“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming;”
Theodore Roosevelt

Rejection: We’ve all been at the receiving end of it and felt its sting. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there was a way to inoculate ourselves against it? Author Kim Liao
believes there is, and in her online Literary Hub article entitled “Why You Should Aim for 100 Rejections a Year,” she lays out her strategy. When KWD reader Martha Moffett sent Kim’s story to me, I knew it was worth sharing.

Kim’s approach is simple and straightforward: In her view, generating acceptance from literary journals and other publications is basically a numbers game: the more you submit, the more likely you are to get published. Period.

In short, the more often you get up to bat, the more likely you are to have a hit. While this sounds logical, in the face of rejection, we tend to react differently, don’t we? Instead of stoking up our submissions, we shrink from the whole process and lick our wounds. We
try to limit our losses and disappointment by submitting less frequently instead of more  often — a plan of inaction which virtually guarantees that we’ll never achieve our publication goals.

Kim’s strategy appeals to me  for three reasons: First, it offers a clear target to aim for: garnering 100 rejections. No muss, no fuss. No angsty indecision about whether to keep submitting when rejections crop up in our email. Just add it to your file or pile and keep moving forward.

Second, it goes a long way toward depersonalizing the whole rejection process and taking the sting out of those unwelcome zingers. Each “no” becomes just another notch on our belt, another step that brings us closer to our goal.

Third, it puts us in the driver’s seat. We’re in control: We have a system, a strategy we can execute that takes precedence over any individual rejection we receive.

If all this sounds like a useful approach for you, check out the full article: http://lithub.com/why-you-should-aim-for-100-rejections-a-year/
Thanks Martha for sharing this story — and write on!