by Colleen Wright
Tell yourself not to get excited. Decide to open and read every other email first, just to prove how UNexecited you really are. But still, once you finish diligently reading "Are the best jobs posted on the Internet?" and "Keyword Basics Part 5," realize you can’t fool yourself any longer and feel an excited thump in your chest as you click on that email.
Did they accept the article?!
Well, no.
They didn’t.
But hey - on the bright side, this is one of the nicest rejection letters you’ve seen. First of all, they took the time to respond. They’ve thanked you twice and asked for future submissions. And there at the end, there’s a real editor’s name - someone to contact with future submissions, instead of sending them into a big form-email slush bin.
Tell yourself these are good things. Feel like they aren’t. Acknowledge that no matter what you tell yourself, rejection hurts. At this point, know that you can do one of two things:
a) suddenly get so busy with everything else in your life that there’s "no time" to submit the article - or any others, for that matter - anywhere else. OR
b) find a way to make light of the rejection. Don’t give it more weight than it deserves.
Choose B. Remember that a writer friend of yours has chosen to decoupage a coffee table with her rejection letters. Realize that doing something like that would make receiving rejection letters oddly satisfying, as in:
Nooo! They don’t want my article. But Ooo, now I can finish covering that fourth table leg!
Find a silly use for your own rejection letters. Find it today.
May 8th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
Nicely put, Colleen. Rejection can sometimes feel like an exercise in futility. And you’re absolutely right that there is a tendency to shy away for fear of rejection again. But the fact is that writing is a competitive market and it is often subjective. Persistence and patience does eventually pay off.
May 8th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
You know, sometimes rejection is a blessing. Perhaps there are some finer points that you can make improvements on. Or, if you’d been accepted for this good looking gig, you might have had to turn down a great gig a few weeks later because you were too busy.
Who knows? You can’t always understand how the freelancing world works. One day, YOU will be the one that gets the *star* assignment, which will make all the rejections completely tolerable.
May 8th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
The key is to distance yourself from the rejection so that you can be objective enough to learn something from it. The editor has rejected your work, not you.
However, most writers (myself included) have fragile egos, and we are very bound up with our work. It’s the artist’s blessing, because it gives us our inspiration; and it is the artist’s curse, because we can’t stand anyone to say no. The trick is to maintain a balance between the yin and the yang and learn to look at a rejection as another milestone on your way to becoming the writer you are destined to be.
May 8th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
I definitely prefer bad news to no news. I’d rather know as soon as possible that someone doesn’t want something, than sit there with it for weeks on end, wondering if maybe they’re just busy and they’ll send me an email tomorrow…
I’d be much more inclined to work with someone in the future if I received a rejection rather than nothing.
May 8th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Thanks for the post Colleen,
It’s one of those dirty little things that everyone deals with but nobody likes to talk about. Good to get it out in the open sometimes!
May 8th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
You’re right - the fact that they took the time to write and reject you is huge. I get so tired of never hearing back and wondering if I’m still in the running.
May 8th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
I agree, at least you can reasonably assume that a human being took a few minutes to read what you wrote.
May 8th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
I too would rather hear something than nothing. I understand people looking for writers (or any kind of worker for that matter), may get many replies. But when an applicant takes time to send a letter, resume, experience, writing samples, etc., I believe at least an acknowledgement is deserved.
May 8th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Having said that,
When you call 2 plumbers to get quotes on your broken toilet, do you call the other guy back and say no thanks?
May 8th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
I guess it depends on what the rejection concerns.
If it is a rejection regarding a query, it is always good to know asap whether an editor likes your idea or not.
If it is a rejection with respect to a job posting, it does not bother me if I do not hear back from them.
May 9th, 2008 at 7:49 am
Love the decorating idea!
Of course, my badges of horror are spread out between two countries now. Hmmm…placemats, anyone??
May 9th, 2008 at 8:42 am
Re: Adam’s comment on plumbers–
Actually, I do. Many times, if I get a lower quote and then call the plumber/electrician/firewood hauler stating the lower quote, who gave it and what it was, they’ll lower their price just to get the business.
Maybe I’m alone, but calling back for items like that can be very beneficial. It’s how I was buying delivered firewood last year at $150 a cord instead of the going rate of $200.
May 9th, 2008 at 10:57 am
Point well-taken. Rejection is just part of the business, plain and simple, and the better we deal with it, the better off we are
May 9th, 2008 at 11:28 am
@ Ann G.
Well there’s a tactic I never thought of, although it definitely makes sense. I guess it’s just easier to take the lower-priced one initially without doing more work. Next time, I’ll be calling back!
May 11th, 2008 at 9:09 am
@ Ann G.
Sneaky! I’ve never thought of playing them off one another like that. We can only hope publishers havn’t thought of that too!