all of the rejection letters he received and stick them to a nail on his bedroom wall. At one point, he had received so many rejections, that the letters caused the nail to fall off. So, what did he do? He put another nail in his wall and started a second bunch of rejection letters.
I do the same thing. Except, instead of a nail in my bedroom wall, I have the convenience of a digital folder labelled “Rejections” with my email. Now, don’t get my wrong, I have an “Accepted” folder too. It’s important to celebrate your wins and learn from your failures. I can tell you that I currently sit at seven total acceptances and thirty-six total rejections. Why do I keep all of my rejection responses? Three reasons: 1) I can track my submissions. 2) In rare occasions, a rejection might come with good (and free!) advice. 3) This way, I can own them instead of them owning me.
It’s good practice to track all of your submissions. Some publishers will publish a collection every year. Some, multiple times per year. If you’ve submitted a story to a publisher and it was rejected, chances are it will be rejected by that same publisher if you try to submit it again in a year or two, even if the theme of the collection is different. If you’ve improved a story since the last time you submitted it, I would still advise against submitting the same story twice to the same publisher. The only exception to this is if the publisher asked you to make changes to your story and then re-submit.
Sometimes, if you’re really lucky, you will even get feedback with your rejection. In my thirty-six rejections, this has happened three times. Take note: if you get free, unsolicited feedback from a publisher or editor about your story, take it and be grateful! Professional editors will charge hundreds of dollars just to edit a short story (trust me, I did it once!). So, if you are getting free editorial feedback on your story from a professional, take it! You can decide not to use it, but please consider it honestly. Of the three pieces of feedback I got, I ultimately decided not to use one, but that was because I felt it would hinder a cultural aspect of my story of which I didn’t think the editor was aware. However, if that particular story struggles to get published, you can guarantee that I will remember that editor’s feedback and make the changes they suggested.
Finally, I want to own my rejections so they don’t own me. Most rejection letters will sound something like: “Thank you for your submission. While we really enjoyed reading your story, we don’t think it would be a good fit for us at this time. Good luck finding a home for it and feel free to submit to so-an-so again in the future.” Publisher often have to sift through hundreds and hundreds of stories per submission call. The fact that you even get a response can be special. But the truth is, many times your story will be rejected because it wasn’t a good fit. While that sounds like a copout, it’s not. I have had the privilege of being part of an author’s group for one of the publications in which a story of mine was included, and the publisher told us that, for the collection, they received multiple good stories about truckers. While they were all worthy of inclusion in the book, including them all would have meant having a bunch of stories about truckers and highways. Even if there is a specific theme for a submission call, publishers still want variety in their collections.
Another fact is that publishers will have varied tastes. Someone may love your story while someone else may not. That is the reality of subjectivity. One of my stories that will be published later this year was rejected four times! Yes, I made changes to it after the first two rejections, but it still went through five different publishers before one decided that it was worthy of inclusion in their collection. Is it a bad story? It was actually the story I paid to have professionally edited, so no, it’s not a bad story. My editor said so!
If I had deleted and ignored all of my rejections, it could have been easy for one of two things to happen: 1) I could have deluded myself into thinking that my stories are great and the publishers are jerks who don’t know what they’re talking about. 2) I could have deluded myself into thinking that I am a terrible writer and no one likes my work. By keeping them all, I can see the reality. Most publishers are very busy and don’t have time to send you vapid platitudes. They are going to be forthright and honest. By keeping them all, I can see the diversity of subjectivity. I can see the need for variety within a single publication. I can see the legitimate argument for a story being a “good fit” or having the “right home.” I can see that most rejections are not a commentary on the quality of my writing.
So, grow that thick skin, be persistent, and learn to handle rejections. If you want to write and be published, celebrate your successes, but, most of all, learn from your rejections.
Thank you for reading.
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