The Rejection Dance

by Dawn Colclasure


I have a battle cry for every rejection I receive: “Next!”

No, I am not inviting more rejections my way. Rejections to my queries seem to find their way to me whether or not solicited. My battle cry means it is time to submit a new pitch.

Writers are told to submit new pitches to their rejecting editors. Editors are, after all, expecting this type of response. The difference between an amateur writer and a professional one is their ability to respond to a rejection with a new idea. While the beginning writer will mourn their rejection and pine away at what a failure they are, the professional writer doesn’t take the rejection personally and offers the editor something else they might like.

The only problem I had with this suggestion was the possibility of losing an editor’s patience before gaining his acceptance. Editors are flooded with queries every day and the last thing I wanted to do was be that one particular writer constantly bugging him with pitches. After all, if he hasn’t shown any interest after the fifth time, what are the chances he’d have any interest in my sixth or seventh pitch? If I haven’t given him anything to pique his curiosity with by my fourth pitch, it’s likely he’ll think I don’t have anything interesting to sell to him at all and may even ignore any future pitches.

I didn’t want to be one of those writers editors would associate with an exasperated groan. For this reason, I came up with the “rejection dance.” The rejection dance is simple: Send an initial query to an editor. If rejected, send a small, tantalizing pitch in the response to the rejection. If this second pitch is rejected, elicit a third and final pitch in response to that rejection. If this third attempt to and an assignment is also rejected, thank the editor for their time and move on. Don’t bother them anymore or ask them if they’re sure they couldn’t use a previously rejected pitch. An editor’s response is the final word. Accept this rejection and repeat the cycle with a different magazine. Later, after a certain number of weeks or months, repeat this cycle with the magazine, approaching the editor with a brand new set of ideas.


To get an idea of how to squeeze a page-long query into one paragraph, you could say something like, “I’m sorry my idea did not work for you. Would you instead be interested in reading my original, 1000-word article, “Secrets of a Secret Shopper”? It’s a feature story about Jane Smith, a single mother of two earning her living as a secret shopper. It will include interviews with store executives pertaining to their feelings on secret shoppers and also with Alice Johnson, president of the company who hired her.”

Always keep these quickie pitches brief. Remember, the editor is voluntarily reading your reply, with tons of other queries and responses just waiting to be read. Include the important pieces of information: The title (if you have one), length, if it’s an original, a brief yet interesting summary and who you plan to interview. Try to make your pitch as intriguing as possible and only offer what you think is your very best idea/article.

Before approaching a magazine, I study it to see which articles they are most interested in, who to contact and their guidelines. I make a list of three articles I feel they may be interested in buying then submit that initial, page-long query. This helps me have more ideas at the ready should my first query be rejected. The editor won’t be forced to wait (or likely forget about you) during the time it would take to come up with a new pitch.

The rejection dance has really helped me in coping with rejection and showing an editor that their initial rejection to my work won’t stop me from getting published. Writers have to be resilient. We must never give up, and if we want to have magazine titles such as Good Housekeeping or Fantasy & Science Fiction in our credits, we must never waver in our querying to these magazines. One major magazine I used the rejection dance with requested more information on a second pitch I made to them, while an E-zine I hoped to be published in ended up buying my third (and final) pitch to them.

It may be difficult to stop pitching ideas to a magazine after the first three have been rejected. The number of times a writer cares to query a magazine in order to get an assignment is really up to them. But bear in mind that just because you stop querying them, it doesn’t mean you can never query them again. Take a break from your pitches, take some time to regroup then approach them with a brand new set of articles they simply won’t be able to turn down.

Most editors expect writers being rejected to respond with a brand new idea. This helps save them time in reading through an entire one-page query. And having something else to offer the magazine in the event of rejection helps the writer cope with their initial one. Somewhere out there is an editor just waiting to buy a recently rejected article, as well as an editor ready to buy that second or third pitch.

And to all of those editors out there with rejection slips in hand, I can only ask: “Care to dance?”


About the Author

Dawn Colclasure is a writer who writes for both print and online publications. She is also the author of a poetry chapbook, Take My Hand, available from Amazon.com .She writes for the Internet under the pen name Dana Mitchells and has been published on sites such as Write From Home, Absolute Write, and The Writer Within. She lives and writes in California with her husband and daughter.

© Copyright 2003 Dawn Colclasure.

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