2017 - Alice Hatcher / 177 Rejections
Alice Hatcher won the inaugural trophy.
About
Rejection Competition is open to all writers of all levels, all genres, all ages, and all over the world.
Every year, Reneé Bibby runs a friendly competition to see who can acquire the most literary rejections in a calendar year. Inspired by Kim Liao’s Lit Hub article “Why you Should Aim for 100 Rejections a Year,” the competition reframes rejections as “wins.”
Read more about the motivating benefits of Rejection Competition in Michelle Ross' article on Atticus Review.
What are the timelines?
The competition runs January 1st–December 31st every year.
Writers can join at any point of the year but are encouraged to join at the start of the year to enjoy the motivation of competition.
What counts as rejections?
The competition is for publication rejections (poetry/essay/CNF/stories) but not novels, agent representation, residencies, or writing positions.
It’s the rejection date that counts, not the submission date. If you submit the piece in the previous year but receive the rejection in the current competition it counts towards that year’s competition.
Each rejection of a single piece counts in the tally, i.e., a single piece may have multiple rejections; or, for example, even if pieces are submitted together the individual pieces are counted as their own rejections.
It’s purely rejections, not publication ratio. Part of the competition includes celebration of acceptances but winners claim their division solely on the number of rejections.
What do writers win?
There are currently no prizes attached to winning. When Reneé launched the competition in 2017 all of the participating writers were in Tucson and at that time it was possible for everybody to gather in a year-end celebration to hand off the Wings of Triumph, a ridiculously oversized trophy (pictured below). Since then, the pandemic and the prohibitive costs of shipping Wings of Glory to people outside of Tucson has made this a bragging rights competition only.
Winners will be honored with publication on this site with a link to their website and announcements on Reneé’s public social media.
How do writers participate?
First step it so to sign up following the procedures, below.
Every month, writers enter their rejection tally into a shared Google Sheet that is built and managed by Reneé.
Keep writing, keep submitting, tallying your rejections, and reporting them in the spreadsheet.
Writers can also report their acceptances and awards in the shared Google Sheet.
At the end of the year, Reneé sends out a publication that highlights the acceptances of all the members for the year.
Can I invite others to join in?
Absolutely! This competition is open to all writers! To invite others, please share this page with any interested people as it will answer most of their questions and provides the easiest way to register.
Winners
2023
Division 1
BEE LB, 310 rejections
Division 2
Jake Dennis, 159
Divison 3
Anam Tariq, 53 rejections
2022
Division 1
Lisa Bass, 269 rejections
Division 2
Timi Sanni, 121 rejections
Division 3
Aina de Lapparent, 36 rejections
2021
Division 1
Eric Scot Tryon, 364 rejections
Division 2
Lisa Harris, 147 rejections
Division 3
Sharon Wexler, 26 rejections
2020
Division 1
Kim Magowan, 191 rejections
Division 2
Sharni Wilson, 109 rejections
Division 3
Lisa MacDonald, 25 rejections
2019
Division 1
Michelle Ross, 172 rejections
Division 2
Lisa Harris, 77 rejections
Division 3
Lisa MacDonald, 15 rejections
2018
Michelle Ross, 207 rejections
2017
Alice Hatcher, 177 rejections
Join Rejection Competition
Choose your division
People are at all different levels of publishing. There is a division for all levels of writers.
Choose your division when you sign up. The idea is to find a division that fits your experience and use friendly competition to motivate you to do more than you would normally and win the division you’re in.
Division 1
Writers in this group …
Have multiple pieces completed
Send their work to more than one journal at a time
Are familiar with literary journals and generally know where to send their work, or how to find places to send work
Average 150-300 rejections a year
Division 2
Writers in this group …
Have a few pieces completed
Send their work to one or two journals at a time
Are familiar with literary journals but may have to spend some time doing research to find new places to send pieces to
Average 50-150 rejections a year
Division 3
Writers in this group …
May only have one or two pieces completed
Send their work to a few journals
Spend some time researching where to send work
Average 10-50 rejections a year
Division 4 - Under 10 Club!
Writers in this group …
For whatever reason, be it life circumstances or being new to submitting, are aiming to get just a few rejections this year!
An awesome year would include breaking into double digits rejections
Average 0-10 rejections a year
Sign up
Ready for the challenge? Let Reneé know you’re interested in participating. You will be added to a distribution list for that year’s competition and granted access to a tracking spreadsheet to tally your rejections.
Please indicate if you will be using a pen name in the spreadsheet. Reneé will be the only person with access to your real name.
Your email will not be shared with other participants.
2018 - Michelle Ross / 207 Rejections
Michelle accepts trophy from the 2017 winner, Alice Hatcher.
