Welcome to 5-minute writing tips – answers to questions that clients ask me that can help you be a better/happier/more efficient writer in 5 minutes, 500 words or less

Today’s question: “Ugh, I keep getting rejected from things! How can I deal with this many nos?”

 

Writers hear “no” a lot. 1000 people might apply for a grant with only 10 recipients. 100 scholars vie for one tenure track job. We go through 5 rounds of revisions to get an article rejected. It’s a tough world out there. How do we get used to “no?”

If you’re reading this, you are likely part of a profession that increasingly produces and thrives on scarcity. There aren’t enough tenure track jobs for all of us. There aren’t enough grants, or enough funders, and most journals publish less than a quarter of the articles they get (see political science data here).


First, identify what kind of no it is:

Separate the good nos from the bad nos from the egregious nos.

A co-author and I once got a 10-page, single spaced rejection from a journal about how diversity research should be systemically eliminated from the academy. This was an egregious, outrageous no. The more we read it, the more it fueled our anger. We chose to take a political stand defending our work’s right to exist, rather than to make the changes the reviewer was demanding. It was never published.

Then, there are good nos. One person I work with got a really gracious email from a search committee chair. They’d hired someone else, but they were so impressed with everything from the interview to the connections with students during the teaching demo. The no stung, but the it really helped that it wasn’t personal: there was only one job, and it went to someone else.

I am currently trying to find a publisher for my second book, and I received an email from an editor saying that she thought the book sounded fantastic, but she had too much on her plate but editors at two other presses might be interested. These are good nos. They sting, it sucks, but in a world of scarcity and false choices it’s a moment for genuine human connection. And, you know there’s nothing more you could have done. There was no way that person was going to get that job – nothing he could do differently.

Then there are the bad nos.

When you submit an article that you’re excited about and it gets blistering reviews. Search committees ghosting you. Getting a series of non-responses. Or worse, knowing you bombed a teaching demonstration or interview. All of these suck. But…we’re not the worst thing we’ve ever submitted, and we’re not the worst no we’ve ever gotten.

Now, what do you do with it?

Hearing no is the worst. Sit with it. Acknowledge that it sucks. Swear about it if you need to.  I recommend spicy chocolate and Schitt’s Creek (and wine) if you need to indulge your feelings.

Then…

Think about how to reframe it. I have a friend who keeps a “no” file and try to get to 100 nos a year – if she doesn’t get to that many, it means she isn’t aiming high enough or applying to enough things. She’s turned nos into rewards.

I know other people who keep a shadow CV of rejections: grants that weren’t funded, papers never published, course preps shelved.

I have friends who also think of nos as challenges: once an article is rejected, they make themselves turn it back around that week. They take the reviewer comments, make necessary tweaks, and send it out the door again to find it a new home.

The thing is, you need to figure out how to have self worth when you’re going to get a lot more nos than yeses. You can celebrate the nos, you can curse the nos, you can learn from them, you can have them inspire you.  

Also - it’s ok to let go of projects that aren’t sparking joy right now (yeah, you can Marie Kondo your writing life too!). Put it aside, work on things you are passionate about, and come back later.

Need help getting unstuck? Book a coaching session with me!