I received two story rejections before noon today, and in some ways, they were oddly juxtaposed. The first one was from a professional market to which I have never submitted before. The rejection told me that the story made it past the first cut and went on to detail many of the good points of the story, but that in the end, they simply couldn’t put their finger on what was wrong with it. In any event, it wasn’t quite right. It was nice to get such detailed feedback from a pro market, and even though it wasn’t a sale, it was a confidence builder–especially since that story was written back in January. It shows I am still improving.
Of course, some of that confidence was wiped away with the second rejection I received today. It was from another professional market, one to which I have already sold a story, and in which my fiction has already appeared. It was a form letter rejection slip. In the past, I have received quite a bit of editorial feedback on stories I’ve submitted to this market, and so a form letter rejection felt like a step backward for me.
At the same time, it makes me want to try even harder to sell there again. Rejections are always disappointing, but over time, you learn that you can’t dwell on them too much; you learn what you can from them and move on. In that light, I’ve already submitted one of the rejected stories to another market. For the other, I am making a few minor changes, based on what the editors pointed out as possible problems, before I sent it off tomorrow.
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