This morning two fat envelopes appeared on my doormat, and recognising the labels, I knew without opening them that they were rejections.
The sad thing was that they were both from Woman's Weekly.
It doesn't matter how hard I study the magazines and scrutinise the guidelines, I've never managed to get it right for this magazine, even when I think I've written the perfect story from them. What's even more frustrating is receiving a standard rejection telling me to read their guidelines. Sometimes I wish I had a bit of mystic ability and could interpret a crystal ball.
Never mind, you have to take it on the chin and my stories will be reassessed and sent somewhere else. You never know, one man's meat is another man's poison or so they say.
So now its back to the drawing board to create the perfect story for Woman's Weekly, because now its personal and I'm determined to crack this market one day, even if that day is a long way in the future.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Things They Never Said - First Week in the Big Bad World
Well, my debut novel Things They Never Said has been out in the real world for nearly a week now and I'm pleased to say that it seems ...
-
Well, now I need to say goodbye to Mrs Pessimistic because I got a phonecall today to say I got the job! I'm so chuffed. It'...
-
The days may be dark and short but my cat Luke seems to have found a solution, and spends his days sunbathing. This is him ensuring t... -
And I should be sleeping like a cat .......... What? Sofas were invented for humans? Don't be ridiculous! After my last ...
I remember when I first had a story in there - having sent them about 103 - Clare said, you've been trying for a while, haven't you. Now I keep a saying over my desk which says, 'whatever the struggle continue the climb, it may be only one step to the summit'. Good luck x
ReplyDeleteHi Della, thank you so much for your words of wisdom. I will fight on, who knows, maybe the next one will be a winner. I might even print off those words and put them above my desk too!
ReplyDeleteWise words from Della! Keep trying :-) xx
ReplyDeleteI share the same experiences and I feel your anguish as I read your post. It is a bit of a kick in the teeth when we could probably recite the guidelines word for word and understand them to a Tee. A dear friend of mine tried with WW for 25 years and never got anything published there and yet is a very successful short story writer and has had 100s published in other womags. It is a tricky one to master. I attended a course run by WW in London. It was a fantastic day out and I stupidly thought that if the editor could put a face to the name, I might have more success. It hasn't happened yet and I don't know what I'm doing wrong. It can be soul destroying if we let it. But we won't, will we? :) Continue to enjoy your writing journey. It will happen! All the best.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteKeep trying, Linda. Although I write for Woman's Weekly, I have always found them the hardest ones to fathom. I do know they like surprise endings though.
ReplyDeleteHi Nicola, I completely agree with you. Will keep on keeping on and you must do the same too.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the encouragement Wendy, and for the advice, yes I know from my fellow writing friends and "Ending is too predictable" is an oft quoted phrase from WW.
And more literary writers look down on the woman market - they have no idea how hard it is.