How to weather rejection

Sketch & photo by Gail Molnar Pfeifer

As you begin to submit your work for publication, you will receive acceptance and rejection letters from editors. 


If your proposal for an article is accepted, that’s great, but be prepared for rejection as well. And guard against taking any rejection letter personally—sometimes your idea just doesn’t match what the editors are looking for.

If you’re lucky, an editor might be kind enough—and have the time—to explain why your idea is not being accepted right now. If so, pay attention to the suggestions the editor gives you, and try again if you’ve been encouraged to do so.

Always have a second publication venue in mind for your ideas. If the rejection is in a form letter style, with no hint of interest from the first editor, immediately mail out the same query to your next targeted journal, newspaper, or other periodical. Keep this process going until you’ve hit the right publication and landed an acceptance. (Of course don’t forget to do your homework; read my October blog entries on the basics of querying an editor.)

Keep generating ideas and developing query letters over a period of a few months.

Once you have an idea accepted, be sure to read the author guidelines, and follow them carefully.