Moving on From Medium Publisher Rejections
How long should you wait before you try again?
No, this story is not as dramatic as the title has made it out to be. We will tackle the emotional side of moving on from rejection in a little bit.
First, let’s get technical. How long do you wait?
When you submit a story to a publication, how long should you wait before pulling it out and submitting it to another publication? There’s no set answer to this. I usually wait for 7 days. So far, that looks like the average waiting time for a story to be declined or published. However, each publication will have its own set of guidelines. You will usually find these in their submissions guidelines.
To make life easier for you, I’ve put together a list of turnaround times from some popular Medium publications:
- Startup Grind: The submission sheet for Startup Grind says that if you haven’t received a response from the team within one week (7 days), it means they have not moved forward with your pitch.
- Forge: To submit to Forge, you will need to send an email to [email protected]. They say they read every submission and only respond to those they are able to publish, usually within two weeks. So, if you don’t get a response from them within that time frame, it means your post was not an ideal fit for Forge.
- Mind Cafe: This publication has an extensive set of guidelines to follow for submissions. You can submit your draft link via the embedded form. If you don’t hear back from the team within ten days, you can assume that your article has been rejected.
- The Ascent : Check out their guidelines on how to write for The Ascent. The current turnaround time for reviewing submissions is 5 to 7 days. They usually tell you if they’re declining your work.
- Better Marketing: The article on How to Write for Better Marketing gives new writers a link to submit their work to. Writers who have already written for them before can use the usual submission process. If you don’t receive a response within 3 business days, you can assume that they’ve passed on your submission.
- Entrepreneur’s Handbook: This publication has specific submission days for new writers. The Google Form to apply as a new writer only opens on Mondays. They respond to all submissions (that are not already published) within the week of your submission.
- The Writing Cooperative: This publication has strict guidelines for submissions, including limiting the number of articles you can send to their submission queue at any given time (maximum of 5 articles). The review process can take up to a week but Patreon friends and VIPs get an expedited review.
- Better Humans: According to the submission process for this publication, the turnaround time is within two weeks. The guideline already details the specific articles that they accept and pay for, so submit articles that only meet their criteria.
There are many more amazing Medium publications out there that I have not been able to include in this list — some of them because the turnaround time is not clearly stated in their submission guidelines. The best way to find out is really to check the specific guidelines for the publication of your choice.
Second, let’s explore how to remove a submitted story:
If you receive a note from one of the editors that your piece will not be accepted at this time, they usually reject it from their end. You will get an email notification from Medium saying your story wasn’t accepted into the publication. You can then submit it to another publication via the three dots which shows the options for the story. Another option would be to self-publish so it ends up unattached to any publications and goes on your profile instead.
If, on the other hand, the publication has not responded within the set timeline they’ve given, you can assume that it has not been accepted and voluntarily remove the story from the submission review queue. To do this:
- Go to the draft you wish to remove from the submission queue of a publication.
- Click on the three-dot button.
- Select Remove story from publication.
A pop-up will let you know that it is currently being reviewed and will confirm if you want to remove it. Please note that even if it says that it is currently being reviewed, you may never get a response from the publication (especially if it is already several days past their turnaround time).
Lastly, how do you move on from a rejection?
The answer is plain and simple, you just do. There are many reasons why an editor might choose to pass on your work. It could be an issue of layout. They might have an article-length requirement. Maybe your writing style isn’t what they’re looking for. Maybe your piece just doesn’t fit with the publication’s theme.
According to Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience (Leary, 2015), “rejections have myriad emotional, psychological, and interpersonal consequences.” TIME Magazine interviewed psychologist Guy Winch for their article “How to Deal with Reject According to Experts,” where Winch says that though painful, rejection can actually be beneficial for you. “Getting rejected can build resilience, help one grow, and apply lessons to future setbacks.”
The same could probably be said for publisher rejections. It’s a great way to learn what a publication actually wants to see. Take this as an opportunity to review their style guide and submission guidelines again. If you’re dead-set on getting that specific piece published in a particular publication, then try again. Edit and re-write until you get it to the point that it is acceptable.
Another option is to be more flexible with where you publish your piece. From experience, I can tell you that you can submit the same unedited piece to different publications — you may get one to two rejections, but a third or fourth one can accept it as it is. So as I said earlier, the reason for one publication not accepting it may not even be related to how you wrote your piece but maybe a matter of it not being a good fit with their standards.
Here’s an example of a piece that I wrote that was rejected by two big publications.
The rejections were quite painful as it was a very personal story for me. The first publication had a turnaround time of 2 weeks. So I patiently waited. And after two weeks, I never got a response.
I moved on and submitted it to another big publication. They rejected it right away because of length. I just about gave up after that but I picked myself up again and tried for a third publication.
It was finally accepted. It took about two days to get reviewed and published. Even better, right after being published, it was selected for further distribution (I think this is now Medium’s version of curation). So, it’s been one of my highest earning stories in the last few days.
The moral of the story: don’t give up. You will be rejected, but you will need to move on and try again.
