As you may recall, my parting pet peeve last week referenced not being notified that my submissions had been received. It’s hard enough to commit to entering a contest or submitting to a journal without wondering if your entry has been lost in the depths of unknown daemon haze, you know?

Nipping at the heels of that peeve is not hearing back from agents, editors, contests, etc, regarding the status of said submission. It’s a sorry state of professionalism when an author sends requested materials and receives only silence in return.

I am both sad and happy that I received a rejection letter to one of my recent submissions. Sad because, well, duh, the piece didn’t make the cut, but happy because, thank you for letting me know in a timely fashion! Now I can rework the piece for resub somewhere else without concern.

I’m also happy because it was a personal response, kind and supportive. They said what they liked, referenced what didn’t work for them, wished me luck with my writing, and invited me to submit again.

I truly appreciate that.

Rejection is something writers have to expect. It’s good to prepare for it…expect it, and hopefully learn from it. Like the quote says, “A rejection is nothing more than a necessary step in the pursuit of success”.