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Write a bone-chilling horror story in six words or less: Thanks, but this isn’t for us.
Fear of rejection keeps many a writer tossing and turning at night. The thought of that dreaded email arriving in your inbox may make your hair stand on end. Yet the only way to avoid rejection entirely is to never submit your work. And that might be the scariest idea of all.
In her WW Conference presentation “Understanding Rejection,” Jessica Klimesh urges writers to set a rejection goal—not to avoid rejection, but to aim for it. She suggests striving for 10, 20, or even 100 rejections a year. This may seem counterintuitive at first, but if you submit enough work to gain 100 rejections, odds are you’ll also gain acceptances.
Watch Jessica’s full presentation on understanding rejection here!
Fear of rejection stops more writers from getting published than actual rejection does. Face your fears head-on with a little exposure therapy and some insights from a past editor who’s sent their fair share of rejections.
What a rejection could indicate (Hint: It’s not that your writing is bad)
Many writers—new and seasoned submitters alike—assume that when a publisher rejects their submission, it means the writing was bad somehow. Not only is this false, but the concept of “bad writing” is completely subjective.
Instead, rejection often points to more objective (and easily remedied) factors. Here are a few of the top causes of rejection and how to navigate them:
You didn’t follow the submission guidelines
Every publication you submit to has specific rules, or guidelines, for submitting work. Submission guidelines exist for a reason: they help publications receive the work they want, and weed out the work they don’t.
Publications will often immediately reject work that doesn’t follow guidelines—their journal, their rules. You may submit the most beautifully written, poignant story to a journal, and still receive a rejection because it exceeded their 5,000-word limit, or because you left your name on what was meant to be a blind submission.
Submission guidelines mistakes contribute heavily to rejections—they’re also one of the easiest rejection causes to avoid.
Before submitting, check that your submission adheres to the publication’s full list of guidelines. Common rules relate to:
Word count
Theme
Formatting (font, line spacing, page numbers, file type, etc.)
Accepted writing type (short stories, poetry, essays, etc.)
Inclusion or exclusion of personal information
Bio and/or cover letter
Submission deadlines/windows
Learn more about understanding submissions calls in my June blog post here!
Your work didn’t fit with the publisher
A large part of the submission process requires you to search for appropriate journals and publications to submit to. The editors might love your sci-fi romance novella, but if their journal exclusively publishes horror flash, they’ll have to pass on it.
Before submitting, you must first confirm that the publication accepts your work’s type (prose, poetry, etc.) and genre. Beyond that, read some of their previously published work to get a more nuanced feel for the publication’s overall tone, style, and common themes, then decide if they overlap with your work.
A rejection could mean that your work doesn’t fit with the journal, or that it didn’t fit at the time you submitted it.
One semester, my college literary magazine received an unusually high number of poems referencing Greek mythology. Though we loved all of them, we couldn’t publish two sonnets about the goddess Persephone side-by-side in the same issue. So we had to make a difficult decision and reject one of them.
The good news is, there may be another publication looking to fill a Persephone-poem-sized gap in their next issue. Remember: you’re allowed to submit the same work elsewhere.
Your work wasn’t ready to submit
Don’t confuse writing that isn’t ready with “bad writing.”
If you receive a rejection, revisit your work with objective, constructively critical eyes. It’s likely been a few months since you looked at it. Ask yourself:
Do the characters feel realized and three-dimensional?
Is your grammar, syntax, and formatting correct?
Do the themes and messages come through fully?
Are there any plot holes to fill in?
Don’t tear your writing down after receiving a rejection. Instead, find ways to make it stronger.
While you may not be able to learn the publisher’s perspective on your work (though some do send you personalized feedback!), you can still get some outside perspectives.
Seek out other writers or beta readers. They can help you identify weak spots in your work and suggest creative solutions you hadn’t considered. And remember to triple-check your submission for any typos.
None of the above
Many causes of rejection lie out of your control. Sometimes, the reason for a rejection will simply elude you.
For context, most publishers only accept a tiny fraction of the submissions they receive. As editor-in-chief for a college literary magazine, my editors and I had to reject many pieces that we adored simply because we didn’t have the resources. More pieces meant more pages in the magazine, more time spent editing, and more money needed to print copies.
To be cliche—It’s not you, it’s us.
Don’t let a rejection keep you from submitting a piece elsewhere, or submitting other work to the same publication. Every piece of writing has its place. You simply need to find it.
Accepting rejection
Rejection does not equal defeat. And accepting rejection does not mean giving up.
It’s quite the opposite.
Most of the work you submit to publications will be rejected at least once before being accepted. When you make peace with the inevitability of rejection, you gain the power to persevere in your publishing goals.
Build the confidence to rack up rejections and celebrate them. It’ll make each acceptance all the sweeter.
About the author:
Lindsey is almost always writing, whether it’s a short story, copywriting project, Writer’s Workout blog post, or carefully crafted Instagram comment. With the spare time she digs out of the couch cushions, she’s usually crocheting, adventuring with her friends, or thinking about how she should be reading more. She splits her time between Upstate New York, where she grew up, and Boston, where she'll continue to grow.