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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/21342
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I wrote a few short stories over the past few years, and I have shared a few of these with beta readers and asked for feedback. I have one that I decided was ready to go find a home, so I found a journal that I thought was a good match and submitted it. It was rejected.

I don't take the rejection personally. I know there are a lot of reasons to reject a piece, but that's the rub -- I can't tell if it was rejected because it's crap or for some other reason. I also can't tell if the rejection was a form letter or not. It was via email and the editor invited me to join their writing group. That could be a nice "hey, get to know us better" or it could just be stock. I can't tell.

I want to invest my time wisely. I know that even good stories get rejected and that it takes time to find a place to publish. I wasn't expecting to get work accepted on the first try, but I also wasn't expecting that I would suddenly falter in my feeling that this story was ready for publication.

How do I decide if I should spend my time re-writing this story, or if I should look for another place to submit it and spend my time writing more stories instead?

Original score: 8