Updated!
An earlier version of this article was published on 27 October 2011.
No thanks! By Terry Freedman
Conventional wisdom has it that you should keep your rejection slips to remind you of how far you've come as a writer once you’ve established yourself. I’ve even read of people who proudly plaster their walls with the things.
Well, I came across a load of rejection slips whilst clearing our loft recently, and quite frankly I couldn’t wait to get rid of them. Call me an old hippy or something, but I really don’t see the point of keeping hold of anything that reminds you of your failures. Who needs that sort of negative energy dragging them down?
My advice: use the rejection slips as a means of improving your pitch, if the editor has been kind enough to give you good advice, but dump them as soon as you can take them to the nearest recycling centre.
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Best-sellers initially rejected: if you’ve acquired loads of rejections slips, don’t worry, you’re in good company.
Rejection slips from dead magazines: Scott Edelman finds some solace in the fact that some magazines that rejected his pitches have since ceased to be.
Rejection Sucks… But No-One Got Published Without It. As Beth Miller says in this great article: “The only sure-fire way to avoid rejection is to not send out your work. But this does have certain key disadvantages if you seek publication.”