How many rejections before you toss a story?

173,042.

I hate to set limits, but that is my breaking number.

C.bronco said:

173,042.

I hate to set limits, but that is my breaking number.

Click to expand...

Hahaha.

I haven't started submitting yet, but this is a question that's hard to answer. I guess ultimately it depends on how much you believe in your manuscript and its publishability (phew, what a word). I'm guessing that if I just got tons and tons of form rejections, I would start seriously examining my WIP and query letter, and having beta readers take a look, to try to see what I'm doing wrong and what I could do better. (I'm saying this assuming that you start out with a fairly clear idea of what is sellable and what doesn't seem to be.) Or just query more widely, if I'm really confident my manuscript is as close to flawless as it can be.

But I do think it's important to develop a sense for which books are really fun to write but probably won't be successful with traditional publishing, and which might be both.

endearing said:

Hahaha.

I haven't started submitting yet, but this is a question that's hard to answer. I guess ultimately it depends on how much you believe in your manuscript and its publishability (phew, what a word). I'm guessing that if I just got tons and tons of form rejections, I would start seriously examining my WIP and query letter, and having beta readers take a look, to try to see what I'm doing wrong and what I could do better. (I'm saying this assuming that you start out with a fairly clear idea of what is sellable and what doesn't seem to be.) Or just query more widely, if I'm really confident my manuscript is as close to flawless as it can be.

But I do think it's important to develop a sense for which books are really fun to write but probably won't be successful with traditional publishing, and which might be both.

Click to expand...

That's exactly what I did with my first manuscript. I got rejections and after the second one, which had a kind letter from a reputable editor at one of the best publishers for my genre, I took a step back to see what I was doing wrong. Her pointers made me see that although the story was okay, and I had what it takes to be a writer, I needed to hone my skills more, and have more than one other person look at it before I send it out.

Lesson learned, big time in my case. I now have a beta team consisting of four and they've caught a lot of stuff my alpha and I missed. Heck, now that I know what to look for, even I'm seeing a lot of the mistakes in it that the editor saw, and it's not good. Revamp of that manuscript is starting this summer!

To the OP, I wouldn't scrap it completely... Put it "in the trunk" for a while, then go back to it and see it with fresher eyes, so you can see anything that may not line up with what editors and publishers are looking for - passive scenes, repetitiveness, and other stuff that may be boring for a reader... And like endearing suggested, get at least one beta reader, if not two or three. You'll be surprised how much they will catch!

I haven't subbed enough to come up with some grand number yet.

However, I think after 5-10 rejections, I would seriously be looking at the story to figure out what was wrong with it. I'm not sure if I should do that though. I don't think I would ever give up on a story completely.

I've had stories rejected with sarcastic comments that went on (with little to no revision) to being accepted in paying mags.

It depends. Put the story aside for a few weeks. Revisit it. If you still like it, send it out again to other places as is. Otherwise, rewrite it or use portions of it for another, better story.

There isn't a set number of times when you know to put a story to sleep, so to speak. It's a gut feeling.

I haven't started querying yet, but I don't think I'd set myself a limit. If I got a lot of rejections I think I'd just look over my story again and then edit it extensively, get more critique on it, see what the hell's wrong with it, etc. But I don't think I'd ever just scrap it.

If there's any possible market to submit it to, I keep sending it out. I've made thousand dollar short story sales after two dozen rejections, some of those from tiny magazines that paid pennies.

I'm a firm believer in Heinlein's Rules For Writing, which are really rules for success, not for writing itself.


1. You must write.
2. You must finish what you write.
3. You must refrain from rewriting, except to editorial order.
4. You must put the work on the market.
5. You must keep the work on the market until it is sold.



Hugo and Nebula winner Robert J. Sawyer gives the best breakdown of these rules I've ever read. http://www.sfwriter.com/ow05.htm


I've made a lot of sales, and a bunch of money, by following these rules to the letter. I pull a story when it sells, and not before.

Infinity. If I believe in a story, it goes out the day it comes back, until it sells or the zombie apocalypse. Unless the zombie apocalypse doesn't interrupt the postal service and Internet, in which case, subbing as usual.

I have sent many a story and query I felt was tailor-made to the mag or agent's stated desires, form rejection resulting. Don't worry too much about these or any other rejections. Stay in the market to stay in the game.

Many very popular authors had hundreds of rejections before their MS was accepted. My advice is not to consider a re-write after a handful. Take a break from it, look at it with fresh eyes. Is it the story you want it to be? Get some beta readers. Send it out to every agent in the world. While you are doing that, write the next one. Start sending it out to every agent in the world. Repeat.

I don't have a "That's it, I'm chucking it!" number.

I do revisit stories I've written, and stories I'm submitting, though. Recently, I starting subbing one I'd sent around a few years ago (R's all), and I did a full new draft of it, different start point, thorough editing, etc. It's still the same story, technically. And I haven't given up on it yet!

All of them.