When do you retire a project?

sockycat

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Hi AW friends! I can't remember if I've asked about this in here before, but it's something I've been thinking about a lot lately.

I'm brand new to publishing and I've started to send our short stories and flash pieces to various magazines. As I expect more rejections to inevitably roll in I've started to wonder: when do you know to retire a story?

Do you have a method for this? Do you stop at 10, 15 rejections? Do you use a time frame rather than rejection amounts (ie, I've been submitting this for a year and still nothing, it's time to give up). Do you just keep submitting it until it finds a home?

This question is framed in the context, but I'd be curious about those of you who have experience in querying novels, too.

Thanks! :)
 

CJSimone

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Hi sockycat. If you still believe in it, then don't retire it until you've exhausted all possibilities. Maybe you need to rework it and try another angle, maybe you need to be persistent and try every possible place.

If you've had a revelation that it sucks or is otherwise better off unpublished (and it's a learning experience or a just-for-you sort of piece), then retire it. You might at some point even be glad some works never got published.

You have to decide how important it is to you to have this particular piece published. Lots of works that have been rejected initially are successful later. You could put it away for awhile, then revisit it and decide if it's worth reworking and/or resubmitting, or should be retired.

Best to you.

CJ
 

sockycat

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Hi sockycat. If you still believe in it, then don't retire it until you've exhausted all possibilities. Maybe you need to rework it and try another angle, maybe you need to be persistent and try every possible place.

If you've had a revelation that it sucks or is otherwise better off unpublished (and it's a learning experience or a just-for-you sort of piece), then retire it. You might at some point even be glad some works never got published.

You have to decide how important it is to you to have this particular piece published. Lots of works that have been rejected initially are successful later. You could put it away for awhile, then revisit it and decide if it's worth reworking and/or resubmitting, or should be retired.

Best to you.

CJ

I guess I was looking for more numbers-wise. I try to only submit stories I believe in, but since I'm new to submitting, I don't know if 5 rejections or 20 rejections are a sign that the story might need a break, if that makes sense?

I appreciate the feedback though! Luckily a lot of them have been personal rejections which people have been telling me is a good thing even though rejection still feels crummy, and today I got a personal rejection that included two pages of notes with some really great suggestions. So I might give that story some re-editing and then shop it out to a different magazine.

- - - Updated - - -

It depends how creative & prolific you are.
The more, the merrier.

Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean--can you elaborate?
 

Stephen Palmer

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If you're above average in terms of production, I think it's easier to leave a project - even a much loved project - and head off to the next one.
 

CJSimone

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I guess I was looking for more numbers-wise. I try to only submit stories I believe in, but since I'm new to submitting, I don't know if 5 rejections or 20 rejections are a sign that the story might need a break, if that makes sense?

I appreciate the feedback though! Luckily a lot of them have been personal rejections which people have been telling me is a good thing even though rejection still feels crummy, and today I got a personal rejection that included two pages of notes with some really great suggestions. So I might give that story some re-editing and then shop it out to a different magazine.

I haven't written or submitted any short stories, so can't speak on the numbers there. Five or twenty would be nothing for a novel, but I'm guessing it's different for short stories. Yeah, the personal rejections are a good sign and reason to continue with it. Two pages of notes a really good sign. :)
 

polishmuse

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Luckily a lot of them have been personal rejections which people have been telling me is a good thing even though rejection still feels crummy, and today I got a personal rejection that included two pages of notes with some really great suggestions. So I might give that story some re-editing and then shop it out to a different magazine.

Hi! Consider the notes and resubmit. Stories are a hard market, and very editor dependent. Keep submitting to places you like to read until it finds a home.
 

Fruitbat

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Retire a project? Haha, I have novel manuscript that one a big name author prize at a university 22 years ago that I'm ready to give another to this summer. So, I guess I wouldn't know! Good luck, though.
 

lis_kb

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If you're talking short stories, my personal experience is that it takes anywhere from 15 to 25 rejections before a story gets picked up if it's going to get picked up. Because of the glacial pace of publishing, especially at lit journals, getting to 25 rejections takes a really long time. For me, there's no number I hit before I decide to retire a piece, and I rarely ever truly "retire" something. If it's only getting form rejections and the number is up there, I re-read and see if I can fix. If I'm getting "not at this time but please submit again" notes then I usually just keep plucking away. It's all a gut feeling I think. Best of luck!
 

blacbird

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Retire a project? Haha, I have novel manuscript that one]/b] a big name author prize at a university 22 years ago that I'm ready to give another to this summer. So, I guess I wouldn't know! Good luck, though.


The bolded is an example of why you should never turn off the grammar checker in your word-processor.

But, to respond to the thread question, I retired all of mine about a year-and-a-half ago. Having never got a "not at this time but please submit again" response, continuing submission seemed to be an exercise in total futility.

caw
 

ThomasH

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I'm just curious, but along these same lines, what would your thoughts be on a project that isn't getting any feedback at all (no notes or personalized feedback from agents)?
I know those aren't commonplace, but if you've queried say 20 agents and gotten nothing of that sort - is that a sign of problems within that project?
 

lizmonster

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I'm just curious, but along these same lines, what would your thoughts be on a project that isn't getting any feedback at all (no notes or personalized feedback from agents)?
I know those aren't commonplace, but if you've queried say 20 agents and gotten nothing of that sort - is that a sign of problems within that project?

First of all, I think those are indeed commonplace (and 20 is a pretty low number, query-wise).

Secondly, I'd look at the query letter first before worrying about the project. There may indeed be an issue with pages, but if your query isn't good, you're not even getting to the point of being read.
 

Pisco Sour

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Well, I gave up on my (former) agent ever getting us a deal on my last novel after it had been shopped to roughly 81 editors. We'd reached the end of the line and I didn't want to self-pub, or epub this one for reasons, so it's languishing somewhere. Actually, now that I think of it, I don't even have this book anymore. My laptop died last September and took most of my documents with it (my backup was corrupted) so it really is 'dead'.
 

tharris

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You might at some point even be glad some works never got published.

THIS.

The first story I ever tried to get published I gave up on paid markets and began trying really obscure free markets until I found a home for it. It was exciting at the time to finally get an acceptance, but the piece really wasn't good enough for release and now its out there forever with my name on it.

My advice is to decide what the absolute last resort market you'd be happy with is and once you reach that market and receive a rejection, shelve it.
 

Kalsik

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Only retire a project when you stop believing in it yourself, never when others don't believe in it. Your writing is yours, not theirs.
Like Old Yeller, its on you to put it down if it is for the best, no one else.
 

RaggyCat

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There's also something to be said for resting a project for a month or a couple. I'm sure I'm not the only person who has returned to be a piece of writing after time away, re-read it and immediately spotted ways in which it can be improved. I actually think resting time is really valuable, whether it is before submission or between subs. So, resting is an option before retiring.
 

CindyRae

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I don't there's any rigid rule on this. Some authors decided to put a project on the back burner for awhile, and pull it out later; some keep submitting and submitting and submitting. Others re-work the piece really heavily immediately, some later, before resubmitting. Some throw a project away and say they're done; others shelve a project in the archives and never look back.

The podcast Writing Excuses had an interview with famous and successful author that touched on her vast number of rejections and how she almost quit writing... I couldn't find the episode, but you probably google famous authors and the number of rejections they received before publication.