I mentioned recently a story that received an honorable mention from Writers of the Future. The next venue that I sent it to rejected it, but they had nice things to say about it. One of the best rejections I’ve ever gotten. To those of us who practice rejectomancy, that counts as sort of a half-win.

“This story is sort of generating a lot of attention,” says I, “maybe this is the one!”

However, in searching for my next venue, I noticed something funny.

Usually, Writers of the Future is the first place every new story goes. So I assumed that I had sent this story out twice, with decent results. However, when I looked it up, I discovered that I had actually received 5 (form) rejections on that story before sending it to Writers of the Future. So it just so happens that I had 2 interesting rejections in a row, but the majority of the rejections were typical form rejections.

Some pro markets passed on it without a second glance. Others were very nearly interested. It just goes to show you, it’s all about catching the right editor on the right day.

Either way, if I’m even getting in the ballpark, I’d say that’s a sign of improvement!

I just wanted to follow up and clarify a little bit why an Honorable Mention would be seen as encouraging. After all, above Honorable Mention is Semi-finalist, Finalist, and Winner (not to mention Mega-Winner, the grand-prize winner chosen from the 4 quarter winners). So Honorable Mention is pretty far from winning, right?

Well, I could go into the statistics and number of entrants, etc. but that is not what makes me feel good. What makes me feel good is a sense of progress.

Normally, you can’t really see any progress being made. For one any particular story, you never know who’s going to like it and who’s not. So you send it out all over the place, but a rejection doesn’t necessarily mean it is bad story. For example, a story of mine that didn’t get anything in Writers of the Future made it all the way to the editor at one of the big 3 magazines. So it’s pretty much hit and miss, or luck*. And, since the story isn’t changing as you send it out to each different place (at least mine aren’t), then getting an acceptance on the story doesn’t prove anything other than you hit the right editor on the right day, since that particular story isn’t improving every time you send it out.

So for the most part, you are either accepted or rejected, yes or no, and no real way to tell how close you were to a yes. And even if you get a yes, that in-and-of-itself doesn’t really tell you much.

Well, that’s not exactly true. With a little rejectomancy, you can get a little sense of progress here and there if you submit consistently to the same market. Maybe your stories start out as form rejections by the slush readers. Then you start to get some personalized notes scribbled on there. Maybe you get a higher-form rejection, where your story was passed on by the slush readers. Maybe you start to get personal rejections from editors. Finally you make a sale. Of course, you don’t have to progress through these steps to make a sale, and not all markets do it the same, but if you do find yourself going through them, you do get some kind of feedback that your writing is improving. (I suppose you could also look at acceptances over time, but that implies you actually get acceptances.)

However, with Writers of the Future, there is no doubt. It’s not just a yes or a no. There are levels. You can actually, quantitatively see how close you were to a yes. And now I am one step closer than I have ever been. I might have a long ways to go up the ladder, but today I have proof that I am at least on the first rung.

*Don’t get me wrong, you make your own luck by putting yourself into a position to get lucky…if you have 10 quality stories out there, chances are you’re going to get lucky more often than if you have 1 bad story.