How do you handle rejection?

Have you heard authors say, “Aww…rejected. Cool.”? No, I don’t know anyone who treated an “R” as something cool. :) How about you? Did you ever scrawl, “I hate you, Editor” across your rejection letter, imagining it was his face? Or have you done a gross thing like splattering your gooey spit on the computer screen (hard to wipe that off if you have an LCD screen) when you opened your email and found a sorry rejected from the editor? Or you just shrug your shoulders, hit the delete button, sigh, shake your head then move on?

I don’t.

Each rejection letter is hard to swallow and I don’t take it easily. I consider my rejection letter as a challenge, a guide, a nudge (real hard one). Never—since I started writing—have I considered an R as a sign of failure. After all, I received one because I accomplished something—finished a story.

Now, this is my way of handling rejections and I’m not saying you should to or this is the right way to handle it. But it would be neat if you share yours. ;)

Anyway, here is what I do when I receive a heart-stopping rejection. After reading the letter (online since I haven’t submitted stories through snail mail yet), I save it on my Publications folder. Next, I’ll open my One Note, click on the Manuscript tab and add R on the note column.

On my desktop, I also have a WIP tab. I’ll put the rejected story back there. Now the rework begins. I’ll read the R letter and start picking it—especially the ones where an editor took his/her time pointing out the stories strengths, weaknesses and the holes on the story. How to improve it and why I shouldn’t give up on the story.

Here’s an example. My favorite. I used it as my screen saver.

“I know rejection is hard on an author, but just so you know, you do have a snappy, edgy style of writing quite suited to mainstream novels.
The dialogue, although crisp and flirty, was sandwiched between the internal conflict of the hero hating the cold weather. Your descriptive narrative was dead-on.”

Not bad, huh?

Here is another one:

“Just because we aren’t interested in acquiring your manuscript right now doesn’t mean we never will be, or that your work lacks merit. We hope you will continue to work on your story to improve its voice and structure, and perhaps add some depth and complexity to the characters.”

With the positive comments from the editors, I’ll rewrite the story and turn it into a brand new submission.
Under the Submissions tab, I’ll type the name of the “newly polished” story alongside the publications name where I intend to send it next.

Do we share the same way of handling rejection?


Tierney O’Malley, an author who changed her title from unpublished to published because she didn’t let a rejection letter stop her from writing and submitting.