Handling Rejection in Freelance Writing

Posted: October 18, 2016

There's an old saying that "if at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again". This can be applied to many things in life, and freelance writing is one of them. Rejection is part of freelancing and learning to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and learn from rejection can help you become successful. Sesselja Bigseth, writer for The Write Life, shares how to overcome being rejected as a writer.

What 200 Rejections Taught Me About Being a Freelance Writer

When I started freelancing many years ago, it was with great enthusiasm and very little knowledge. I had a bachelor’s degree in journalism studies, graduating as one of the top students in my class. But whereas I could tell you all about the social meaning of news, I had no idea how to sell an article. I graduated a year before my husband, and while I waited for him to finish his degree, I decided to take up freelancing on the side. We were living in a small coastal town with limited media outlets, and I supporting us by working as a breakfast waitress at a local hotel. I reckoned freelancing would be an easy way to get a foot in the door and start establishing connections within the industry. I was wrong.There was nothing easy about it at all. I had a vague sense of the importance of market research, but decided I would be better off carpet bombing the whole market with ideas. Determined to get my first few assignments, I would send out query letter after query letter, indiscriminately. They went out to local papers and national newspapers, to regional magazines and high end consumer magazines. Read the entire article What 200 Rejections Taught Me About Being a Freelance Writer on The Write Life.