R is for Rejection

I feel almost special these days.  I can officially say I'm a would-be author.  I have, to date, received 43 rejections for my short stories.

Rejection hurts.  Don't let anyone tell you it doesn't.  No matter how hard your skin gets you're still going to be slightly injured by the rejection of one of your babies.  But you have to keep going forward.

Many of my rejection notes have been the generic "Sorry but you don't fit what we're looking for" letters.  I had one that told me my writing was amateurish (uh...DUH), childish (what?), and not worth their time.  I've had several that told me I had a real talent but that because they were too long (D'OH) my stories couldn't be published.  And I've had three editors tell me that my writing lends itself more to novels.

Fantasy is a much harder genre to get short stories published in anyhow, so to me it makes more sense these days to work hard on my novels and try to get them published than it does to continue to pursue getting my short stories published.  Okay, okay, so they're technically in the novella range rather than the short story range.  Probably why I can't get them published. *grins*

I expect dozens, maybe hundreds, of rejections over the next several years as I struggle along the road to publication.  It's a part of being an author.  When you read Stephen King's On Writing he discusses the rejection letters he got.  I'm sure that Anne McCaffrey, Andre Norton, Mercedes Lackey, David Eddings, and many of my other favorites have scores of rejection letters too.

So hold your rejection letters high.  It means someone cared enough to let you know that they didn't think your writing was right for them.  Someone somewhere will.  It just takes time and patience.

(And a whole lot of tissues and chocolate...)