Moody Monday and rejection letters

 Waiting for who?

I had three of my stories rejected today. This is part and parcel for writers but three in one day is a bit hard to take. One was for a picture book that took seven months from submission, the second one came in the wee small hours and only took eleven weeks and the third one was a small piece rejected very quickly.  There is a lot of waiting in the mainstream publishing world. The various editors and agents claim to be overwhelmed and inundated so it takes a long time to clear their inboxes and as soon as one pile is worked through there are dozens more to fill the space. 
It makes self publishing understandable. Cutting out the middle steps means that anyone can have a book published very quickly but then they have to be willing to do all the hard work of distribution, promotion and marketing.
I don't want to self publish I just want to write and write and write. I also hope that people will want to read the stories I write so I need to send them out to the people who make the decision to publish them.  So far I have had a 99% acceptance rate for all short stories sent to anthologies and ezines. I have had a 100% rejection for novels. I have had 100% rejection for children's stories.
I do wallow for a while after I receive a rejection which is normal but when I get over the wallow I realise that each rejection indicates that I sent work out in the world so it is in a way a thing to celebrate. Some rejections are very positive and helpful but some are just form letters which at least means the writer can stop waiting. The worst rejection I ever saw and it wasn't for me thank goodness, was on plain piece of paper and had no greeting or signature and one line printed across it.
"We are returning your manuscript". That was it. Thankfully even my form rejections have not been that blunt.

Back to the story writing. One day something will be acceptable reading and it will be in a cover with my name on it but not today.