Handling Rejection

Rejection is part of a writer's life. You must cope with it. Analyse it and learn from it.

The reality is that you may never know why your article has been rejected. Students have asked me why editors or editorial assistants don't give any assessment when the article is returned.

Imagine how much work would be generated if a publication received 200 or 300 articles a month! It is a freelance writer's job to get the article as right as possible.

If your work is rejected, the editor is not rejecting you, but what you have written at the time. The rejection could be for any number of reasons, for example:

  • The editor has already purchased something on the same subject recently

  • The article didn't exactly fit the editor's needs, at that time

  • The whole package was not offered and the editor didn't have access to any images that fitted the article, and of course, the main reason for rejection

  • The article wasn't good enough and completely missed the publication's requirements.
An editor may also reject articles because of the volume received. He/She sifts through the submissions and puts aside ten possible articles from which only four will be chosen. Your article may be one of the ten rejected despite it being perfectly crafted for that publication.

There is something much worse than receiving a rejection skip -- never having written anything.

Barb Clews is an award winning journalist with nearly 1,000 published articles to her credit. She has been a writer and editor for 15 years and is the author of "Article Writing for Freelancers" and "20 Tips to Increase Writing Skills" Visit http://www.bcabooks.com/ to subscribe to "Words that Work", Barb's monthly ezine packed with tips for writers.