I started this blog to track my quest to earn 101 rejections for my writing.
Strange goal, you say?
Not really.
I read this book called “Go for No“. You can read it too, but the gist is this: if you set a target for rejection, you keep going much longer than if you set a target for acceptances, and in the process you create more opportunities for success.
Think about it: if I set a goal to have 10 stories published, and the first 15 times I sent out stories (ha!) I got accepted, I would have no incentive to keep pushing. However, if I set a goal of 101 rejections, and my first 15 attempts yielded 10 acceptances, I’d have to keep sending out stories, because I’ve still got 96 rejection to go. If I keep sending out stories, guess what? Some of them are going to get accepted. It is a fun way of looking at this whole submission business!
I have little control over what gets accepted, so there is no point in setting a goal such as: get ten stories published this year. I don’t know the editors of every publications. Personal taste and timing are as much to do with which stories get accepted as anything else. What I can control is how many stories I write and put out into the world.
So I’m setting a goal of getting 101 rejections, and along the way, I’m sure I’ll get some acceptances too.
(Update: Currently, I’ve got 16 submissions listed on this site. Three were accepted. I have 98 rejections still to go, before I meet my goal!)