Tracking Rejection
“Failure is not defeat until you stop trying.”
As any working writer knows, pushing your stories out involves rejection. Even J.K. Rowling displayed a rejection letter on Twitter to encourage other artists to persevere.
I’ve been in submission mode recently. For short stories, I used to plug information into a spreadsheet, but now I send stuff out into the ether and wait for a reply. Often, magazines have their own submission system, but some also use Submittable. If you set up an account there, you can track your short story entries.
Another useful tool is QueryTracker, which helps organize responses from agents and publishers. I’m currently using an Excel spreadsheet for my manuscript submission, but I still pop into QT to read users’ comments (they give a lot of insight into response times). Forums in Absolute Write also help in figuring out which agents and publishers to approach.
My stats so far?
3 form rejections (for ms)
1 partial request (50 pages of ms)
1 rejection (short story)
My writer friend told me, One more rejection means one step closer to an acceptance. Sometimes it doesn’t feel that way, but at least I’ve kept everything organized!
