The Letter I didn't Want

Rejection is an unfortunate part of a writer's life. According to popular belief, we are a sensitive species, notorious for our insecurity. I can't speak for other writers, but for me it's true. Each time I get an answer for a query or submission, I have to work up the courage to open it, fearing another blow to my already fragile self esteem. Being chosen for publication is little more than sparking an editor's interest, whatever it happens to be that day. It's more luck than anything else, submitting your work to someone's whim more often than careful consideration. Even for magazines, monthly submissions can number in the thousands. Most submissions are admittedly pretty poorly written and planned and the reading team often spends hours poring through stacks of bad writing without finding anything worthwhile. Even if they do stumble upon something that is well written and compelling, the deciding factor is typically whether or not the reader thinks the piece is sell-able. Sometimes good work is passed over simply because it was not what the reader was looking for at that moment. This usually leaves the writer with a baffling rejection, with no real idea of what went wrong. Still, we can't give up, even in the face of this sometimes senseless discouragement. We just have to keep trying until we find the right person at the right time, someone who is willing to take a risk because something we wrote resonated with them.