How Do You Handle Rejection?
As
an experienced writer and teacher of writing, I always want to respond
to this question with fatherly advice and say something like, "I
view rejections as evidence of growth." But to the novice, such fatherly
advice may sound like "Eat your spinach; it's good for you."
Well, as many parents will attest, spinach is good for you-but only if
it doesn't cause you to throw up. Similarly, getting rejections may be
good for you, but only if they don't cause you to give up. Greg Daugherty~
editor of Money magazine (1996, p. 28), says that if you haven't been
rejected lately, it may means "you simply aren't trying hard enough."
Perhaps a better response is that all successful
authors get rejections. Successful writers grow as a result of rejection
because they learn from experience. Some aggressive novices ask the editors
for advice. They ask the editors of referred journals for copies of the
reviewers' evaluations of their manuscript. With this feedback in hand,
rejections can become painful blessings.
Perhaps the best advice for dealing with
rejections is to study the rejections immediately, make the necessary
improvements, and promptly send the manuscript to another publisher. If
no feedback is received, either ask for it, or quickly examine your returned
manuscript for editorial marks. Then make the needed corrections, put
the manuscript and a self-addressed stamped envelope in an envelope, and
send it to another publisher. Remember, sometimes the reasons behind rejections
are unrelated to the quality of the manuscript.
There are two reasons for handling rejections
hastily. If you leave the rejection on your desk, you will dwell on it-even
if only in your sub-conscious and it seems to grow. Second, by promptly
sending the manuscript out again, you decrease the time between acceptances,
and this increases your number of publications. If your manuscript has
any value at all, there is likely to be some correlation between your
number of acceptances and the time that your manuscript spends on an editor's
desk.
After twenty years of writing, I still get
rejections, and each one has a little sting. But each rejection brings
a smile as I think, "That's O.K. I've been rejected before, and I
can take pride in knowing that I've been rejected by the very best."
Experienced authors know that some of their
time is better spent planning to avoid rejections. Jesus Garcia uses an
approach that is both preventive and objective. He has worked out a method
to reduce rejections and a method to deal with rejections objectively.
Rejection should not be the most difficult
part of writing, but it is. I suspect potential authors do not write for
publication because they do not wish to deal with rejection. I learned
early in my writing career that I would need to develop my own mechanism
for addressing rejection. After a few rejections, I sat down and developed
a process.
First, I always attempt to
develop quality manuscripts. Usually, when I have a manuscript rejected,
it is not because it is poorly written or poorly put together. Nor is
it because my idea was not well thought out.
Second, I target the manuscript
or at least two journals. If one rejects it, I send it to the other.
Third, when I receive a rejection
I read the cover letter and file the manuscript for a week.
Fourth, after the hurt has
subsided, I return to the manuscript and read the cover letter and the
constructive criticism provided on a rating sheet or on the manuscript.
(If no constructive comments are provided, I send the manuscript to the
second journal).
Fifth, when constructive criticism
is provided, I weigh the comments and make those changes I feel are warranted.
I then send the manuscript to the second journal.
Individuals wishing to write for publication
should not copy my approach but develop a mechanism that is reflective
of their own personalities.
Garcia's effort to develop a quality manuscript
before sending it to an editor saves time and disappointment. His
process of carefully scrutinizing and using criticisms to improve
the manuscript is wise. This may be difficult when readers are unkind,
but remember that, left unchanged, the manuscript might affect others
in equally negative ways. Garcia's concluding advice is the voice
of experience, individual authors must develop their own systems
for dealing with rejection.
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Folks:
Everyone who attempts to publishers peer-reviewed
manuscripts faces rejection. The excerpt below gives some tips on how
to reduce the chances of rejection and how to handle it when it does come.
The posting is from, Writing for Professional Publication: Keys to Academic
and Business Success, by Kenneth T. Henson, Eastern Kentucky University
(pp. 118-120). The book is published by Allyn & Bacon, A Viacom Company,
Needham Heights, MA 02194 and is copyrighted 1999 by Allyn & Bacon.
Reprinted with permission.
Regards,
Rick Reis
reis@stanford.edu
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