Writing Information

Rejection - Have the Right Perspective and Don't Quit

If you're getting rejections from your submissions, please don't quit yet until you read the following article. I want you to get a perspective on rejection.

First of all, I'll assume you've been told a few things about rejection: Don't take it personally; it's a part of writing; and all well-established writers have been rejected at first, and are even rejected now. Good advice.

Then why are you still discouraged by rejection?

Here's why. We live in a world where ignorance is bliss. You get rejected all the time, you just don't know it. Perhaps a friend has considered calling you to do something and then changes her mind. You will never know. She isn't going to send you a rejection letter. Suppose you owned a business and sent out 1,000 direct mail letters and got a response of ten. This is considered a very good response in the direct mail field. Those ten responses cover your costs and time and then some. Do you lament over the 990 folks who didn't respond? No. Could you see if you demanded to have every one of them write back and tell you they aren't interested? You'd be blue then. Consider all the offers you reject on a daily basis. Ah, but as writers we put ourselves on the line by requesting to be rejected. The publishing industry is so unique in that aspect. We demand that publishers respond to us and let us know what they want to do with our writing. We have to in order to know what to do next with our particular article or book proposal.

The reason rejection is such a part of your life is because it is the nature of this business of writing. You can't expect a publisher to accept everything everyone submits. Even if every submission was spectacular, they still couldn't publish every one.

So you feel stupid when you get rejected. You beat yourself up. There are great ways to overcome this. Keep writing. Keep sending items out. Be very businesslike. Get a rejection letter? Make yourself feel better by sending out the same package that day to another publisher. Handle your submissions in a non-emotional way. While the writing itself can be emotional, the submission process cannot. Accept this and you'll be a lot happier. Try saying this to yourself the next time you get a rejection: "You don't want it? That's okay, I'll try someone else."

Heather L. Koppes is a freelance business writer. She writes company literature including newsletters, brochures, articles, case histories and press releases. You can check out her daily blog at http://heatherlkoppes.blogspot.com