Ashton Jones discusses beer, writing, beer, dogs, beer, guns and coffee. Mmmm... coffee...

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

On Rejection Letters

If you are a writer, you know about rejection letters. Whether submitting novels to publishing houses or arcticles and short stories to magazines and blogs, rejection letters are the gold-star industry standard for breaking your spirit. Don't let them, though. If you aren't getting rejection letters you aren't doing it right. Everyone gets rejections, even the big-name authors.

I just got a letter from The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction regarding a story I recently submitted. Does that mean I retire the story and give up? No, it means I need to read the story again, see if it needs a fresh coat of paint, and send that sucker out to the next market on my list.

Just keep on writing and submitting. If you continue to hone your craft, improve your stories and incessantly bug editors with your manuscripts, you will get published, it's only a matter of time. Sometimes, it's a long, long time...

No one ever said that this business was easy money.