Dealing with Rejection
April 15, 2010
I’ve just experienced something that, as a freelance journalist, you’ll have to quickly develop a thick skin for: rejection.
I may have been in the industry for more than 30 years, but this latest rejection for a travel story I was pitching reminded me just how much one has to keep working at one’s craft. It’s a tough business trying to ‘sell’ your proposed story to a magazine or newspaper. Often, because editors and their staff are so busy (especially when newsrooms generally boast fewer staff these days), you don’t even get the courtesy of a reply. To me, that’s just rude, though I’m well aware that there are many, many other writers out there striving to do the same thing in an ever more competitive market.
In this situation, when you’re made to feel insecure by rejection even though you may think you’ve done your best work, there’s only one way to take the next step – and that’s definitely not firing off an indignant letter to the editor who has snubbed you.
If you do that, it will come back to bite you because, at least in Australia, the media market is quite small and everyone in it seems to know everybody else’s business. No, the first thing to do is to set about approaching other media outlets with your idea or your story because you know that it is worthy of publication, even if that previous editor didn’t.
However, never feel too proud of your work that you can’t spot the cracks. It’s imperative to go over your story again and again, changing a word here, rearranging a paragraph there, making absolutely sure it’s the best you can possibly do.
The most obvious thing is to make sure there are no spelling mistakes; just one is enough to put off many editors. And don’t litter your story with exclamation marks – they’re the sign of a writer trying just a little too hard to say that what they’re writing is shocking/incredible/unbelievable!
The key is not to get disconsolate about rejection. It will happen time and again, but when you do find a publisher it’ll be all the sweeter for it.
Happy writing!
GARY
View tutor profile »
« Back to Articles Overview