Rejections are personal

We're always told not to take rejections personally.  The theory goes that the rejections are about that individual story, not a rejection of you as a writer.  A decade ago I might have swallowed this line, but now I'm not so sure.  The oft-touted advice is that if they don't like that story then write another one.  Eventually you'll sell one.  Except that, for me it isn't working.

After thirty years of writing novels and stories, I've had a lot of feedback from editors and agents that tells me I can write.  I've also found my own voice.  I know who I am as a writer, and I know what I want to write about.  And just as importantly, I know how to write about my chosen subjects.

Which brings me back to that idea of story as product.  The problem with that definition is that my stories aren't products.  They're tales about things I care deeply about.  And the rejection of the story is the rejection of that issue and my beliefs and values.

And here I begin to wonder about the systemic failure to recognise women's writing that the Women in Science Fiction Panel talked of a couple of weeks ago.  Okay, women are making inroads into the novel market, although there are still far too many kick-ass ladettes for my liking.  But is that advance being mirrored by what gets accepted by the SF magazines?

I'd have to say not.  And that gets me wondering about who the magazines are thinking of when accepting stories.  If their main readership is white males, then they're not going to be keen on  accepting stories showing the evils of rape, because it might offend their core readership.

Which brings me back to those rejections.  I strongly suspect they're about rejecting the feminist subjects I write about and the feminist stances I take in my stories.  

I recently did an internet search for feminist science fiction magazines. It only returned four names, and only one of them was a big name.  But having looked at the stories that magazine has recently published, I'm not impressed with its feminist credentials.  I see stories that reinforce the family-based,  casual sex is normal bankrupt lifestyle that is so prevalent in present society.  In short, the stories were safe, unchallenging, and I suspect chosen not to upset the magazine' score readership.

If speculative fiction cannot speculate on a future where women aren't willing to be sex partners and breeders, where they have their own lives, their own careers, their own money, hopes and dreams, then it isn't an SF I can subscribe to.