We’ve all been back to work this week in our house, after
the wonderful relaxation of the holidays—all kinds of work, in various places.
My daughter’s at work now; my son has returned on the train from the city,
where he worked till the end of the week. I’ve done editing work, writing work,
and theatre work, plus household chores, and my husband did some painting and
coaching. There will be more hanging out and chatting, game playing and puzzle
doing, and plenty more eating, but for now I have been counting up my
rejections for the ongoing 100 Rejections project.
I failed. Again! To get 100 rejections. Evidently I failed even to send out 100
packets. I sent out 94. I got 51 rejections this year, which is
pretty darn good. Fifty-four percent
failure rate! I got 26 acceptances. I think that’s about 28% success rate. Plus 20 packets pending. It doesn’t all add
up, thanks to 1) math challenge and 2) weird situations.
Compared to the last full-year tally, from September 1, 2011
to September 1, 2012, I am down on packets out—got 120 out in that accounting—and
pretty similar in the Acceptance/Rejection ratio. I had 64 rejections, 34 acceptances, and 25
packets pending the last time I did this.
And I think that’s enough for me.
It takes a lot of work, patience, and relentless faith to
get one’s work out there in the world.
Sigh…. But it’s also fun, and
feels good when someone likes your work, benefits from it, and lets you know. Here’s a sweet bit of news. My chapbook Nocturnes turned up on this list: 2012: Best Chapbooks of the Year.
Many thanks to The Scrapper Poet, Karen J. Weyant.
I will keep writing and sending work out, but I may not do
any more counting and reporting here. Forgive me, my brain hurts. And my
fingers are glued together, from poetry collages as Christmas gifts, so it’s
hard to count.
12 comments:
Here's to a year with lots of rejections. And Acceptances.
I didn't even come close to 100 rejections. I will tally up my results and report on the first day of 2013.
Thanks, Daniel. You, too!
I will check your tally, Karen!
And thank you for doing the math and answering my earlier question!
I think the counting is less important than the submitting itself. And the writing, of course. Hope that you are not working too hard and enjoy ringing in the new year. I have another week off of school, so my quiet time will start Monday!
Wow--you must be sending out constantly--where do you get all the poems to send? I write about a poem every 2 months!
I was only trying for forty, dammit, and I failed miserably!
Next time I'm getting it. I'm even dreaming of getting rejected by Rejection Quarterly.
I'm not counting WDC stuff, of course, but I did get a pretty cool contest loss there--a judge scolding me for a non-existant dream scene! It doesn't get much better than that.
Kudos to you for submitting so much. And, as anyone who submits work much knows, your acceptance rate is fantastic!
Thanks for the encouragement, everyone! To answer Debra's question, I think I can write so much because I changed my life and because I do any assignment I give when I teach! I also try the poem a day in April. Then I have a bunch of stuff I can work on and let sit, sort of like Picasso working on multiple paintings at the same time. Whichever comes forth into the real place at the right time has a chance of becoming a poem!!
Thanks for that explanation.
Creative work week is happening for me right now, before school is back in session.
I'm very impressed with your submissions--nice work!
And a very happy new year, Kathleen!
Great work, Kathleen! Something to be very proud of, indeed. I'm inspired to send out more in 2013 (nowhere near your 94 packets this year... )
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