Comments on: Form rejections

By: gmfranci

gmfranci — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 16:38:13 +0000

It depends. Most of the time I just let rejection roll of me like water off a duck's back. But when I feel like whatever I'm submitting would have really been a great fit, then I go back and re-examine the submission guidelines, recent issues, client list, etc., then take a fresh look at my story, query, or whatever. Sometimes I'll ask folks from my writer's group for their opinion. It's not that I want to beat myself over it, but sometimes I view it a little like a chess game. If you never take the time to review the game you just lost, then you will probably just keep making the same mistake.

By: Jessica Lee

Jessica Lee — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 23:55:10 +0000

I haven't really started querying yet, so I haven't had to deal with it yet, but reading a bunch of perspectives from the people who are giving the rejections and their reasons for why might give me an objective standpoint on the whole ordeal… maybe.

By: M Clement Hall

M Clement Hall — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 20:15:33 +0000

Most of the responses seem to pre-suppose the person who rejected them was wrong, and sooner or later they'll be matched with someone who knows their job. But it isn't as if one had a key and just had to try it in enough locks. Maybe some times that is the truth, but I think more often the work submitted has no place whatsoever in the market and one ought to try to find out why, and what needs to be changed, or maybe the answer is to start all over again with a different work.

By: Kim Batchelor

Kim Batchelor — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 18:42:15 +0000

That's easy: I curl up in a fetal position clutching Strunk and White's Elements of Style and moan hysterically until the early hours of the morning. The next day I readopt my strategy of waiting for agents and editors to show up at my doorstep requesting my work. When that doesn't succeed, I get back "in the saddle" and send more queries and stories out again.

By: J. Allen Fielder

J. Allen Fielder — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 16:58:01 +0000

On my first day of Russian training at the Defense Language Institute, my instructor told me I would not make it a week. I graduated Magna Cum Laude, pushed along for a year by the attitude of "Fine, I'll show you!" I've taken this same philosophy into the querying business. Each rejection stiffens my resolve to prove that I can do this. As long as I believe in me, a rejection is just a note that says I have to get a little bit better before someone else will believe in me, too.

By: Tamara

Tamara — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 14:58:18 +0000

I take comfort in my Haystack Theory of Publishing: You throw a little on, a lot slides off, but hopefully a little sticks. Eventually, after a VERY long time, you've got a haystack. You just got to keep tossing.

By: Steena Holmes

Steena Holmes — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 14:49:37 +0000

I repeat the mantra 'all I need is one' over and over and over until I'm singing it out loud to the tune of 'All you need is love'