Question about rejections

There really is no way to judge it. So many variables come into play. Go look at Phael's thread in Good News--almost 300 queries before getting an agent for the book. But that was the right agent, and the book sold. Other people get an agent right away, and then can't sell the book.

A good story might be too much like something else they've recently done, or not enough like what they're looking for at this particular moment. You have no control over that.

The thing is, as you keep writing and learning, your work will get better. So at some point you may realize that even though you haven't sent that story to every place you possibly could, you still want to shelve it because you have something better to send out. Or you may realize ways you could revise this one to make it better. But the rejections from magazines won't give you that information. Even personal rejections won't help a lot, unless you get several that all say the same thing. We can all point to books that we can't believe ever got published--and yet, somebody thought they were good. It's subjective. So don't trash a story based on one person's reaction...

Unless when you get the feedback, you realize that they are right.

I agree with Ms. Judy here. Keep writing, keep learning and keep submitting. Another good thing to do is make sure the work you're sending out goes to places that accept that genre, or short story, or poem or whatever you're sending. There's word count limits on things too, like for flash fiction that's under 1000 words, or novelettes and novellas. There's all sorts of reasons your work will get rejected, not just on the writing, but wrong category, not the right word count..etc.

I think research is the key. Search for places that are a good fit. There's Duotrope, Ralan and a few other good places to search.

Persistence is about the best quality a writer can have.