Dealing with Rejection

It's my story quality, it's too epic fantasy, the characters haven't pushed against social norms, and it's not diverse enough yet.when you look at their line up you notice a common trend in the writing and art. Will fit in later? I'm not sure, the more I think on the more I don't think the story ever will. But like I said doesnt mean I can't find a home somewhere else where I do fit in

I've gotten my work rejected a couple of times!

It's disappointing, for sure, and I make sure to let myself be sad and disappointed for a while. I got rejected! Feeling disappointed is legitimate. So I let that happen for a while, but then I pick myself up, take another look at the work that got rejected, and decide what on earth I'm going to do with it.

I pitched a comic to the first Beyond-anthology and got turned down - I reworked it a bit, did it in full colour, and managed to sell it to a Swedish scifi-magazine instead. I made a sequel that was going to be published by the same magazine, but it unfortunately closed down before it could be published. Then I made another oneshot set in the same scifi-universe, which ended up being accepted by the Enough Space for Everyone Else3-anthology.

I pitched to the second Beyond-anthology, and got rejected again - I took the main character and the setting, and am turning it into this year's Christmas calendar-comic (if I can get it finished in time).

I'm working on a pitch for a graphic novel to submit for an artist's grant right now - if I get rejected there (and I probably will), I can put some more polish on it, and pitch it to other publishers. And if that doesn't work, I'll publish it online, and maybe it'll all work out in the end.

I've gotten rejected several times by big publishing companies in Sweden, but that's ok by me.
Sometimes they don't even reply at all, that's what I think is the most awful tho.

But make sure you've got supporting friends that you know you can talk to!
I try to be positive at all times, if I get a no: "Hey! At least I'm important enough to get back to!" Like, don't get down on yourself. Because you're not worthless and it's ok to feel miserable.
Sometimes that feels good.

If you're uncertain about your work, submit it to a reviewer, they're often able to give good and well written critique :D

If I know I could've made things better, I try to focus on doing that.
Right now I'm struggling with both story and pacing, but at least I know that's my problems xD

Yeah, this is important! Getting rejected doesn't mean you're hopeless - it just means this wasn't your chance.

Another thing that is super important is to not be bitter about the people who got accepted. Don't whine about them, don't complain, and most importantly of all, don't confront them just because they got in and you didn't. If they were accepted, it's because they deserved it. Don't attack them because you're bitter that you got rejected.

There's far too much of that going around, and it benefits no one, especially not yourself.

I was (and probably still am) scared to fail/get rejected! But one thing I'm always trying to think is "this isn't your only chance!".

I pitched a comic for a Swedish sci-fi magazine and got rejected. It got me down a bit first, but then I decided to polish the story a bit more and publish it as SPEJS1 instead

I also pitched a story for the second Beyond anthology, and got rejected. It was a bummer, sure, but I can probably polish the comic a bit more and do something fun with it =)

At the moment I'm making a short comic I'm going to send to an anthology, and while I'm a bit scared of getting rejected, I think it's good to at least try! And I'm always learning something when playing around with different comic ideas!

I think I've gotten less bummed (or maybe bummed for a shorter time - 5-10 years ago, I would've dwelled about getting rejected for MONTHS probably!) about being rejected with the years and experience; there's always something else I can do with the story in some way or other =)

If you get rejected its a testament to your willingness to strive!
Doing nothing is quitting before the race whistle is even blown, trying and failing is always miles better than never trying, at least in rejection you can learn and truly progress and improve. And sometimes its simply wrong place, wrong time.

I took a risk on a collab for a short pitch knowing that it might not make it into the anthology. I brought some issues up with the writer to increase our chances of getting in but, they were shuffled aside. Still, I liked the script enough to complete the comic and it was submitted - well what do you know, rejected by the publisher with vague reasoning. My feeling is that it was too mature for the target audience 13+ but I can only make so many excuses here. It is what it is.

So, what to do with an orphaned comic? Anthologies tend to be niche so I doubt I'll find a home for it. What I'm doing now is reworking it to fit standard US comic pages instead of it's original format 5x7" (bloody small). Makes for a decent portfolio piece that has landed me paying gigs so at least there's some consolation there. Would have been nice to get publishing credits but the entire comic making & collab experience was really valuable for me as a first timer.
C'est la and all that ohoho

With publishing, whether or not you get accepted or rejected is often not at all based on talent, but on marketing. Publishers often won't take a work, even if it's wonderful, unless you already have a large audience of people who are guaranteed to buy it. Otherwise, the publisher is taking a big risk on you. Great things don't always sell well.

As someone from the writing/publishing field, I can tell you that people are often impressed by a work, but see that you don't have a large following, and decide, "nah."

So much of it is also luck - your entry may end up going to either someone who likes it or doesn't, contingent only upon which intern it gets sent to, who happens to be in the office that day, etc.

This is why the internet is wonderful. In the past, getting an arbitrary rejection would have meant "oh well, now it's over. Basically no one will see my work, because no one will publish it." That's no longer true. We live in a time where we can share our stuff with a few clicks.

Publishing here is a wonderful thing, and as you gather fans here on Tapastic or elsewhere on the internet, your odds of getting accepted by other publishers only go up.

Absolutely I think you somehow need to find a way to draw motivation from this rejection. Prove them wrong, so to speak. Also, given this particular case, your story might just not have been what they were looking for at the moment. Lastly, understand that rejection is probably the biggest single psychological contributor to stress and anxiety, so don't beat yourself up thinking it's you. As much as it hurts, what you're feeling is normal.

I've had my work rejected one way or the other so many times I've lost count. I'm talking hundreds. The key for me is whenever I present something to someone, I immediately focus on something new, the next project, the next page, the next anything. You can't sit around waiting for other people to figure out how awesome you are, you have to show them, time and time and time again until they get it through their head.

Rejection is normal. It sucks at first but after a few dozens, you'll just learn to move on! One of the most successful cartoonist and richest had been rejected a 100 times by one publisher - DC Comics before he got his first gig. Todd MacFarlane is now the owner of a small media empire based on Spawn which was made into movies, has launch a successful toy company and founded creator-owned Image Comic.

He never got discouraged when he sent in his over 100 applications. He just kept on learning, drawing, and trying.

Rejection is part of the game and makes success only better and more worthwhile!

Now go draw some more comics!

What is painful isn't the rejection, but seeing what gets published. There's too much out there right now that's not useful, giving, insightful or interesting yet still gets published. It's like you need to know the secret handshake to get anywhere, or just pander to the publisher's agenda.

Hiveworks right? Yeah I got rejected too but that's okay. There were a lot of entries this year, 800+ in fact, and they only took in 21 ppl. So I wouldn't take it too personally, it doesn't mean my comic or your comic was bad or anything, just that they really had to squeeze it down to a very small number of people. Try again next time around! There are other publishers you can try! Like I'm thinking of submitting to spiderforest~^^

I don't know if anyone has said this yet, but I just remind myself that Harry Potter was rejected by 12 publishers before it was finally published.
Actually, most famous books you think of were rejected/very badly critiqued by publishers - Moby-Dick('does it have to be a whale' was a question one publisher asked), Catch-22, Ulysses...
I'm wondering, though - why do you say 'focusing on alternative plans to grow my comic'?
Are you really going to give up on the idea of publishing your comic because you got turned down by one publisher? Or did I misunderstand the meaning behind that sentence?

@AnnaLandin gives a lot of good advice here. In essence:

• Be flexible. Can your first issue or volume stand alone? Could it fit into an anthology or magazine? What's your best route for self-publishing? Have you pursued other publishers and avenues?

• Try your best not to compare your work with the work that publishers do accept. It'll drive you crazy. My comic I, Necromancer started out as a pitch for a comic book set in the Ravenloft (D&D) universe. It got turned down in favor of another comic. That comic wasn't risky or atmospheric or any of the things that make make Ravenloft scary and unique -- it was safe. Super safe. It really bummed me out. So I started researching other publishers and tweaked the concept a little.

• Always look for opportunities. I've submitted Necromancer to 27 publishers so far, mostly focused on print. I've now received a total of four nos and a yes (with an offer that didn't satisfy me enough to accept). I suspect that a good number of publishers might not respond at all. Maybe that ratio ends up becoming 26 nos and 1 unacceptable yes? Time to go to conventions and try to meet publishers that way. Conventions make it a little easier to get meaningful feedback from people, or connect with people in the industry who will be willing to give meaningful feedback.

• Know when to shift gears. Plan for success, but plan for failure too. I've outlined Necromancer for a 13 issue series. I've also written the first issue to be able to stand on its own (with just a few simple text changes) if needbe, so that I can submit it to horror and fantasy anthologies if I can't find another avenue for it. One thing is true: you're never going to run out of good ideas.

• Try to build up more of a social media presence. I have a great presence on FB, because I interact with a lot of people face-to-face. My Twitter presence is kind of sad, and I suspect that that probably works against me. If publishers mostly play it safe, your ability to have strong social media reach is going to be comforting to them. Indie publishers need you to be able to contribute to the overall expansion of their brand. They're buying more than your art and your story, they're buying your ambassadorship. To me, this is the single biggest challenge.

My thoughts. <3 goes out to the folks who got their letters. 852 submissions is a crazy number. Don't let "what ifs" gnaw at you (I'll try too!) ... instead, start working on your back up plan, and your back up plan for that back up plan, and etc/etc. Be bouncey. Be the Rocky Balboa of webcomics. Good luck to us all.

i punch the wall so hard till my hands bleed * just kiddin*

it sure does feel bad to be rejected, and i have had a lot these awful moments specially prior to this year

i remember back in 2012, i created a free comic zine in my home town where i put my b&w comics, photocopied them and gave them to friends, family and others
then, weeks later, i was at the gym and accidentally found a torn-off copy in the trash can their
that was a big "NO" made by the Universe.. LOL * can't believe my eyes still get wet for remembering that*

the following years also had these awful moments of various publishers not answering my submissions, then i stopped caring about traditional publishing when a french publisher finally answered my mail with "we're not interested in your art!".. a lot of other minor NOs took place in between but those 2 occasions were the worst

well, 'nough with the cheap drama.. but, to be honest?.. i have no idea what keeps me going, i swear.. guess 'am just stubborn and won't stop to be so till things work out the way i want

also: i improve my work all the time.. and i mean ALL the time!

I know this thread is about the aftermath of rejection, but I thought it interesting to also discuss the pitch.

Some recent words by Matt Hawkins (from Top Cow), in regards to the other side of the pitch

Reposting! Had several people cross the line recently. Sorry I'm busy the week before ComiCon!

Some pitching advice

1) understand that no one will be that excited to read your pitch. This is because we read so many bad ones that the expectation is that it won’t be good. If we’re excited after we read it that’s a good thing.

2) it may take a year for someone to read your pitch. Editors, writers, publishers, agents and managers are busy people. Proper follow up is once a month check in unless the person tells you differently. If they tell you check back in August and it’s May then check back in August. Best thing is to use the same email thread. When I see I told someone something already there’s a guilt factor to push it to the top of the list.

3) everything matters. Punctuation, grammar, spelling my name right…we get that you’re sending it out broad but what you need to get is that when reading these things we’re looking for a reason to say no. For this reason I encourage people NOT to use dialects in samples or pitches sent out.

4) keep it short. No one wants to read your 10,000 page story bible. Most places have submissions guidelines on what they want to see. These may differ from company to company. You should modify your pitches to target companies and give them what they’re asking for. Again, as mentioned above we’re looking for a reason to say no. The more you give, more likely find a reason.

5) know who’s reading it. If you send me your children’s super-hero romance story set in the Stone Age you clearly never researched what I’m interested in. Look at the companies that do material similar to what you’re pitching.

6) have a logline. If you can’t pitch your story idea in a couple sentences you’re not cut out for this business. You have to be able to pitch your idea in less than a minute or two tops. Why? Because you need to grab people’s interest. Think Tank is the story of a slacker genius who designs weapons for the military but doesn’t want to do it anymore…but they won’t let him quit because he’s too valuable. It’s okay to use other existing franchises to explain your concept.

7) understand that no you’re not the only one with that idea. It is so common to receive multiple very similar pitches. Why? Zeitgeist. You got the idea because you saw X movie, read Y book, saw Z internet meme and x+y+z = the high concept core of your idea. This is fine, btw. Just execute better.

8) less plot, more character. Convoluted plots are bad and don’t make your story smarter. Twists are great, but don’t overcomplicate. Every great existing movie out there can be pitched in less than a minute and you get the basic idea. Try pitching Alien then try Prometheus. Alien = simple plot, great characters and execution. Prometheus less so. When you pitch, pitch the character, who they are and why we care. That’s more important than your beat be beat plot.

9) be prepared to “hurry up and wait”. If someone responds asking you to tweak your pitch with some notes you get to do this. Just because you turn something back around in 24 hours the person reading it might take months to get back to you. Variety of reasons, low priority, busy, whatever. In this situation when someone engages you at all, ask them how you should follow up.

10) be courteous and understand that you don’t really matter to the person on the other end (yet). Hard pill to swallow, but humble goes a long way. If you get angry, that’s understandable. Happens to me every week. Go work out, walk around the block, yell in your car…whatever. Taking that out even partially on whoever is reading your thing just gives them a reason to ignore you.

11) pitch verbally to friends and family. If they get lost or ask questions that’s YOUR fault not theirs. Even if you answered the question they have already, it wasn’t clear enough. You should listen to these and adjust. If you feel like you did answer that question, answer it twice in two different ways If you see people tune out, remember where it is and try and adjust. Again, keep it short. Movie pitches are usually 10-15 minutes long. Don’t do voices in verbal pitches.

12) thank the people that “pass” on your project. Most people don’t respond at all, they’re giving you the courtesy of a no. It is okay to ask why, but if they don’t respond to that don’t follow up, let it go. If they give you a reason ask them if you can adjust and resubmit.

This is not a complete list just some things I think about.