Is Rejection Respectable?

By

Mona Hodgson

 

 

One July day my mailbox had gulped six rejection letters all at once. Yet, I was the one with indigestion.

 

 

Beware: Rejection Ahead!

 

If you aspire to write poems for publication, expect to be rejected!

 

For many a would-be-published poet the fear of rejection towers like a forbidding wall between them and their mailbox. They allow a rejection or two or thirty to keep them from parting with any more of their manuscripts. Their poems collect dust in a drawer or coffee stains on their mother's coffee table. 

 

While rejection can be disheartening, there is good news. My mailbox has embraced more than 600 acceptances of articles, stories, and poems in 18 years. What if I had quit submitting my poems after the first, second, or fifteenth rejection letter? My poem Treasures wasn't accepted until its seventh submission. It has since won an award and has seen at least eight acceptances.

 

 

No, Not the Form Letter!

 

Most rejection letters are rote form letters that don’t tell you much, if anything, about why your poem is being returned unpublished.

 

 

Why are my masterpieces rejected?

 

You can scale the wall of rejection and your poems can win acceptance. When I began writing for publication I never dreamed an editor could have a plethora of valid excuses for rejecting my poetic ponderances. Of course, like you, I knew the obvious ones. A nonprofessional submission and lack of skill on the part of the poet. But there are many other reasons.

 

Your chosen market prints very little poetry and there is stiff competition.            

 

The editor just accepted a poem on the same topic.

Your poem doesn't fit in with upcoming topic theme lists. Some publications center their material, poems included, around a particular theme. Write to the publisher and ask for a theme list if you don’t find it on their website.

 

The poem doesn't have universal appeal. While your reader may get something entirely different from your poem than you did, there has to be something in it for her—a common denominator. 

 

The poem didn't grab the reader emotionally. What difference does the poem make to your reader? Your poem needs to entertain, encourage, inspire, inform—offer something the reader can take with them.

 

 

Rejected manuscripts are part of learning not only how to write for specific magazines, but also how to write. Here are some suggestions and truths to help you combat rejection, even learn to respect it and increase your skill because of it. 

 

Market awareness. Make sure you've chosen a publication that prints poetry.  Know what length and form they prefer. An editor knows his readership and what those readers expect from his magazine. Study and adhere to his writer’s guidelines.  

 

Keep several pieces in the mail and a new work-in-progress going at all times. A common mistake many people make is to write something, send it out, and wait. If it finds a home, they'll send something else out. If not, they're done.

 

Have alternate markets for each poem. While doing your market research, make a list of at least three, and preferably five or more, possible markets for your poem.  When you get a rejection letter, take another look at your poem. Then send it to the next market on your list.

 

If the editor took the time to give you any feedback, consider his or her comments. Look for the problems the editor saw. 

 

Send multiple poems. If you have more than one poem appropriate for a particular periodical, send several at once. The general rule of thumb is three to five in one mailing. Recently, I sent six poems to Highlights for Children and received acceptances for two of them. Send a good sampling to increase your odds for a sale.

 

Separate yourself from your finished poem.  Don't regard rejection slips as personal assaults. Remember: A rejection is nothing more than one person's opinion of or response to one piece of writing at one particular moment.                               

 

Commit your submissions and rejections to the Lord. I spend a lot of time in prayer between my home and my post office box.

 

I don't have dozens of published poems because I let rejection eat at my self-worth or leave me in a state of fear to risk again. It's a tempting route at times, but ….. 

Friends, I persevere. Notice I didn't say I persevered. I don't get as many rejections because my writing and marketing skills are improving. But, I still experience setbacks and disappointments in my writing. 

 

Having saved the best for last, I offer you a few of the scriptural truths and promises (paraphrased and abbreviated) I claim to keep me writing and submitting: 

 

Psalm 37:3-8 - Trust in the Lord and write well. Delight yourself in the Lord, not in editorial approval. Commit your writing to the Lord, trust in Him, and He will do it.

 

II Timothy 2:15 - Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a writer who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately His truth.

 

Philippians 4:4-8 - Rejoice in the Lord always. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything (acceptances and rejections) by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving make your requests known to God. Dwell on the true, the honorable, the right, the pure, the lovely... not on the mistakes and the rejections.

 

Is that the flag going up on your mailbox? I hope so. Keep on keeping on.