A quick rejection is a good sign.  If it’s by email, I immediately respond politely with a brief “thank you” and save the editor’s name and email/address as a future prospect.

You can reduce rejections if you:-

1.Study the markets and their guidelines.  It’s no good submitting a thousand word article or story if the publication requires 2,000+.  And a magazine for seniors isn’t going to be interested in a short story about cheerleaders and a high school football team.

2.Query first if the publication requires it.

3.Don’t submit a topic that’s already been covered recently (e.g. many magazines have titles of back issues on their web site).

4.Submit clean, typed copy, to the correct specifications and format, and enclose a stamped self-addressed envelope if you want your work sent back and/or a reply.  Also, make sure there are sufficient stamps on the envelope or it may be returned to you by the post office for insufficient postage.

5.Make sure your work is the very best it can be before you send it off – edit, edit, edit!  Chop, chop, chop!  Check it thoroughly and do “spell check”.  Even if you have a good grasp of English grammar, “spell check” can pick up typos.

6.Don’t assume because a publication accepted several pieces of your work five years ago, they’ll jump at your latest submission.  Style, needs and editors often change.

7.Take note of any constructive criticism from editors.

8.After a rejection, immediately send the work out again to another market.

Type the word “Rejections” in a search engine and you’ll come up with over 100,000 results, which range from dealing with rejections to the reasons for them.

There’s even a clever web site all about this subject -

www.rejectioncollection.com  - "The writer's and artist's on-line source for misery, commiseration, and inspiration."  RejectionCollection’s creator Catherine Wald is President and “Chief Rejective Officer”!

RejectionCollection’s sections: “Share your misery”, “Read 'em and weep”, “Question my authority” and “The Reject's Bag”.  Check out the “Celebrity Corner” and there’s even a competition.  If you enter, you can become the “Reject of the Month”!  And Cathy publishes a monthly e-newsletter, “The Reject's Rag”.

Some of the successful authors who received umpteen rejections before getting published are:-

John Creasy (774 rejections before selling his first story)

Alex Haley (200 rejections before “Roots”)

Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen (“Chicken Soup for the Soul” turned down by 33 publishers before it became a best seller and then a successful series)

Mary Higgins Clark (40 rejections before selling her first story)

Dr. Seuss (his first book was rejected 24 times)

Louis L’Amour (200 rejections before he sold his first novel)

Norman Mailer (“The Naked and the Dead” was rejected 12 times)

And we’ve all heard how F. Scott Fitzgerald papered his bedroom walls with rejection slips before he eventually sold a story!

Just remember - rejection does not equal failure!