What To Do When Your Pitch is Rejected

If there’s one thing I learned as a creative, it’s that rejection is inevitable. As humans, we experience rejection in many different ways. Yet, that doesn’t mean rejection is necessarily a bad thing.

Reminder: Not every idea you pitch will be accepted, and that's OKAY!

I think innately rejection affects us. No one wants to feel rejected and that can be a really tough pill to swallow when it’s related to our work. We pour our everything into our work and often look for outside acceptance from our peers, coworkers, employers, and industry leaders. Which is certainly not a bad thing either! Rejection is a natural part of being a creative.

It’s being okay with it that’s the important part.

As a freelance writer, I currently get my articles published by reaching out and pitching ideas to editors. Each publication does it a little differently, but it still comes down to creating a relevant, sellable idea. Over the summer, I pitched a listicle article over to a video game publication that I looked up to. It wasn't accepted. I was bummed at first, but I decided that I didn't want my idea to go to waste. It came to me that I didn’t have to let my article pitch die in an email. I had already written a headline and 200 words, which is already a blog post itself, so I decided to challenge myself to create a listicle that I would write if it were actually accepted. My portfolio still needed work relevant to the video game industry, so I figured it would be good to show future editors that I can write in this style by adding on to my original idea. That’s how Five New JRPG Demos on Nintendo Switch was born.

“Once I shifted my view on rejection I began to feel more comfortable with it overall. ”

The rejected article still served a purpose. The rejection also made me realize that I am really passionate about this industry, so one rejection or even 1000 more won't stop me!

I’m here to tell you that you shouldn't let it stop you either! Your ideas ARE valuable! The reality is that not everyone is going to see it OR at that time, need it. Don't let it discourage you! Heck, turn it into your own content because that's awesome too. The content you end up making out of rejected pieces could lead to something even better than you originally expected. The possibilities are endless. Make a blog post then turn that into social media content and promote the heck out of it. When it comes time to pitch to the next person you now have even more examples to back yourself up.

Rejection is inevitable. You can count on rejection, but you have to keep moving forward. Turn your excitement and energy you had about pitching the idea to someone and carry it over to your own content! Once I shifted my view on rejection I began to feel more comfortable with it overall.

There are plenty more rejection letters beyond the one I shared, but I am now working on developing ideas that haven’t made it past the pitch stage. Did someone say a fan-fiction piece based on my most recent rejection letter??

I’d love to hear about your experience too. What’s an idea that was initially rejected whether by a company or you that now serves a new purpose?