Dear Writers,
It occurred to me today that writing, however rewarding, is also painfully competitive. Just this week I received two angry emails from separate writers: one whose story was not selected for publication, and another whose story was not chosen as a contest winner. Both emails were disheartening to me personally, because I know how hard, at Lunch Hour Stories, we work for writers, and how much time, thought, and energy goes into our selection process.
There are a hundred different reasons why a story might not be selected for publication, ranging from objective criteria like word count, genre, and theme, to subjective criteria like whether our readers found the story compelling, entertaining, or thought-provoking. These are elements we find difficult to justify, and often say to ourselves: The story just didn't work for us.
I encourage writers to keep sending your work out! Remember that not all stories fit every publication, and that rejection should never be taken personally. Sometimes a story doesn't fit because it's too long, or too short, or because the magazine just published a story exactly like it the month before. Sometimes it doesn't win a contest because it simply doesn't meet the criteria specified in the contest announcement.
Most stories receive multiple rejections before they find just the right home at just the right magazine. So if your story doesn't fit our publication, please don't think about it too long before you send it to the next magazine on your list. We believe there's a lid for every pot!
Nina Bayer, Editor
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I keep waiting for the angry email from a writer telling me off because I sent a rejection -it's the hardest part of my job as an editor AND as a writer - I've been on both sides! But, you are exactly right - sometimes a story just doesn't work, or sometimes it needs more work, or sometimes a writer will send something that just does not fit our zine at all!
One of the things a writer MUST learn to do is to handle rejection--yes, it stings, and yes it is hard, but, as you said, if one magazine doesn't like it, maybe another will - or maybe a rejection will mean the writer ends up doing a bit of a re-write and makes the story stronger (something I just did on a story that was rejected twice...I then saw my mistakes! - will it now be published, maybe, but the story is stronger!
If I had given up after being rejected by LHS, I would never have had my Swan's Place published there...sometimes one story doesn't work, but the next one does!
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