Rejection is eternal, but so are the very human responses of fight or flight. When that manuscript comes back, the reaction that springs up deep down in the gut, whether we are conscious of it or not, is to either tell off the editor, or to curl up in a ball in the corner and get depressed. Then we must shrug it off and go on.

So even though this may be one instance in which some things never change, it’s still useful to take a look at Dr. J. Berg Esenwein’s advice for handling those emotions from his 1908 manual Writing the Short-Story: A Practical Handbook on the Rise, Structure, Writing and Sale of the Modern Short-Story.

Here’s what he had to say about rejection:

However, most good stories finally see the light, for editors everywhere are keenly on the lookout for really good “stuff”—as manuscript is called, and not disrespectfully. I estimate that it costs the leading magazine publishers of this country more than one hundred thousand dollars a year to read unsolicited manuscripts. This does not include professional and technical journals, or the countless smaller publications, many of which pay for fiction manuscript. The publisher and the editor do give writers—known or unknown—a fair chance. …

Never write long letters to the editor. They hurt rather than help. Recommendations and letters of introduction will not secure an acceptance. Neither will letters addressed to the editor and marked “personal.” Except in rare instances, when an emergency justifies the editor’s taking up a manuscript out of its regular order of receipt, or before one of his helpers has passed upon it, all manuscripts take the same course. You will hurt your standing with a magazine by constantly asking for special readings. …

Don’t ask for person criticism of your story. That is the work of a professional critic, who will write you an opinion at the regular rates. The editor is paid to do other things, He would like to help all young writers, but he is too busy. …

Don’t let the printed rejection slip humiliate you. Really great writers get them, constantly. It would take too much time and money for an editorial staff to write personal letters to all who offer unsolicited manuscript.

Never write back sarcastic letters when your offerings are rejected. You may need that editor some day. Although personal pique seldom actuates him, he may be frail enough to be annoyed when his well-meant efforts are assailed. …

Don’t be discouraged if your story comes back. Re-read it, and if you are quite sure it is the best you can do, send it out again, using your best judgment as to the magazine to which it seems suited. If it comes back again, lay it aside for another reading when it will be fresh again. If you see anything wrong then, bravely rectify it and send it out again. Many a story has been sold on its tenth, yes, its twentieth trip. But it is a waste of postage and patience and editorial brain to keep on sending inferior material to magazines which are plainly too critical to accept loosely constructed work.