Here we are again, my annual acceptance/rejection blog post where I summarize the results from last year’s literary submissions. This is where I tell that you that no literary magazines turned down my work because, you know, it’s my work and my work is PERFECT. And this is where I also tell you that all the big publishers are emailing me, Oprah is is calling, and I’ve been nominated for a Pulitzer or one of those other little ho-hum prizes.
Or . . . this is where I tell you the truth: a writer’s world is filled with rejection, and I have yet to have a year where I don’t receive many more rejections than acceptances. I expect no less. And I am proud of my rejections, especially since—and you who are my long-time blog readers know this—I aim for 100 rejections a year.
Believe me, I made that goal in 2021. But, as always, there’s more to the story.
So let’s start with a short jaunt down memory lane: the year before last (2020), I received 88 rejections and 2 acceptances. Eek. I didn’t submit enough to reach 100 rejections, but with that track record, surely I would have.
In 2021 my goal was to get some of my stories published and, more importantly, to get a third to half of the poems in my second poetry manuscript individually published. (Why? Because it helps to have some of the poems in a book published individually in literary magazines in order to interest a press in publishing your whole collection.) This meant that, especially in the spring and summer, I submitted more widely and frequently. I was a submission machine. If a person built muscles from submitting, I would be busting out of my clothes like the Hulk.
A few highlights before I get to the 2021 numbers: One of my poems won an award from Alan Squire Publishing and was nominated for a Pushcart. I got a second poem into my dream publication The Sun after another round of attempts. I finally got a piece into The Pinch after many tries. I loved all the journals from which I got acceptances. Because I had researched each of these journals ahead of time, I knew that getting a piece accepted would be a gift, and it was. A big thank you to all the editors who accepted my work.
Now let’s get to the numbers. Drum roll, please.
In 2021, I received a total of 174 rejections. And yes, that’s a big, fat number, but I also received 30 acceptances. Woooo hoooo!!! I usually have a 10% acceptance rate, but in 2021 it was better. A second wooooo hooooo! As for my goals, I got one story accepted and more than a third of the poems from my second poetry manuscript accepted to be individually published in literary magazines. I’m calling all this a win.
The takeaway? Keep trying, don’t take rejections personally, and never let a no stop you from believing that a yes is possible. Because it always is.
(photo credit: Dayne Topkin from Unsplash.com)
UPCOMING (ONLINE) WRITING SEMINARS
