Rejection

The hardest part of being a writer for most of us is the constant rejection. To help desensitize unpublished writers, one writers’ group runs The Queen of Rejection contest to recognize members who receive the most rejection notices between January 1 and April Fools Day. The last two winners received over 90 rejections.
Writer send out the children of their hearts into the cold world where some editor may or may not read the submission. The result most often is a form letter saying “not for us.” If we are lucky we get that form letter with a personal note scribbled at the bottom; something like “enjoyed the story; think of us in the future.”
Rarely writers get letters explaining why the story wasn’t chosen.
These all come back in stamped self addressed envelopes. When I see my hand writing I know it is a rejection. More and more often this is done on line. Though I have been published, I don’t have a single letter to prove it.
I once received three rejections from one agent for a single novel. The first didn’t want my story of the Russian Mob. I didn’t know I had written one. When I wrote to tell them, wrong author, they responded “sorry but you are rejected anyway.” Next came the rejection I was supposed to get in the first place.
Back in the days when we sent out manuscripts and expected to get them back, I found cookie crumbs on the third to last page, so I know the agent read pretty far into it before saying no.
So how many rejections did I get this year? Three, but I am still waiting to hear from three more, one that I sent out in August. Yesterday I got “We really enjoyed ‘The Devil’s Quote.’ Thanks.!” You can bet that gang will get another submission from me this week.