In November of 2008, I submitted a couple articles to Gray's Sporting Journal to try and get them published. I didn't think I had much of a chance, but figured it'd never happen if I didn't at least try. I thought they'd forgotten about me until a couple days ago when I got the following e-mail from them:
Gray’s Sporting Journal
February 25, 2009
Dear Contributor:
Thank you for submitting your work for publication in Gray’s Sporting Journal. We have looked over your manuscript and have decided it does not fit our present needs. Good luck and best wishes on future submissions, and if you have something that you think might fit with our wants, please consider Gray’s again.
Sincerely, Russ Lumpkin
managing editor
About a year ago I read Stephen King's book called "On Writing." He talks about when he began to submit articles and stories to magazines when he was a teenager. He got tons of rejection letters from many different magazines. In fact he says he hung a nail on his wall to which he impaled all the rejection letters he got. Eventually he had so many rejection letters he had to get a bigger nail. He said he used those rejection letters as motivation to keep going and to try even harder.
I think the nail idea is a great one. I'm excited that I get to hammer a big nail in the wall on which I can hang all my rejection letters. It's kind of a fun and constructive way to deal with all the rejection I'm sure to receive. I'm not at all ready to give up. I can't imagine the joy and elation I will one day feel when I get to see one of my articles in a magazine. It's bound to happen, even if I'm 90 when it does.
Friday, February 27, 2009
My First Rejection...YES!
Posted by
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
4 comments:
Great attitude sweetie... I'll go get the hammer!
Karen--
CONGRATULATIONS!! First rejection letter-- that's huge! You're so brave to put yourself out there!
I have read only one book on writing--Stephen King's On Writing! I liked it a lot, too.
I saw a famous actor say something useful related to all that on a talk show recently. (The actor played the dad from 7th Heaven, and seemed too nice, somehow, to be edgily profound, but he was.) He offered his two pieces of advice for high school graduates: 1)don't get into credit card debt, so, when you end up in a job you hate, you can walk away, and, 2)be prepared to fail, A LOT; the most successful people he knew had failed again and again and again.
Gotta bear our "failures" as proof of brave and daring efforts, right? I try to remember that. Easier to say that to do; good for you! Heidi
p.s. And, as the pile of "rejections" and "not quite rights" grows, we know we MUST be getting closer! I have belief and hope in that in my efforts to figure out what I'm going to be when I grow up.
I would bet money that you'll be published LONG before you're ninety!!! In fact, I bet it will likely happen in my grandpa Dave's lifetime! (He's already 90.)
I KNOW I would buy a publication your writing was in! luv, h
I read some famous author suggest that you pick a small room in your home and wallpaper it with rejection letters. "By the time the room is papered, you'll have been published," is the promise. So keep submitting. You're a wonderful writer and I know you'll get published. And, dangit, now you're one rejection letter ahead of me.
Post a Comment