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This is an excerpt from Write Your Way Out of the Rat Race…And Step Into a Career You Love, which is Pay What It’s Worth (meaning YOU choose what to pay) in the Renegade Writer Store.

I just did a rough count, and what I have to tell you isn’t pretty:

Between 1996 and 2015 I sent out over 200 magazine queries — each one to multiple publications — and sold somewhere around 60 ideas. That’s a 30% success rate — or a 70% rejection rate. If I sent each query to four magazines, that means I received 480 rejections. (And that’s not even counting the untold number of informal ideas I sent to my editors via email once I became more established that were rejected, or the letters of introduction I sent to trade magazine editors that went nowhere.)

So how was it that I’ve been able to write for around 150 magazines, with most of them giving me multiple assignments over the years? Top magazines like Redbook, Health, USA Weekend, Parenting, and Writer’s Digest? How was I able to make a living—a good living—mainly writing for magazines?

It’s because I was too stubborn to give up.

Even when I was failing most of the time, I kept pitching. And every time I made a sale, I wowed the editor so she would give me more work.

So how can you get over the idea of rejection? Here’s the thing:

Rejection isn’t about you.

If your idea or writing are rejected by a prospect or editor, it’s a simple business decision: Your offering was not right for the prospect at this time.

When you’re approached by a salesperson at the supermarket asking if you want to sample a new brand of pita chips and you say No thanks, does that mean the salesperson personally sucks? Is it a judgment call on the actual person handing out the chips? Or even on the quality of the product? No. Your rejection of the offer means you’re full because you just had lunch, or you can’t eat gluten, or you’re not in the mood for a snack, or you’re a vegan and the chips have cheese powder on them.

The product doesn’t suck, and neither does the salesperson. It has nothing to do with them.

It’s the same with writing. If a prospect says no, it can mean anything from “We don’t need a freelance writer right now” to “I had a fight with my spouse this morning and I’m in a foul mood.”

If you let the mere thought of rejection keep you from writing, then you’ve already failed. You’ve pre-rejected yourself!

[TWEET THIS]

The best thing you can do when you’re starting your career as a writer is to develop a thick skin to rejection. The good news is that the more you pitch, the more immune to rejection you become. Sounds counterintuitive, but it’s true: When you have one magazine query out there, it’s your baby and a rejection can crush you. When you have 50 magazine queries and LOIs out there, a rejection on one of them means you still have 49 more chances.

Now…get out there and pitch today.

This post originally ran in August 2013, and I updated it to make it more useful to you.

As you’ve probably guessed by the name of this blog, and the book it stems from, here at The Renegade Writer we’re all about doing what works for us. Experimenting. Trying new things. Bucking the status quo.

My personal life is the same way…yes, I LIVE what I preach. I’m proud of my freelance writer/board game designer husband; ballet-dancing Montessori-going son; and two lovely exchange students, from Serbia and Indonesia. (See the gratuitous photo of my three adorable kids to the left.) In October the nuclear fam and I are going to Europe, and in November we’re hitting Tokyo—because Eric and I can work on the road. (And if we time our trips to hubby’s business travel, he gets a free ticket, which is kind of key.

I tell you, we love not being normal…and I want to help others who want to be as weird as we are!

So: While most normal, status quo-type business owners want to squeeze every penny they can out of their customers, that’s not what we’re all about here at The Renegade Writer. Yes, I like money. However, I’m also passionate about helping writers earn a living doing what they love most. And, I’m someone who loves experimenting to figure out what works best for myself and for the writers I help—instead of always going with what’s expected and normal.

All that leads to this:

Not everyone who wants to become a writer has the means to get quality help—good e-books can cost $10 and more, and coaching can exceed $350 per hour!—so now, almost every e-book in the Renegade Writer Store is now Pay What You Want, with a minimum of just $1. I want to get the helpful info in these books into as many hands as possible, no matter what their situation.

That means YOU choose how much the books are worth to you. Yes, even the Write for Magazines e-course book that retails at $29 (and is based on a $267 course), and books like The Renegade Writer, Commit, and Write Your Way Out of the Rat Race—which retail at $9.99!

You can pay less than retail…or if you’re rich you can pay more and reap some good karma because you’re covering someone who can’t afford as much. (But $1 is the minimum my shopping cart service will accept for each book…probably because they charge ME 75 cents for every book I sell!)

HOWEVER…this is an experiment. I’ll be offering the books as PWYW for just one week—until Friday, September 18—and will then take stock of how it went. If we here at The Renegade Writer are happy, and our readers are happy, we can keep the PWYW pricing. If for some reason it just doesn’t seem to be working out…the books go back to retail prices.

Want to gather up a virtual armload of books that can help you write killer query letters, quit your day job to write, reach your goals through massive action, write faster, build confidence as a writer—and generally live and love the freelance life—all at a price YOU choose? Here’s the Renegade Writer Store, where every book but one is now PWYW. (The one that isn’t is only available on Amazon…and speaking of Amazon, our books will remain full price on that site.)

http://www.therenegadewriter.com/store

Have fun loading up on books…I think you’ll dig everything we have! I hope this helps many, many aspiring writers make their freelancing dreams a reality.

Ethics is in the air!

(I can see you right now saying, “Um, what?”)

By that I mean Carol Tice’s and my 4-Week J-School Audit is on sale until July 30 (a BIG welcome to the 80 of you who have signed on so far!) — and we have a whole lesson on journalism ethics. And because we’re talking so much about ethics in our marketing materials, we’ve been getting a lot of questions from readers.

One awesome writer sent in this question:

I was surprised to read, in your post about mistakes you have made, that it is not okay to reuse ANYTHING from a previous article, not even a phrase or a quote. I’ve never heard that before. In fact, I seem to remember you or Carol encouraging us to reslant and resell our stories as a way to get double duty from our work. If we can’t reuse our quotes, that doesn’t seem like it saves us anything. I’ve been planning to try and spin a couple of my stories in different ways for different markets. Comments?

Great question!

Stealing from your own previously published work is called self-plagiarism, and it is a big problem. In fact, as you’ll see in the post I linked to above, I was once fired for it before I knew any better.

While it’s not technically illegal to reuse portions of your own work (unless you signed a contract forbidding it), and some debate whether or not it is unethical, according to this article on Slate, it’s all about the expectations of the audience. So, for example, when I compile blog posts into a book and make it clear in the subtitle that the book is made up of previously-run blog posts, no one seems to mind. As long as the information is new and helpful to the audience, it is likely not a problem.

But when you write for magazines or online publications, your first audience is your editor. You need to ask yourself: How would your editor feel if she saw another article that had the same quotes or phrases as the one you just turned in — especially when she bought first rights or all rights to your piece? I’d wager she wouldn’t like it very much.

And that’s all that matters if you want to keep getting freelance writing jobs. You can debate the ethics of self-plagiarism with her until your face turns a lovely shade of blue…but if she thinks it’s unacceptable — which I assure you she will — then it’s a no-no for you. (And with Copyscape, you certainly won’t get away with it.)

But take heart! When developing a new pitch/article, you can still reuse:

• Your idea (Reslanted for a non-competing publication; for example, I once wrote a diet article for Oxygen and then reslanted it for Men’s Fitness.)
• The knowledge you gained writing the original article, which will make your research much faster.
• Your sources. (Though you would need to re-interview them or use quotes you didn’t use in the original article.)

Journalism ethics is a sticky topic — you need to know not only about self-plagiarism but also libel, using proper citations, quoting sources, fair use laws, and other practices that can keep you from getting sued (or at the very least, in trouble with your editor).

If you’re not up to speed on these topics, consider joining the 4-Week J-School Audit today. You’ll not only learn the ins and outs of journalism ethics, but also get the scoop on generating salable ideas, writing pitches that sell, and crafting compelling articles. The class is self-paced, and you get access to the materials (including the tasty bonuses) forever. And we offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee! Go to the class page to check out the testimonials from happy students who have gotten freelance writing jobs after taking our class.

Jordan Rosenfeld is the author of the new book A Writer’s Guide to Persistence: How to a Create a Lasting and Productive Writing Practice, and I was excited to be able to spend 30 minutes with her discussing:

• How editors and agents want to be seduced — they WANT to say yes! — and how many writers muff it up by talking down about themselves.
• How to banish distraction — both the home kind and the Internet kind.
• Why you need a Writer’s Code, and how to create one.
• What it means to “go where you’re welcome” in your writing, and how it can help you get more freelance writing jobs.
• The biggest problem that keeps writers from succeeding.
• How to handle critiques without wanting to curl up into a fetal ball and cry.
• And much more!

You can download the PDF transcript here and download the podcast sound file here. Feel free to share these with your writer friends, and please do share on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn!

Enjoy!

There are some jobs listed here that you won’t find on any other boards, because I pay to get them. Pass the word along and have a great weekend! Happy job hunting! (Come back Monday for more job listings.) By the way, also make sure to take a good look around my site while you are [...]