It keeps you going as rejects come in
The most important thing to do
Is with your tales, always write true
To your characters, your plots, YOU!
And expect rejections. See them as part of the job. If you can get personalized rejections where someone scribbles a comment or a “positive” rejection, see what you can learn from these. Near misses are good signs you’re on the right lines but be prepared to look at your work again and again and again. Be prepared to redraft too. Only stick to your guns on those points of your plot/characters that are really important and be prepared to say why!
Do you care about your characters?
Do you think plot actually matters?
Is your grammar and spelling correct?
Get it wrong and your chances are wrecked
Everything right is a major factor
In ever getting a publishing deal
The budding author needs to keep it real.
Says it all really. I’ve found an error in a short story of mine where I forgot to change the name of a character as I’d altered it. No wonder that tale got nowhere! Object lesson: always read through thoroughly! Always double check spelling against a good dictionary. Spell checkers can’t help you if you misspell a word but the misspelling is another accurately spelled word! It has no way of knowing which one you want. It may pick up an error if your wrong choice causes a grammatical error but it doesn’t always.