Five Reasons Your Story was Rejected

Many writers already know the drill.  You followed the publisher guidelines.  You waited patiently.  Then one day you get a form letter or a form e-mail that reads "Thank you for your submission.  At this time, it does not fit our needs.  Good luck with your future endeavors."  Now assuming you aren't a complete hack and actually have some talent, why is it you sent out twenty submissions and queries and got twenty rejection letters back?

Over sixty percent of the rejection letters I send out have nothing to do with the writer's talent.  A lot of those come from people that just don't follow submission guidelines, and I've written about that before.  For now, however, we are going to assume that A.  You are following guidelines and B. your writing is actually good.

Now from talking to other folks who operate small presses and webzines, that percentage is pretty close to average in the industry.  So if you aren't being rejected because of your writing ability, and you aren't being rejected for not following directions, what is it that caused an editor to send you a rejection letter instead of a contract offer?

1  You didn't familiarize yourself with the publication first.  Most submission guidelines provide you with a broad idea of what the publisher wants.  Familiarizing yourself with the publisher's products and publications gives you a better idea of what they don't want.  Fangoria and Dark Wisdom are both "horror" magazines, but they each view the horror genre through different lenses.  While you can't be expected to buy a copy of every conceivable publication you plan to submit to, you can take the time to visit the publisher's website and get a feel for what they really do.  Your splatterpunk blood fest may be expertly written, but if you submit it to twenty publishers that have no interest in splatterpunk bloodletting, you are going to get twenty rejections. 

Avoid getting rejected by taking the extra time to make sure your story is a good fit for the publication.  While this method might mean only submitting to five publishers a month instead of twenty, it increases your chance per publisher of actually getting something accepted.  Editors are people to, and we feel good dealing with people who have taken the time to learn about our publications first before asking for money.

2.  What you did has already been done...and done...and done again.  You masterpiece novel about a young, spunky female detective who falls in love with a handsome, mysterious man who turns out to be a vampire may be well written, but if seventy books with the same theme have been published in the past year you may be fighting an uphill battle.  While writers may insist that publishers are only interested in the same old, same old, the reality is publishers are interested new spins on popular themes.  Yes, vampires are a popular sub-genre.  Yes, vampire erotica is in vogue.  But when the publisher has already ready fifteen similar stories in the past few months they all begin to run together.  And this means rejection letters all around.

Avoid getting rejected by being familiar with what has already been done and putting an original twist on your story.  Take chances with new ideas and experimenting with common themes.  Assuming your writing is good, putting an original twist on a genre staple will increase your chances of publication.

3  Your asking for a wedding ring before you've even been on the first date:  I once received a submission that ended with the line.  "Don't screw me."  My initial instinct was to hit the "delete" button.  I get people who send queries claiming they won't submit anything for consideration before they know whether or not my rates are flexible.  I get people who want to preview the contract before they will send a query for a possible project.  I get unsolicited queries from people who claim they "normally earn X but are willing to accept Y" when I haven't even seen a writing sample to know if I can be bothered to negotiate with them.  If your initial query or submission included a lot of qualifiers or inferences, chances are the publisher decided to move on to a less demanding diva.

Avoid getting rejected by taking baby steps in the negotiation process.  Don't announce a series of prerequisites before you will even share a query with a publisher.  Once an offer is on the table, you are in a better position to make requests for changes to the agreement because the publisher has already placed value on your work.

4  You have a bad reputation in the industry:  Particularly in small niche markets, if you think publishers DON'T talk to each other, you are sadly mistaken.  Just like freelancer forums call out publishers that don't pay their people or offer warnings for scams, publishers in many industries compare notes about writers and artists.  Were you late delivering art for your last job?  Did you give your last editor a hard time over edits?  Did you delay turning in a project and then try to negotiate more money to complete the assignment?  Do you think people don't know? 

Avoid getting rejected by making sure you have followed through on previous assignments.  Provide good communication to current editors and make sure you understand what they want.  Follow your obligations under your contracts, just like you expect a publisher to.  The old saying about burning bridges applies.

5.  The publisher just doesn't want to deal with you.  WHAT!? What does that mean?  That's discrimination!  Yeah, yeah, yeah...and your hysterics are the reason he or she wants nothing to do with you.  Welcome to the age of the internet, where a potential publisher can enter your name in a Google search engine and read your blog about how much your previous editor sucked and see your pictures of that embarrassing night at the casinos where you had too much to drink or find that forum thread where you threatened to kick someone's ass because they criticized your poem.  The bigger the sale, the more likely the publisher is going to want to know who he or she is dealing with, particularly if they feel your public behavior could harm sales.  Moreover, if you come across as a twit or a sociopath, publishers may decide they don't want to have to work with you because they don't know how you will respond to edits, requests for chances, or delays.

Avoid getting rejected by cleaning up your internet presence.  Make sure your personal website presents the image you want people to see.  Don't post things on the internet you would be embarrassed to have people see you do on a street corner or in a store...because it really is the same thing.  Be mindful of how you present yourself in industry-related forums in particular, since future editors may be the ones you are threatening or ridiculing.