Submission Sunday REDUX: How to Handle Rejections

Fail better.

Happy Sunday, writers! Today we’re going to talk about the submitter’s nemesis: rejection, or fear of. This post was originally sent out on Sunday, October 23, 2022, but I’ve updated the upcoming deadlines at the end.

Rejection, like writing or your abs, is a muscle. The more you exercise it, the more quickly you can bounce back when you get that email that starts “Thank you for submitting…” I just did an informal review of my submission spreadsheet and almost every rejection started this same way. The acceptances ranged from “Thank you so much for submitting…” to “Congratulations!” and “You’re in!”

That “so much” says so much.

If the fear of “Thank you for submitting…” is preventing you from sending out your work, we need to do something about that. Hopefully, this week’s post will help.