The best response to rejection, courtesy of SCBWI board member, multi-award winner and best-selling author and poet Jane Yolen

Looking for some inspiration? Check out Jane's response to a recent rejection, as documented on her Facebook account:

Jane writes: "OUCH. Not a great start to the New Year: a rejection of five poems for an anthology. Hope it is an outlier and not a predictive model. So I sent out five more to a different journal."

Five poems rejected, five more sent out the SAME DAY.

There's a reason that Jane Yolen is the consummate pro that she is -- and that she's published over 350 books. She takes care of business, and also takes care of her creative self, keeping the fires of hope fed.

Work rejected? Send more work right out again, so there's always a sense of hope moving forward.

This is so wise, to not marinate in the NO, but put out for the MAYBE right away. And in this industry of writing and illustrating for children, that's probably the sanest (and best) way to get to the YESes that are waiting for each of us.

Thanks, Jane!

Illustrate and Write On... and keep submitting!
Lee