I got, I think, three rejections this past week. I’m not sure. Maybe it was one the week before, and two this past week. I guess it doesn’t matter. Anyway, the good thing is that people are reading my work, even if they don’t like it or at least don’t want it. The thing is that it’s getting out there. I told a friend of mine today, “If you don’t submit, you a zero percent chance of getting published. Therefor, if you do submit, your odds of being published immediately increase, even if you’re up against three hundred other people.”

I was reading a great interview with novelist James Lee Burke today in Writer’s Digest. He said, “Never let a manuscript stay at home longer than 36 hours. It’s that simple. You keep it in the mail, and if you do not you are ensured to fail…because you’re not a player. The manuscript’s sitting in your desk drawer. It’s never going to be published. And that’s how you do it. And you’re always a player. In other words, you write it as well as you can, you let God be the judge of it, don’t worry about critics and rejection.”

I suppose I’m not super jazzed about getting rejections, but Burke received 111 rejections on ONE SINGLE MANUSCRIPT before it was published. It took nine years for “The Lost Get-Back Boogie” to find a publisher, but once it did it was nominated for a Pulitzer.

I don’t know if I have Pulitzer material in me, but I’m taking Lee’s points to heart all the same. My odds of getting published are far worse if I’m not putting my work out there, and I need the odds in my favor as much as possible. Even better, the more I write, the more I’ll improve, and those odds will rise even more. Not a bad deal if you think about it.

My stats at Duotrope’s Digest say that I now have written 14 pieces since June of this year, and that I’ve submitted 36 times (which leaves out one submission that Duotrope doesn’t have listed). This weekend I sent out two rejected stories to two new markets, plus I finished a story this evening, found a market, and sent that one out as well. Tomorrow begins work on another story. After all, I only have a week to write it. And who knows, maybe this next one will turn into something special, or maybe I’ll at least learn a bit more about perseverance and patience – both good qualities to foster when writing.