Three Nays in Three Days

Like the proverbial Number 9 bus, three rejections arrived in quick succession. Two were form rejections, which are bad enough, and both of them were from postal submissions, which somehow makes it even worse after the extra effort compared to email subs.

The third was much more cheering though. It was from a small-press anthology and wasn’t just the usual ’didn’t fit current editorial needs’. Here are a few of the comments that dragged me back from the doldrums:

...it was a very good story, and this was the most difficult editorial call I've had to make so far...

I really enjoyed your writing and I think the anthology would benefit if I could find a way to include some of your work.

That made everything seem more positive again.

I need to adjust my expectations somewhat now. I’ve decided to set myself higher goals in terms of the markets I’m going to submit to. This may mean in the short term that there’ll be more rejections, but I’ll know that anything that gets accepted has met more stringent editorial requirements. I’ll either improve as a result, or never have any more stories accepted. I’m hoping for the former.