Rejection
April 20, 1998
6:16 a.m.
 I spent much of the day yesterday cleaning up my files, purging old drafts of ancient stories and putting things in order in a vain attempt to make space for other stuff. Well, I guess it wasn't totally a vain attempt. I tossed probably a drawer's worth of stuff. And in the process, I laid eyes on pretty much every rejection letter I've had the pleasure of receiving. There were old forms that told me nothing, but that I still used to read in detail to ascertain something about what the editor really thought. Personals. Not-so-personals. checklists that pretend to care. The "This story barks" rejection that will reside in my personal hall of fame some day. This is a humbling activity, let me tell you. But reality is more than first impressions. You see, I view rejection slips as the tangible evidence of my progress. They are my measure of productivity. No, I'm not proud of the number of them. Nor am I embarrassed of them, though, despite nearing the 400 mark lifetime. Everyone gets rejected. I spoke to Nancy Kress at a convention some time ago, and she had just gotten bounced by Gardner Dozois. And Mike Resnick is always telling me about a story of his that got rejected here or there. Every pro I speak with has their own drawers full of rejections. Of course, I figure their ratio of acceptances to rejections is a little higher than mine right now. [ g r i n ] The other way to view this is that this pile is what makes the acceptances that much better. It's hard to totally hate rejections when you think of them this way (okay . . . I just lied. It's still not hard to hate rejections) But I think the best way to view rejections (apologies to any editors who might possibly be reading this...[ yeah, right ]) is to look at them as a sign of the general lack of intelligence in the editorial field! Seriously! This argument (best made internally!) goes something like, "How could any editor worth their salt look at my story and turn it down? They must be total dolts!" Well, it's a theory, anyway. Oh, yeah ... received an e-mail rejection this morning. I suppose I should print it out and file it for posterity!  Daily Persistence is © Ron Collins |
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