Rejection overload

I’ve just gotten my fourth rejection in the last week. Just for context, I’ve gotten 13 rejections this calendar year, and 4 acceptances. So what is that, 1 out of 4? Not bad, and certainly nothing to complain about (in fact, I think that’s a pretty good ratio—how depressing!). But when they all come at once… that’s when I can’t take it. Anyhow, this one rather annoyed me. A standard rejection from literary magazines is typically a quarter of a sheet of paper—it’s really good if they’re printed (rather than photocopied), and even better if you get a note on them. But this one was just too much.



This is the actual size, by the way—or maybe slightly larger. Come on, people, don’t hurt the photocopying budget too much. That’s roughly 10 rejection notes per page of paper! What economy! Fran says at this rate they’ll be coming by ESP.

I like this article about accepting rejection. Wish I’d gotten the Chinese economics journal one. But look. Even the fabulous Ursula Le Guin used to get them.