Hit 50 rejection emails yesterday and something clicked

I've been sending short stories to lit mags for about 8 months now. Kept a spreadsheet of every submission. Hit exactly 50 rejections yesterday. That number surprised me. It made me realize I wasn't learning from the nos. I was just collecting them. Now I'm going back to study each rejection instead of rushing to the next submission. Anyone else track their submission stats like this?

2 comments

2 Comments

troy_palmer767d ago

50 rejection emails and something clicked" - man, this hit me hard because I used to think tracking rejections was pointless. I figured you just send and forget, that studying them was overthinking it. But seeing that number laid out like that changes things. I remember when I hit 30 and just felt numb, it made me look back at what I was sending versus what was getting passed on. Now I actually read the feedback and look for patterns, especially the polite rejections that hint at why it didn't work. Are you noticing any common threads in your rejections now that you're going back?

anthonyhunt7d ago

Same thing happened to me but it was around 35 rejections. I started keeping a separate document where I wrote down one thing each magazine mentioned in their form rejections. Stuff like "not quite right for us" or "compelling but needs work." After a few months I noticed the same phrases kept coming up so I knew my pacing was off in the middle sections. I cut my stories by about 15 percent and started getting more personalized feedback. That spreadsheet turned into a real learning tool instead of just a sad wall of nos.