On having a Story Rejected

I had a friend on the phone over the weekend. She’d written a great story, offered it to a market, and had it rejected with a few rather unkind remarks. She was considering writing them an email pointing out how wrong they were. I emitted alarmed cries of protest. As I said to her, two old sayings apply here. One is that ‘He who pays the piper calls the tune,” and an editor is entitled to pick what stories they want to accept no matter how silly you think that their rejection of your wonderful work may be. The other saying is my version of “don’t get mad, get even.” I say, “don’t get mad, sell the story to a better paying market – and smile.”

Does that work? Well, it does if you do. As in… last year a charity anthology was open for submission. I offered a story I considered a quality work. I wouldn’t have been paid, but I thought that the named charity was a very good cause I’d be happy to support. The work was tossed back at me in a way that certainly made me feel that the editors had not considered it as up to scratch. I shrugged and offered the work to a magazine that took it on the spot and paid me $100 plus. The work is an official entrant for the International Cat Writers Muse Medallion (judged towards the end of this year) and I already have a query from an editor who saw it and is interested in it for an an anthology. I’ve said I’ll decide on that once I know about the Muse.

So as I said “don’t get mad, sell the story to a better paying market – and smile.”  Well, I’m smiling. Widely. Go thou and do likewise.