Here Is Solid Evidence That You Can Win After Your Article Is Rejected
Do not console yourself after rejection. Find a way to win.
We all know how rejections feel, right?
If your article is rejected (by Medium publications or newspapers/magazines), it hurts.
If you have written a book and publishers do not want to publish it, it hurts.
If you ask your crush out on a date and the person tells you “no”, it hurts.
When it comes to handling rejections, the advice that is commonly given goes along the lines of:
A rejection is nothing personal. It should not bother you.
I agree with this. It is true.
But I will not repeat this cliché in this post.
Instead, here is what I want to tell you:
You can “win” after you face rejection, no matter how big it was.
My focus here is the word “win”.
Now, what does it mean to win after a rejection?
Well, it does not mean consoling yourself with statements like “A rejection is nothing personal” and “It should not bother me”.
What it means is that you get the due recognition from somewhere else who can (or is better able to) properly evaluate your offer that was rejected.
Wondering how it works? I will explain this to you by telling a real story from my life.
I believe you already know that Finland was named the happiest country in the world in 2020.
I wrote an analysis of Finnish happiness after the happiness ranking was published, and wanted to publish it in a major newspaper in the US or the UK.
I am a journalist in Bangladesh, and I could have directly submitted it to the newspaper I work for. It would have been quite easy for me to have it published there.
But I wanted to publish it in the Western media for two key reasons.
One, my article will have far more traction if it is published by a prominent Western media outlet. I wanted my article to reach the widest possible pool of readers (well, who does not want that?).
Two, Bangladesh’s national discourse does not include subjects like happiness, well-being, and emotional health. Bangladeshis are not interested in reading an in-depth analysis of why Finland consistently comes out as the happiest country on earth.
So, according to my plan, I pitched the article to the New York Times, the Guardian, the Independent, the Huffington Post, and several other newspapers.
Then began the long waiting period.
I waited, waited, and waited some more.
Guess what? Days passed by and I did not get any response. Not a single one.
Although I anticipated that something like this would happen, it still hurt.
I would be lying if I say I was not frustrated. I was, deeply.
I thought I would get at least one positive response. But as it turned out, no one responded.
At last, I gave up and submitted the piece to my newspaper. The page editor agreed to publish it.
But that is not the peg of the story.
Having my article published in my own newspaper does not mean I won after the series of rejections I had faced.
This is because, as I already said, it was easy for me to find a way to have it published in my newspaper because I work there.
My victory came in a different form after the article was published.
But before explaining how I won, let me give you some background information first.
The annual World Happiness Report is published by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network.
The 2020 report contained a chapter titled “The Nordic Exceptionalism: What Explains Why the Nordic Countries Are Constantly Among the Happiest in the World.”
The chapter, as you can guess from the title, explains the secrets to happiness in the 5 Nordic countries — Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Iceland — from a scholarly point of view.
It was written by 4 academicians from Finland, Sweden, and Denmark. One of them is Dr Frank Martela.
Dr Frank is a Finnish philosopher and researcher of psychology specialising in the question of “meaning in life.” He is based at Aalto University in the Finnish capital, Helsinki.
He is a cross-disciplinary researcher with PhDs in both philosophy and organisational research.
His research has been published in numerous academic journals within psychology (Journal of Personality, Journal of Positive Psychology, Journal of Happiness Studies, Review of General Psychology), philosophy (Metaphilosophy, Southern Journal of Philosophy), and organisational research (Organisation Studies, Journal of Organisation Design).
I do not know Dr Frank personally. I never contacted him. I never interviewed him for any of my previous journalistic works on Finnish culture and society.
But I was familiar with his works because I write about Finland.
As you have understood now, Dr Frank is a recognised authority on Finnish happiness who has been interviewed about the subject by major Western media outlets such as the New York Times and Vice.
Moreover, Dr Frank Martela also writes on Medium.
That is why I decided to send him my article and requested him to give me feedback.
Again, I did not expect that I would get a response. People like Dr Frank are too busy to respond to such emails.
But to my surprise, I did get a response from him, and this is what he wrote:
I was on cloud 9. He not only replied but also praised my work.
Moreover, he shared my article on his official Facebook page. That was an honour for me.
Now you connect the dots.
I pitched to several Western newspapers and no one published my article. There can be numerous reasons why they did not. For example:
1. My pitch failed to satisfy them, and they did not think it was a story worth publishing. (I accept this.)
2. They thought I do not have enough credentials to write about Finnish happiness. (I accept this.)
3. They had their own staff to write about this subject. (I accept this.)
The bottom line is that my article was rejected by all of them.
And after they rejected it, Dr Frank told me it was “great.”
Have you understood how I “won” after facing those rejections?
As I already said, when I was rejected, I was frustrated.
But I did not lose confidence. I was 100 percent confident about my work.
Why?
Because I am a Finnophile. I am obsessed with everything from Finland. I am extremely interested in Finnish music, culture, history, and society.
I lived in Finland for 3 years, and that is when my interest in this Nordic country grew exponentially.
I have been writing about Finland for 4 years on Medium. Most of my highest read articles are about Finland.
I have received numerous comments from both native and expat Finns on my writings about Finland. Most of the comments were positive, though there have been negative ones as well.
I cannot speak the Finnish language that well, but I have learned how to sing in Finnish. I arranged a karaoke show when I was in Finland. I still regularly practice Finnish music.
Finland celebrated its 100 years of independence in 2017. I was there that year and voluntarily worked on a project on Finnishness to mark the centenary. The idea was to interview the people of Finland about what it means to be a Finn and how to lead the Finnish life.
I plan to turn this project into a book in the future.
I have written an 8-part series on Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union. The war broke out in the winter of 1939 when the Soviet Union invaded Finland through the eastern border.
I plan to turn this series into a book in the future too.
I have written for Foreigner, an English-language online newspaper in Finland.
Moreover, I regularly read books, news reports, and articles on Finland. I watch informative videos about Finland on YouTube.
I have friends in Finland who taught me a lot about their country, culture, and history when I was there. I am still in touch with them.
Given my deep relationship with Finland and the previous journalistic works I have done, I had the conviction that my article on Finnish happiness is well-researched and in-depth.
Deep in my heart, I knew I had written an article that had some merit and was not total trash.
And even though my article was rejected, I later got the due recognition for my work from someone who is a far greater authority than any journalist writing about Finland in those newspapers.
In short, I “won” after facing rejections.
The takeaway
Here is what I want you to learn from my story:
If you genuinely believe what you are offering is good but still you face rejections, find a way to win.
Let me give you an example.
If you have written an article on Nelson Mandela but no newspaper wants to run it, publish it here on Medium.
Then send the link to someone who is a recognised authority on Mandela. It can be a writer, a professor, or a researcher. Ask that person to give you feedback.
If you get feedback like me, great. Now you have the due recognition.
In other words, you have “won”.
But if you do not, find another authority and repeat the process.
If you still do not get recognition, forget about it and produce the next great work. Keep doing that.
And remember: A truly good work will always be a truly good work even if no one publishes it or takes the time to explicitly recognise it.