On her website, sci-fi/fantasy author Jennifer Pelland offers some useful advice for forging a writing career. One of the key points is be persistent, and to back this up she gives these stats from her own career:
I'm currently up to 242 short story rejections. I got my first one in 2001.
I received around 70 short story rejections before making my first sale.
I've only sold one story to the first market I tried with it
I sold one story to the 19th market I tried.
One of my favorite stories is at its 26th market
She’s had 30 stories and two novels published. Her latest is a collection of short stories called Unwelcome Bodies, and she has been nominated for the Nebula Award by the Science Fiction and Fantasy writers of America.
The next time you get discouraged by a rejection, take another look at those statistics (I know I will).
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