Rejection slips crowded my inbox this December. You know, the ones that read something like:
Dear Submitter,
Thank you for the opportunity to read your work. Unfortunately, it does not meet the needs of our magazine at this time.
And you’re ugly.
Regards,
The Lit Mag of Your Dreams
Probably editorial teams were anxious to clear away their work before the holidays and logically I understand that. It’s just that getting two or three rejections a day was slightly dampening my Christmas spirit. Still, if you’re not getting rejected, you’re not working. Isn’t that how the saying goes? I read about a poet who actually made a goal to get 100 rejections in 2012. That way, she could feel like she was winning even when she was losing. But she failed: only 95 rejections in 2012. Which is actually a win, I guess.
Anyway, here’s to the coming wins of 2013!
the hurl and gliding 
I did the same thing; I was, like many writers, so concerned about rejections that I wasn’t sending stuff out. So instead, around August 2011, I challenged myself to get rejected by ten magazines/lose ten competitions by the end of the year. Instead, I got 4 stories published in online magazines, and one story was highly commended in a short story competition.
It really works, and if you do end up meeting you target number of rejections, you’ve won because that’s what you were aiming for. It’s a weird system, but very effective. In fact, I think I’ll set myself another rejection target for the first quarter of this year.
Here’s hoping your rejections become acceptances this year 🙂
Why, thank you! Let the rejections abound (but only because statistically it means bumps the chances of acceptance)!