Rejection: Why Publishers Say No, Part 1

Most fiction-writing “jobs” aren’t the same as online non-fiction jobs. Instead of being hired to write a specific piece, you’ll take the initiative to write what you like, and then you’ll submit it to publishers for consideration. It’s not the best way to provide for your family, to be honest, since you don’t control when or if you’ll receive money for your work. Some fiction writers are very successful, though, so don’t let that get you down!

Image: sxc.hu

If you’re rejected again and again, you can start to get discouraged. You don’t want your work to go to waste. You love your writing. People you know love your writing. So why are publishers rejecting you again and again?

• Your fiction doesn’t match the publisher’s needs.

By far, the best advice I can give you about avoiding rejection is to submit your fiction to the right publishers. That applies to non-fiction as well. Every publisher is looking for very specific types of writing. This goes beyond ensuring that you’re submitting the right genre. Of course, if you submit a romance story to a horror magazine, you’ll be rejected!

Dig a little deeper, though. Maybe that horror magazine is specifically looking for realistic crime stories. Maybe they never publish stories that are longer than 5,000 words. Maybe they only accept submission during half of the year.

The point is that you have to thoroughly read the publisher’s guidelines before you even consider submitting. If it is small publisher, like a magazine, pick up a few copies to get a feel for the type of fiction they accept.

• Your writing doesn’t shine.

It doesn’t matter how great of an idea you have – if your writing is dull or full of errors, most publishers will pass on it. Polish, polish, polish – your writing has to be nearly perfect for most publishers to take a chance on it. After all, many publishers receive hundreds of even thousands of submissions every single year. Yours has to stand out above the crowd, not just in terms of topic, but in terms of mechanics.

Remember, publishers shouldn’t have to edit your work much for it to fit for them. Before you send out your fiction, have someone edit it for you, pointing out places where the writing feels clunky and fixing grammatical errors.

• Similar stories/novels have recently been published.
  

Before you send out your work, do some market research. For example, YA Sci-Fi/Sci-Fantasy books are hot right now, due to the popularity of Twilight and Harry Potter. However, if you submit your YA vampire novel to a publisher who just released a YA vampire novel, they may reject you. It is too hard to promote books that will essentially be competing with one another.

With smaller publishers, they don’t want to bore their readers. You could get rejected because the magazine recently published a story with a similar topic a few issues ago – another reason you should pick up a few back copies. Remember, though, that you could be rejected because they have a similar story coming up soon. You can’t know what they’ve already accepted for publication if it hasn’t been published yet!

• You are too close to your writing.

You may love talking about your childhood, but be honest with yourself – is it really that interesting? We all want to believe that we live interesting lives, but if you remove yourself a little, you may find that the story you’re writing is just a little boring. You can’t always rely on your family member or friends to tell you if a story has merit either. They may enjoy your writing just because it has roots in your own life story, which is interesting because they know you. Try to look at the story objectively, even though that can be very hard to do.

These aren’t the only reasons you could be rejected. Check back later for part two!