Photo by Kai Pilger on Unsplash

Rejection as a writer isn’t easy, though I hear it gets easier. I’ve only submitted four stories so far. Editors have rejected two of them, while the other two are still pending. I have more than a dozen more stories waiting in the wings, so I need to get used to disappointment if I’m going to make it in this business.

Frequent rejection was not at all unexpected. Most short fiction markets accept less than 10% of the stories they receive. Others are less than 1%, so it’s highly competitive. I knew what was likely to happen.

I’m on a few Discord servers haunted by short fiction writers. We encourage one another amid our frustrations. Someone said they got more than twenty rejections on the same story before it finally found a home. That sounds like a painful process, but I’m sure it was worth it in the end.

I plan to keep submitting my work for publication. Fingers crossed that I eventually get some good news.