While preparing one of my article-writing classes for current students, I came across this phrase: “Rejection is only an opinion and a circumstance.” Yet, how many of us take those rejections we receive from publishers and editors personally?
Rejection is only an opinion and a circumstance.
For those of you who don’t know what I mean by this, let me explain. Sure, sometimes a manuscript is rejected because the writing is not up to par. It happens. But for the most part, rejection happens for any of the following reasons:
For magazine articles:
• The editor is not in the market for a piece on this topic at the moment.
• They recently published an article on this subject.
• This subject is counter to the beliefs of their advertisers.
• The editor received several articles on the same topic and yours didn’t make the cut.
• You have no credentials in the topic and the next writer does.
• The slant and style of the article is wrong for that particular magazine.
• This is not a popular topic for readers of this magazine.
• Your article is too short, long or you didn’t do enough research.
• The editor doesn’t like cats, so isn’t interested in your cat story. (His opinion, right?)
For book manuscripts:
• The topic doesn’t fit the publisher’s current needs.
• Your angle and style isn’t appropriate to this publisher’s audience.
• Your platform isn’t impressive enough.
• Your proposal indicates that you don’t have a handle on what it will take to promote this book.
• The publisher feels that this topic should be handled by an expert in the field, not someone who had one experience with it.
• Your proposal isn’t as strong as the next authors.
• Your research skills are lacking.
• You did not hire a professional editor before submitting your manuscript.
• Your name is Bob and the publisher’s wife ran off with a man named Bob, so he refuses to accept anything from anyone with that name.
Or it could be that the editor or publisher woke up on the wrong side of the bed and has decided to hate every manuscript that comes across their desks the day yours comes in. I had an editor reject me once because I misspelled his name. The sad thing is that I carefully copied his very long, very complicated name from my current copy of Writer’s Market. It was correct as far as the listing in Writer’s Market. In fact, in this editor’s nasty letter to me, he said, “I’ll bet you used the erroneous spelling from Writer’s Market.”
The fact is that if you want to be a freelance writer or a successful author, you must be able to withstand the discomfort of rejection from time to time. The more active you are at submitting articles or stories to paying markets, the more rejection you will experience. The more books you write and the more publishers you approach, the more rejection you will likely experience. It’s a fact of life for writers and, while repeated rejection letters could be a definite red flag indicating that you are a lousy writer with projects that no one wants, this is probably not the case for most of you. Most likely, the reasons why your work is rejected are listed above.
For more about rejection, writing a book proposal, submitting to publishers, promoting and distributing books, self-publishing, public speaking, self-editing and so, so much more, read my book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book. http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html