Rejectomancy

So rejection is such an integral part of any writers life that we must all face it at some point. Most of us, repeatedly, and for a very long time. I already wrote one blog post about not letting it get to you here (and in trying to help you with that, listed some of the completely benign reasons it may have been rejected which have nothing to do with you being a bad writer or it being a bad piece!). But rejection is such a big part of writing there is much more to say. And today, as I sit and look at the rejection that just popped up in my email, I thought I would write about the phenomenon of rejectomancy.

Rejectomancy: the magical divining of hidden meaning within a rejection letter (or to be more precise these days, most often a rejection email). It’s kind of like trying to develop ESP or read tea leaves, and I guess for all of us into science fiction and fantasy that doesn’t sound so unreasonable of a premise. Except it is largely preposterous and mostly not worthwhile.

However, almost all writers do it. We send off a piece and when it comes back rejected we try to analyze why. Especially if we wrote it specifically directed to that agents MSWL, that editors plea in their last column of what they need, or the anthology that seemed custom made for our latest story idea. Maybe it is the best piece we have ever written.

So I’m not going to tell you not to do it. Not because I don’t think that’s good advice. It is – you shouldn’t. But I know that you will. I know you will, because as I sip my morning tea, knowing it is not worth my while to over analyze a form email, I am doing just that. I was certain this one was a good fit.

And so, instead, I will pass on the one ‘tool’ of rejectomancy that I have found useful: RejectionWiki

That webpage lists many literary and genre magazines and the form letters they send, and, if they have it, the different tiers of rejection letters. My one piece of advice is: if it’s only going to bother you more to find you got a lower tier rejection, don’t look it up on RejectionWiki. Just remember it was just one persons opinion.

If on the other hand you can accept that it’s one persons opinion but you want to know from a purely strategic point of view if your work resonates with this editor to know whether to submit to them again. Well, then my best advice is still don’t look it up (high tier, or low tier, rejection is still not fun). However, if you really can’t rest until you know, this is the one resource I know of that probably provides a more accurate way of assessing that letter. So I wanted to share it, so you can make your own choices on how, or whether, to use it.

And whatever RejectionWiiki tells you, go, pour yourself some tea (/coffee/beverage of choice), send that story out to another market, and use your mental energies on something more worthwhile, like thinking up your next story. Good luck!

Did you know about RejectionWiki and the tiered letters? Let me know if this was useful. And as always, if anyone has any great resources or tips on making rejectomancy productive, insightful, or just avoiding its siren call altogether, please share in the comments below!