Adventures in Writing: Surviving the Dreaded Rejection Letter

Making good use of the literary equivalent of the "Dear John" letter can not only improve your writing, but provide a few lessons as to what you need to do next time (or should not do).

1) Check out the "competition":

What is it about the work that a particular publisher chose that is lacking from your own piece? Do they seem to have a similar theme, tone of voice, or type of ending? Is there anything that you could change about your story (or that you could write into a new story) that would appeal to the editor's palate?

2) Read over the submission guidelines again. There may have been something you missed the first time which caused your story to end up in the not-published-but-broken-hearted bin. This does two things for you: if you made a minor flub, you'll remember to use more caution next time. If the problem is something else, you'll consider it a little more closely.

3) Read between the lines. Some editors will say things like "we accept all genres," but when you submit your piece, you receive a rejection letter, with a blurb about the genre not fitting the publication's usual readership. If the publication is full of love stories and tragedies about losing a best friend in a freak bicycle accident at the age of nine, don't believe they really want to see anything else. This is the equivalent of, "you're beautiful, you're just not my type."

4) And while we are on the subject of rejection letters: never, ever, EVER write back an angry response to a rejection letter. In fact, I don't recommend any reply to them at all, but if you simply must, keep it brief and professional. You never know who you may meet/send work to/or make angry on the wrong day. Example: "Though I disagree with your critique, thank you for taking the time to read my work," as opposed to "I hate you and wish all the plagues of Egypt upon you and your pitiful readership, which is composed of thirteen losers anyway."

5) There are two things that can be done with a rejection letter: you can consider the criticism and if it's reasonable, try to fix the problem. Some editors may be graceful enough to let you try again (hint: don't even try it unless they state in the rejection letter that it is okay for you to edit and resubmit). If you're absolutely positive that you have a great piece of work on your hands, dust off your shoulder and resubmit somewhere else. Remember what Mom told you: there are plenty of fish in the sea.

6) Be loyal to editors who have published your work. Provide your best efforts, and submit frequently. You want to be known as that person who can pull something entertaining out of his/her hat with consistency. Check in on a regular basis to keep yourself appraised of any changing rules, new contests, etc.

7) Do know that everyone has their own taste, and this goes with editors, too.

You can't be the flavor to buy for everyone, but you can always be that flavor for someone. There is an editor out there that will appreciate your work and will be eager to post it.