Week 2: The Rejection Letter Olympics

Give yourself a pat on the back if you received a rejection or “no thank you” from an editor or potential client this week—it means that you were getting your name and ideas out there. And it also means that you weren’t letting the fear of rejection affect your marketing efforts.

Receiving rejection e-mails and no responses is just part of the marketing process. And it really is a numbers game. The more calls you make, and the more queries and LOIs you send out, the more you’re going to hear “no.” But you’ll eventually start hearing “yes” too. And if you don’t? Take a closer look at your marketing efforts and try a different approach. Don’t be afraid to experiment! Have fun with it! Speaking for myself, the thrill of the hunt is sometimes just as exciting as getting a “yes” and writing the story.

As novelist Peter Benchley said, “You have to keep writing, keep submitting, and keep praying to the god of whimsy that some editor will respond favorably.”

So how did you do this past week with the challenge?

I’ll be the first to confess that with the short workweek and the holiday sandwiched in there, I did not get as many LOIs and queries out as I would have liked—but at least I did send some out. And while I have not heard back from the editors and potential clients that I contacted, I was not surprised. I imagine that many editors were scrambling to get their work done before leaving for the holiday. And I’m guessing that many were not focused on scouting for new story ideas, but were only trying to plow through their existing work piles.

But next week marks the beginning of December. And I imagine that many editors and clients will begin thinking about the new year now that we’re quickly heading toward the end of the year. Hopefully, that will mean more assignments and projects headed your way.

So are you up for another challenge this week?

Here’s the theme for this week:

Relationships Matter

Established freelancers will tell you that it is easier to get more work from an existing client than it is a new one. It’s also a great idea to start checking in with all of your existing and previous clients to find out if they will be looking for help or story ideas in the new year. It really does pay to nurture your existing relationships.

So this week, focus on checking in with your current and existing clients. If you want to broaden your horizons, ask the client or editor that you’re working with if you can do a different kind of assignment or story than they’re used to receiving from you. I did this recently and got an immediate “yes.” The client already knows my work, and even though I’ll be writing about a slightly different topic than I normally write about, I’m a known quantity—so they were willing to take a gamble on me.

If you completed the challenge this week or if you just want to check in or join up for next week, please drop me a line below and include the number of points you racked up (2 points for a rejection letter, 3 points for an assignment). Remember that a lack of response from an editor only counts as a rejection after you have followed up with an e-mail and/or phone call (generally after two to three weeks) and get a “no.” If you missed the first week and want to join in now, you can do that too. You can read “Week 1: The Rejection Letter Olympics” for all the rules.

So drop me a line and tell me how you did last week in the comment section below. I hope all of you had a successful week and a great holiday!

Photo source: alien_nation (Flickr)