Dealing With Rejection

Rejection is a common occurrence for writers. The more we submit, the more we feel its sting. However, we shouldn’t let rejection be a deterrent to writing or submitting our work. While rejection hurts initially (we are human after all), it doesn’t have to get you down. Here a few tips on how to deal with rejection as a writer.

1. Don’t take it personally.
   Editors, agents and their staffs are people, meaning the same daily tasks and annoyances influence them just as they influence you. Plus, they have a job to do. This job requires them to use their own judgment and biases to sift through material. As with any working professional, they are busy; therefore, a form letter is usually the easiest and most productive communication to use.
2. Know it is not a statement on Your Talent.
   A rejection doesn’t mean you are not a good writer. What it may mean is that your piece didn’t fit the idea of what that particular company or agent was wanting to find. Even the most talented and commercially successful writers had a hard time finding the right publisher for their first work.
3. Celebrate it and keep writing.
   One of the writer’s groups that I attend occasionally celebrates rejection letters. Why? It means they are submitting their writing not just writing. So see the letter as progress and submit to another place.

These same ideas apply even if you are a corporate writer. A business may have an idea of a certain style or a specific background. When you are passed over for another writer, it doesn’t always reflect on talent either.

Keep writing, keep looking. Eventually, there will be a match.