Story Rejection Quotes

Eudora Welty's 'A Curtain of Green' had an enormous effect on me. But my early attempts to graft stories from the Deep South onto North of England provincialism were not successful. All were rejected.

If a story isn't working, I'm simply unable to finish it. That's what usually tells me something is wrong.

My first short story sale was to a magazine that sat on the story forever... and never did publish it.

I wrote short stories for seven years and used to mail them out. You couldn't send them by e-mail. I called them manila boomerangs. I'd seal the self-addressed stamped envelope inside an envelope and I'd mail it off, and it would come back six weeks later with a rejection letter in it.

Try pitching a story of happiness to your editors, and their toes are going to curl up.

I don't think anybody submits their first story and sells right away.

I thought I had to write literature and add my name to the list of great Southern storytellers. Fortunately for me, no one wanted to read any of those stories. They got rejected by everyone. Sometimes, I would get a note saying they liked the writing, but the story simply didn't work.

I've got five or six unpublished stories kicking around looking for somebody to buy them.

I had an agent who spent eight years - eight years! - trying to sell my stories. She sold other people's work; she just didn't sell mine.

The first story I wrote was called 'Days,' and I have very little affection for it.

Right before I left ESPN, someone suggested doing a NFL story in the spring. The person was laughed out of the room.

When I am in the process of conceiving a story, I make sure it can be told with words and pictures. The story has to be creative, original and interesting in both areas. Many stories get rejected because they feel derivative.