So I guess the reason why I'm doing this, because publishing is hard, the publishing industry is confusing. And if you have poems that are being rejected, it's not just you. It's just there's a lost circumstance. This and publishing sometimes happens at chance, and it's quite competitive. So I thought I'd share my rejections. And hopefully this is something that will encourage a lot of writers and let them know that it's not just them, it's the magazines
Well, I enjoyed your post and your poem. I can tell you this I've been a published writer since 1967. I started out, though, not as a poet but as a magazine writer. And I found that if I got a niche, first of all, I studied my markets very well before I even submitted a publication, I mean, an article. And I targeted that market. And I started out by selling to about three specific magazines that were all in the same industry
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 0:51
And both of you have such agency to say, this is who I am and I want the world to know me and what a beautiful result it is, actually, because even in this exchange, there's a certain artful, poetry in the exchange, in my opinion. So thank you both for putting it out there
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15
Bowie Rowan
@bowie · 1:55
Thank you so much for sharing your experience. This conversation and talking about rejection is near and dear to my heart. I actually have a hashtag series here on Swell called Ask a Failure in which I talk a lot about failure and rejection not only in relation to writing and publishing, but other areas as well. And I actually posted a Swell a while ago about what I have learned from my over 600 writing rejections. Over the years
Khalid Hanif
@theElvnth_Our · 1:33
I know that as you move towards your goals, you will only get better and stronger in all of the areas that you give attention to. So continue. I look forward to everything you do. All your writings, all your words, all the things you share. Um you are one of my absolute favorite people to listen to and to have as my sister. So you take the best care of yourself and yeah, till next time, be well
Anisah Khan
@Anisah_Writes · 5:00
Because markets, definitely I'm not someone who tends to research the markets, the trends in what's marketable, because I never saw writing in that perspective. So thank you for sharing that, because definitely it will give me a new perspective to look into, which is something I lack in. The only reason why I haven't been submitting to The New Yorker, the Paris Review or The Washington Post is because I feel like my writing is just not there yet
Anisah Khan
@Anisah_Writes · 1:42
Hey, Deborah, thanks for chiming in. I've always admired the way how you speak and how you put words together and the way you describe the exchange in this swell post or swell cast. It was really beautiful and enchanting. It really to put the significance of this post into a tangible form for me, because sometimes I just post things on a whim. I don't follow schedule. I don't plan out content
Anisah Khan
@Anisah_Writes · 4:21
But, yeah, I totally took inspiration from your swell cast because when I first listened to the post you posted about your rejections in 2022, I was honestly shocked because I'm like, wow, a writer having the bravery to show their failures and their rejections on a social platform that was so unheard of. And I really respected you for breaking that norm of only showing success rather than hiding your failures
Anisah Khan
@Anisah_Writes · 2:36
Thank you for sharing what you thought about the poem, and I really am blessed to have you as a brother, for sure. You're also one of my favorite people to listen to on The Swellcast, and as always, I'm looking forward to your next Swell podcast, your Swell post, whenever you're ready. No rush because greatness takes time to form, for sure. So, yeah, thank you for all of your kind words and all your affirmations and hopefully we'll talk soon
Creative Reader
@MoonPoet · 4:06
And that's all, to me, something that real artists need to kind of keep separate from their art, because the business side of writing is totally different and not necessarily relevant to actually producing the content. It's two different worlds, but we kind of blur them together in our mind. Anyway, thank you for posting this
Anisah Khan
@Anisah_Writes · 4:44
And then now I'm looking up on I'm standing under these authors at my university who have published at least eleven novels and who are successful in their career, telling me, oh, this is the way you get literary magazines to publish you. That way, when you do are ready to publish your Rowan book or novel, the publishing house will most likely publish you because you do have an audience