Freaking Out a Bit About the Rejection Process

[spaceoperadiva]

I'm a new writer here and a little worried about the rejection process. So far I've submitted three articles. Two have been accepted and one sold. I've had two rejections. First rejection was totally my fault. I recently got a newer version of MSWord and the default stylesheet is something that looks very close to Times New Roman but isn't, and I didn't check. I fixed that and the article passed the second time.

I've just had an article rejected because it contained a web link. Once again, MSWord is my worst enemy. I copied and pasted a hard-to-spell name. Word decided to make the name a link back to the page I got it from, but without any of the usual color change or underlining. I had to highlight the whole document and go on a ninja weblink hunt! I've been saving things as RTF, but maybe TXT is better?

So now I'm feeling more than a little twitchy. If I do any other stupid pet tricks, I'm doomed.

Resa

[Celeste Stewart]

Nah, you're not doomed. The editors understand this type of stuff happens and won't hold the occasional wrong font or errant Web link against you.

[VersantScribe]

Both of your errors were formatting, not actual writing issues. Editors understand it can take time for newbies to get a hang of that sort of thing. If you've already had articles sold or accepted, I'd say you're doing just fine. Learn from your mistakes, for sure. But since you don't have problems with style or grammar, etc., I'd say you can breathe a bit easier at the moment.

Happy writing!

[spaceoperadiva]

Thanks for the kind replies.