I reported some months ago on submitting more stories to anthologies. After all, one thing writers generally agree on is our desire to have our work read by others. One way to accomplish that is to submit our work for publication. The obvious downside, however, is that our work may be rejected, and dealing with rejection is part of the writing process.
Bitter with the Sweet
That’s what happened to me. I attended a great meeting of the Maryland Writers Association in February with the goal of developing a new chapter of the organization for St. Mary’s County. The speaker also encouraged those in attendance to submit their work for any number of publications, including two in our area. They were: Pen in Hand, the biannual literary magazine of the association, and Connections, the literary magazine for the College of Southern Maryland.
At around the same time, Sisters in Crime offered up two publication opportunities: one for the Guppy Chapter serving newer writers, and another from the Chesapeake Chapter. These two anthologies sought themed submissions, and I found it fun to write to their requirements. All in all, I submitted stories to all four publications, garnering one win and three “losses.”
Rejection Happens
While I am happy to have a story appear in this issue of Pen in Hand (page 44), I would have been thrilled to have had wins for all four submissions, but it was not to be. So why do I have losses in quotes? For one thing, I received some feedback on the Guppy Anthology; that was encouraging. Second, I’ve been groomed for years to understand that dealing with rejection is part of the game. This is not a fun part, mind you, but part of the game nonetheless. The Huff Post made several good points in their article about rejection. One of those points was not to write a hostile reply to the rejecting body or person. I took that to heart and made a point of answering one of the rejections with a pleasant thank you and my determination to fix up the story and submit it to another publication. I was shocked that the gatekeeper of the anthology—a very well-known mystery writer—wrote a encouraging reply right afterwards. That was a win in itself!
The Huff Post and others also encourage authors to have other projects going, so a rejection doesn’t completely throw off your mojo. Ultimately, I’ve chosen to see this like baseball: a player can get base hits on 30% of the time yet be seen as widely successful. So, my .250 batting average would certainly keep me under contract!
