100+ Publisher Rejections Later… Goal Achieved!
Why writers should set rejection goals instead of acceptance goals when it comes to publication
I did it!
I achieved my goal of receiving 100 rejections from publishers in a single year — or a few months in this case.
I started my fiction writing journey back in late September 2023 and caught the writing bug immediately. Since then, I’ve written 20 short stories and submitted them to several literary magazines and journals. “Several” is likely understated here, because I didn’t send them to a couple dozen publishers.
Nope — by my count, I’ve sent my stuff to over 250 publishers.
In the process, I’ve been rejected over 100 times — 103 to be exact — in a span of 3 months. (I started late, so I had a lot of catching up to do.)
But why am I celebrating? Is this my attempt at sarcasm?
Not at all.
Look, I’m not going to sugarcoat it — the rejections do sting. However, the more I get used to it, the less power they have over me, and the more courage I muster to pick myself back up and try again.
While I was in the early stages of my fiction writing and publishing pursuits, I was lucky enough to stumble upon the following essay by Kim Liao on “Why You Should Aim for 100 Rejections a Year.”
When I first read this piece, I was in the very early innings of submitting my works of short fiction to publishers and had no clue what to expect. So, with each rejection, I felt my confidence in my writing abilities gradually starting to wane.
However, Liao’s argument for “flipping” our perspective on submissions — aiming for rejections rather than acceptances — completely changed the game for me, and it’s a mental model that I have adopted since then.
What are the benefits of setting a rejections goal?
- They shift my focus from perfection to learning. If I targeted acceptances, I’d likely be spending more of my time writing and editing and perfecting a few pieces, rather than writing a breadth of stories that aren’t perfect, but are good enough (in my view) to be submitted. Given the volume of work I churn out and the feedback I get, I learn more about myself, my writing, and the publishing world in the process.
- They give me permission to experiment. In the same vein as #1, since I am aiming for rejections, I feel less pressure to stick to a certain genre or style or form, and allow myself room to stretch myself and try more innovative approaches because I’ll never know how these experiments would be received in the real world until I actually get them out there. In the process, I’ve learned that I’m not a one-trick pony — that I am able to also achieve success with forms beyond traditional literary prose.
- They build persistence and resilience. The acceptance rates of literary journals and magazines are extremely low; therefore, I am more likely to receive a rejection than an acceptance. For people with fragile egos, these rejections could be crushing and could be the nail in the coffin for them to give up on writing altogether. But I see it differently. In my case, for each rejection, I believe I only get stronger — and more stubborn. And I firmly believe that these are important traits to have if a writer is serious about getting better and succeeding in a cutthroat industry.
- They keep me humble and grounded. I’d never want to feel that I’ve become the best writer I could be because that means there no longer is room from growth. And I always want to keep growing and learning. Rejections are a good reminder for me to stay true to my motivations — to focus on the craft, writing human stories that make people feel something, instead of obsessing over accolades.
- They help me weed out the shitty publishers from the ones that actually care about my work. Sending to over 250 publications has given me a ton of insight as to which publishers are thoughtful and gracious about rejections, even providing personalized feedback, and which ones have editors that are kind of an ass. For the former, even if they rejected me, I’m more encouraged to try them again in the future; but for the latter, no way am I going to waste any more of my time sending my pieces to them. Each story deserves a home that’s the right match, so I’d rather allocate my energy towards those that are rooting for me and my work.
One important caveat here is that I am not advocating for writing and submitting mediocre work, especially pieces with typos and grammatical errors, for the sake of reaching a rejections target. That would be dumb and wasteful — for you and the editorial team.
Write quality stories, stories that mean something to you, and acknowledge that they will never be perfect. So, when you feel that they’re ready, trust that instinct and send them out.
The moral of the story here is that, as writers, there are many benefits to reframing our publishing goals to target rejections instead of acceptances.
Most importantly, I’ve internalized that rejections do not equate to failure. And I hope every writer ingrains that belief into their psyche as well.
Okay, so we’ve talked a lot about rejections and their benefits. But they’re still kind of a downer. Is there going to be a happy ending to this story at all?
Why yes, there is!
In my process of acquiring 100+ rejections, I’ve managed to receive 14 acceptances as well. You can read some of my published work below, with a few more forthcoming:
Getting accepted by literary journals and magazines for 14 out of 20 stories in a span of 3 months is a big deal, and I wouldn’t have been able to achieve this had I been too scared to put myself and my words out there.
Hey, thanks for reading! If you liked this story or if it gave you something to think about, here are two additional stories of mine related to the topic that you may appreciate as well:
