Developing a thick skin

"Sorry. I thought I had emailed you back." This editor hadn't, as promised. "In any case, we're just not interested in any of those ideas." If there were a list of necessary qualities for people wanting to be writers or freelancers, having a thick sick would certainly be near the top.

Editors make decisions quickly and decisively, which means they either like your ideas and will go with them quickly or they will reject them off hand. Rejection is not fun, and I've had to stifle my desire to try to explain why I think the story is worthwhile.

In the end, you can't expect that every story you pitch will get accepted, especially at the beginning. It helps to know which outlets are interested in what sort of stories; how to pitch to that outlet specifically; and which stories they normally accept freelance for (for instance, I've found a fair number of newspapers in the US use their own writers and wire services exclusively).

Another thing that can be difficult is the staggering number of emails that you have to send, of which almost none get responses. When I was getting started, there must have been a handful of weeks during which I sent out hundreds of emails and got exactly zero responses.

Editors are busy people, so if they don't have an urgent need to respond to your email, chances are they won't. Rejections may be hard to take, but don't expect to get too many of those. Editors save rejections for people they've had long contact with. Most normal rejections consist simply of silence.

I was surprised to get a response from the travel editor of the Seattle Times on Monday in response to a pitch I had sent him half a year ago. At least it was response.

Finally, another reason for thick skin are all the dead ends. Editors will express interest, only to saunter off. Editors will send an inquiry about a story and then never follow up. It has happened several times that I thought I had a promising lead with a story in a publication, only to have things not pan out.

The bright side is that, with a thick enough skin, a story will pan out sooner or later. That story will lead to another story, and it all gets easier from there.