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.

Rejection Journey

By G Dean Manuel

So, we survived 2017! It was a bit touch and go there but I think we all made it to 2018 relatively intact. So, we are going to talk about something every writer must face sometime in their career: rejection. Actually, we are not just going to talk about it, we are going to put together an actionable plan. Let's start with some facts.

Towards the end of the year, I went on a spree of submissions mostly prompted by writing a couple of stories for an anthology called "Heart of the Child." So let's look at some numbers:

Since starting in October, I have had:

• Stories submitted: 12
• Stories accepted: 3
• Stories rejected: 12
• Stories currently in submission: 4

Now, on the poetry side of things:

• Poems submitted: 11
• Poems accepted: 2
• Poems rejected: 9
• Poems ready for submission: 24

But what does this all mean? Does it mean that all my stories and poems suck? Well, the easy answer is no. It doesn't mean anything of the sort. It means, at the time I submitted, the editor didn't think my story or poem fit what they were publishing. Even doing all the research about each that I could, I can't account for everything. The editor might have found a common theme among submissions that they liked and mine didn't follow that common thread. They simply could have not liked the story or poem. One editor's opinion on a story or poem doesn't mean that it sucks. It means it: a). needs work OR b). needs to find another home.

And that's what I did with a few of my submissions if you do the math. Submitted them to other places when they were rejected. I'll be updating you guys when I get a rejection or an acceptance. Mostly because I want you to see that perseverance pays off.

Happy writing!

G Dean Manuel is a multi-genre writer and helper of people. If you would like to know more about G Dean Manuel, click here.