I had stories rejected 800+ times before I won the Nebula Award. The day I sold my novel? I got a short story rejection. As I moderated my first panel? A rejection email popped up and covered my notes. I once got a rejection six minutes after midnight on New Years. There is no do. Only try.

On the flip side, no matter what you were doing that NYE, it was still almost certainly an objectively better time. On the flip side, no matter what you were doing that NYE, it was still almost certainly an objectively better time.

And in the end, if you really want that story out there, publish it yourself. So many hold on to the belief that we're only good enough if a publisher chooses us. But we have the power to self publish. I've read some awful industry published garbage lately and some totally excellent self pubbed.

Ha ha ha. I do not have that kind of stamina. I cannot handle rejection.

@jenniferhudak.bsky.social pretty much summed up my thoughts. Thanks for being a generally awesome human, John.

Oh this helps so much

Hell yeah I only have 300 more rejections before my Hugo.

I didn't even know there were 800 markets to send a story to

One year, I submitted a story to Clarkesworld on December 31st. I figured it would take them until at least January 2nd to reject it. I was wrong. It was a little later in the day than yours though.

I once got a short story rejection on Christmas Day. CHRISTMAS DAY. And it was for an anthology I was both really excited and optimistic about. Not exactly the gift I was after...

You're a good one, John 💙