: One more benefit which can be gleaned from submitting your writing for publication, is that occasionally someone at the publishing company will include some constructive criticism in their rejection

@Bryan361

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One more benefit which can be gleaned from submitting your writing for publication, is that occasionally someone at the publishing company will include some constructive criticism in their rejection letter. When it happens, that advice is a treasure buried under what is otherwise, a pile of disappointment. Once you get clear of the anger and self-doubt which often accompany such letters, go back with an unemotional eye, and search for some clues on how to make your writing better.

I once got a rejection letter that simply said... "Not in the specified format". I got pissed. I got self-righteous. I eventually even let in a little self-doubt. But eventually, I went back and read the publisher's website and found their submissions requirements page. Before that moment, I didn't even know there was such a thing. Since then, I have searched for and found one on almost every magazine and publisher site. From that reject letter, I learned something that made my submission packages, if not my writing itself, better.

Learn from your failures and then they aren't failures any more.

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