Think I've had about 4 rejections in the span of as many days. Maybe even five. Most give praise, but it always comes down to not being a good fit.
Another rejection. Piling in recently. This was for a story sent to a new publication for their first issue, so they wouldn't even be that picky, relatively speaking. More importantly, the story was based entirely on their specific ethos and guidelines. I wrote it almost for them... Form rejection, no comment. Not a good week.
But isn't the point of this thread to rack up as many rejections as possible, in the understanding that you need to pile them on thick to reach those acceptances? In the same spirit that pro photographers take a hundred pictures in order to get that one really good one (or a thousand to get a great one)? You're supposed to develop a thick skin, paper your wall with rejections knowing that's the only way to the eventual acceptances. If you're going to twist and turn like a stuck pig on every rejection you're going to have a hard time getting there.
Yes, that's all true. I've been talking about this ad nauseam, I know, but I'd contend that a photographer can still have their work be seen. That's the baseline. Their work can still be put out there for people to see and taken on its own merit. It's the usual thing I've argued about before. People take for granted in other pursuits how easy it is for an individual thing to be sent into the public realm. A single photograph taken by a photographer can still be admired, just like a painting can be admired. Writing? It goes from 0 (invisible) to 100 (visible), but only if accepted. For photographers and other pursuits, if this makes sense, it runs 1, 2, 3... all the way to 100. That is, they have many options. even if you're suggesting that a pro photographer's best work can only be accepted into some publication or other, which is indeed parallel to the writing situation, they at least have the option to put out work by themselves. Again, it's the whole thing about not being able to just publish a single short story, etc. etc. Yadayadayada....
This happens when you get that first acceptance. But you need to go through a lot of rejections to get there. And then a lot more before the next acceptance. Etc. The main difference is it takes a lot longer to write a story than to snap a photograph. But hey, if you'd rather feel sorry for yourself and wallow in misery, then by all means feel free.
Surely not? A photographer can create a website, put up their work on Instagram, create all manner of social media accounts on which to upload their work. And all of that would be a perfectly viable way of proceeding. Those are the other options I talked about. By the way, all I said was, "Not a good week." You're heightening my language by suggesting I'm wallowing in misery.
I'd been trying for 4 years to get one of my stories published. 10 rejections on that one story alone. Id tweak it, and submit it. Tweak it and submit it. No takers. Still kept pushing it because i believed in it. Even if it was unpaid online, i wanted it out there. Last year it was published. Not only published, but they paid me for it and published it in print. My first paid publication after 10 rejections on the 1 story. I have others that had more than 10 rejections but i still keep pushing it because im holding out for that ONE that will think it perfect for their publication. Yeah, it sucked waiting, but for every rejection, submit to 3 more, thats what i tell myself. And thats what i continue to do. Also, i try not to take it personally if i get rejected.
I appreciate that, I do. It sucks that it took that long to get your work out there. But that's kind of my point. If you made a lovely painting, you could send it out to so many places at once without anyone's permission. Putting a short story on an obscure self-made blog isn't exactly the best option. But that's what people keep suggesting.
See post by @Selbbin above re blogs etc. You keep shifting the goalposts. This seems to indicate a tendency toward wallowing.
See my response to J.T. I'm not sure that blogs are viable. I've talked about all of this before though so I won't go into the reasons other than to recall your mind to that Blizzard example. Do you think some major publisher is going to trawl a random blog and give you a deal like an artist with a website portfolio is likely to get? Also, you can't even get a first rights deal if you've put stuff online, if it already exists in a public place... I don't know why people are suggesting this.
Well, they are, and people use them successfully already, from travel writers to fiction writers. Major publishers may not be 'trawling the internet' randomly but they may take a look if you mention it on submission (one they like), just like they do with painting and photography. (And if you get yourself an audience they will eventually come across it if there's buzz,) You think major galleries are just trawling the internet looking for random talent? no. And that's all I have to say about that.
Nothing is instantaneous. Including artwork. There is no guarantee that an artist who posts online will get noticed. Someone could just as easily pass over it in favor of the artwork on the next page. Sure, its "visible" but they could still be rejected when submitting artwork to journals or magazines, or ignored when posting online. Same as writing. Publishers who are interested in your work will ask for author pages, blogs, and anywhere else your work is. Call it a writers resume. I dont have an online author presence other than my deviant art page which i havent been active on since high school. Im working on a wattpad story too in order to up my chances of getting noticed. My story may not be read now, or tomorrow or in a month, but at somepoint, someone is going to come across it and find the title appealing and the premise interesting and they'll read it. Also, i'll have something to link to when/if a publisher or agent decides they want to see what i have in my portfolio. Its a process, dude. Sometimes its not always good to skip steps
Producing work that will go unread by the world is the nature of writing. It just is. For those of us who are not by nature business-minded, marketing one's written products requires more effort, consistency, and tenacity than writing them in first place. Also the nature of the beast. This is what it looks like from where I'm sitting: You are seeking an easy way to get a substantial audience to read your work, you are miffed because there isn't one, and you are irritated because you don't like the options suggested by other writers. At some point, one has to take one's teeth out of one's tail, quit going in circles, and deal with the situation as it exists. I wish you the best of luck, and now I am following Xoic out of the rabbit hole.
I think stories go from 1 to 100 too. A personal blog that gets low traffic could be considered a 1. The New Yorker is a 100. Any story shared with the public would fall somewhere on the scale.
A 660-day(!) personal rejection from Ecotone. The editor said they discussed it many times and she gave it a lot of praise. This is a story I put on the back burner after 20+ rejections. I'm inspired to take another pass at it and send it out again.
That wait time certainly puts some of my grousing about 200 days into perspective! Congrats on receiving such an encouraging response.
Not had a rejection for a while because I’d not been submitting. Anyway book 1 which Id sort of given up has had renewed interest. Subbed to a new agent (well an old agent who’d been closed to queries), a small publisher and a new publisher. The new publisher has some big hitters behind it and they’ve rejected the full MS. So at least it means I’ll be getting some rejections soon !
