Freelance Writing: Top 7 Reasons Why Editors Reject Articles

For freelancers, there are few more frustrating things than the accumulation of rejection letter in the mailbox. On a practice level, all writers need to understand that small percent of your total writing will actually be published. However, every rejection mail is disheartening for freelance writers.  They become more disappointed when they receive one of those lines, ”I am sorry to say that unfortunately, we do not see a place for your article in our upcoming editorial schedule” from a letter.

According to most of the freelance writers, persistence can produce talent rather than inspiration. They insist that 70% persistence and 30% inspiration is required to become a skilled writer. In the case of freelance writing, your talent is required in marketing rather than actual writing. Now let's suppose that you have sent an excellent story and sent it to one editor, and he rejects it. Let me be clear that rejection is by no means a certification of the quality of your writing capability.  You have to keep in mind that acceptance of an article or a manuscript is a question of an editorial accident. It is not a circumstance of efficient salesmanship. There are a lot of reasons to which an editor might have rejected your article.

Now we will discuss different factors that can threaten the acceptance of your article.

Editorial Mood Can Vary Regularly

According to most of the writers, all their articles are excellent. They always perceive that their story correlates with the feeling of readers for that moment. However, reading the document second time can change their previous feelings. If one editor has turned down your article for this reason, then you should try to submit it to other publishers. After that, you have to resubmit to the editor who has first rejected it.

Excessive Submissions Can Affect The Decision

For instance, a chef is asked to test 30 varieties of apple pie in order to find out the best one. It has been found that after testing the sixth one, his taste bud becomes numb. It is equally applicable for query letters and manuscripts. It is almost impossible for an editor to select the best story or article after reading thousands of other pieces. In order to decide the best story, everyday editors have to weed out a certain amount of submissions. After that, they read and review the remaining articles. In most of the editorial offices, editors find it difficult to hold manuscripts more than a week as they have a significant amount of submissions that require their attention. For this reason, the last document read during the days has a lesser chance of getting selected than the first one. In many cases, it has been found that editor might return a manuscript or a query letter just because he has mental fatigue to rather than discovering errors in the article. Don't be upset for this type of rejection and send it out again.

Consider The Limited Experience of Editors

It is a commonly known fact that authors write a story that interests them. Authors also need to keep in mind that the topic of the article should be able to attract the attention of viewers or audience. For instance, you have written a story that deals with wonders of horseback riding on the beach. This topic will not be able to gain the attention of a business executive, who has to ride the subway six days in a week. However, an editor who has experienced horse riding and who is able to feel the soft muzzle of a horse within his hand might rate this same story as “one of the best stories of the year."  Hence, it is a good strategy to keep the manuscript going until it submitted at the desk of an editor who will give value to the deep passion for your work.

Your Article Maybe too Similar to Someone Else’s

Often editor rejects your article as they feel it is too much similar or overlap with another one. It cloud be an overlap of tone or them.  Even they might found some commonality between some lines or examples. In this type of circumstances, you have to take it positively. That means you have to get right idea for this sort articles. You were just not quick enough this time around. 

Recent Events Can Affect Your Article

As a writer, you have to keep in mind that writing articles about recent topics can increase its selling. For example, during Euro Cup, You can write an article about the history of Euro cup. Most often these types of articles get selected by editors. In addition, you can write a story about political candidates. It has a high chance of success when political candidates are in the eyes of the public.

Economic Condition can Influence Rejection

During last few years, it has been found that many publishing and magazine companies have changed their editorial staffs and implemented change management. During this period of uncertainty, most of the publishers purchase very few freelance materials. If you send a query letter or article in one of these disordered publishing houses, then it has little chance to get selected.  So, in order to get selected you should keep the submission process going constantly.

Editorial Policies can Hinder The Acceptance

Writers need to know that different publication houses have adopted different policies for publishing articles and journals. For instance, a health magazine may have taken an attempt to print nothing about how obesity in U.S.A. is negatively affecting the family structure in society. Other publications may not have any problem to publish this article if it is supported by the recent facts and research. In this type of situation, it is important to keep on submitting the manuscript until the material fits with the editorial policy.