A Wall of Red

I have a little folder on my desktop, it is called "submissions" and it is full of lines and lines and lines of red. Why? Because that's what I mark all the little folders of stories inside this folder when I get rejected. There is not one green mark to be found. Sometimes it's depressing.

However. Rejection, I have been told, is nothing new to an author. It happens. It just is. You just have to pick yourself up and keep going.

I've found telling myself that I'll probably get rejected helps. It's morbid, some of you would probably even find it defeatist, but it lets me bounce back up and get back out there. The rejection rate is enormous anyway, something like 97% of all stories get rejected. If a rejection puts you down and out, how are you ever going to get published.

I'm off to buy some bootstraps and pull on them. One day, one day, one day--I'll freak out and think an acceptance was actually a joke, then I'll hyperventilate because I'm not used to having someone say "yes, we want it", then I'll hide under the bed with the cat, and then I'll get over it and probably be happy.