I have yet to see a piece accepted for publication.
And selling anything is a numbers game, not dissimilar to getting a piece published. In order even to begin this marathon task, I first had to give myself permission to be a writer. Then, I actually began writing. I put stories up online. I gained the confidence to write an entire novel. I joined a local writers’ group.
Then came the scary part. I started to submit, to competitions and journals. I expected rejection, and I got it. I hoped for success, and it is yet to come. I kept going, for a complicated web of reasons.
How many rejections will it take before I give up? So far I have remained fairly sanguine, though the polite email was a little harder to open today. How many rejections constitute a message to stop, go away, you’ll never make it? I don’t know, at all. There is no magic formula. But every submission takes a little hope with it, and hope is not infinite. Just one more try, maybe this time will bring the success that repays my faith.
Maybe next time.
