Have You Ever Received a Rejection From a Medium Publication?

I did, and I also withdrew two submissions from two other publications

I am not going to name any of the publications. Every publication has its requirements which we as writers must meet, and that’s fine with me.

I am sharing my experience to encourage my fellow writers here on Medium.

The publication to which I first submitted a piece invited me to do so. I contacted them after two days because I had received no feedback.

It was then that I found out that I was required to jump through several hoops if I wanted my piece to be included in that publication.

I withdrew my piece and published it myself on Medium. I was new and didn’t know that I could easily have submitted the piece to another publication.

The rejection

I thought my piece was suitable for a certain publication and met their needs and requirements. Alas, I was mistaken.

I received a polite note saying that they couldn’t use my piece, but that I was welcome to submit it to them in the future.

I was totally fine with this.

I submitted my piece elsewhere, and it was accepted and published.

My second withdrawal from a publication

At the start, the biggest issue was how I formatted my article. There were a few back-and-forths with the editor.

I feel she got frustrated with me because, on one of the formatting issues, I just couldn’t do what she wanted. I just couldn’t make it happen. This went on over 24 to 36 hours.

So she palmed me off to another editor who, besides the formatting issue, wanted me to delete a paragraph, and made a snide remark about how I wrote something — they “frowned upon” it.

Wow. “Frowned upon”? I felt he was looking down his nose at me.

I was more than a little frustrated.

So I withdrew my article and submitted it to another publication that accepted and published it.

I think about what I am going to write. I then do the best I can to put my thoughts onto paper. I use Grammarly to catch spelling and other basic errors before I submit to a publication.

I am not in competition with The Bard or with worldwide bestselling authors.

I will not be discouraged by rejection or by fanatical editors. There are many options available to me and everyone else here on Medium.

If you enjoyed this piece, you might also like my article about my three favorite Medium publications.