Rejection Journey update

by G Dean Manuel

It has been a couple weeks since my first post (here if you would like to compare). Since that post, I have been a busy little writer. Well, poet, at least. My current stats are:

Stories submitted: 13





Stories accepted: 4





Stories rejected: 12





Stories currently in submission: 4

Just to clarify, if the numbers aren't adding up for you, I forgot a story I submitted through email. The publisher contacted me to tell me I was accepted and I was super happy I didn't publish it elsewhere. That is why keeping my chart up-to-date is a must!

Now on the poetry side, things get a little busier:

Poems submitted: 35





Poems accepted: 3





Poems rejected: 11






Poems currently in submission: 25(!)



Look at all that blue!!!

Minor change: Ballad of the Night Nurses was accepted by Quail Bell Magazine. Big change: I submitted over 25 poems to several different publications!

For anyone reading this that has trouble submitting, anyone that is plagued with doubts about their abilities, I don't share this to brag. I share this so you can take heart! I pause over the submit button for agonizing seconds before taking the leap. Every. Single. Time. But I do it. I press the button. You can, too!

My four stories that have been accepted are: “Bounty:Greed”(Gathering Storm Magazine, released), “Grandfather” (Heart of the Child anthology, released on March 24th, 2018), “King's Road” (Unsheathed anthology, release date TBA), and “Laundry Knights” (The Fairytale Collection: The Knight's Sky).

My three poems that have been accepted are: “Blind to See” (The Literary Yard, here), Dream Machinations (The Literary Yard, here), and Ballad of the Night Nurses (Quail Bell Magazine, release TBA).

I definitely feel less confident over my poetic side.

But I will keep submitting. I may not have the same power or technique that Shakespeare, Angelou, Frost, or Burns have but I am me. There is someone out there that my words will touch and I hope that I hear back from them.