Oh, ffs, I hate this idea that there is a monolithic writing industry with a closed-door process that’s meant to keep people out. It’s, to be honest, a load of bovine fecal matter.
There are problems, to be sure. There’s a tendency to chase after the latest trend, to assume that something won’t sell because nothing like it has sold before, or to dump a pile of money on someone famous because they’re famous (Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff), but that isn’t some publishing conspiracy, that’s human nature. And to pick a well-worn example, Harry Potter was widely rejected before it was finally picked up and became a media franchise. But none of this was some sort of conspiracy.
The fact of the matter is that publishing creative writing takes persistence and luck. Rare is the person who sends something out and gets a yes from the first place they sent it.¹ I’ve been through bios of over 5000 authors for the rankings that I publish at https://creativewritingmfa.info and many of the prize-winning stories/poems/essays were rejected multiple times before they were accepted, and these are presumably the best of their breed and are a small percentage of the nominated pieces.
It’s comforting to tell yourself that you’re not getting published because they won’t let you into their “club,” but truth be told, the bigger problem is likely that your writing just isn’t good enough and needs more work.
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1. I keep stats on my own publications and of the 20 stories I’ve published to date, the lowest number of rejections a piece has received has been 3, the highest 67.² I've averaged 49 rejections for every acceptance over the last 16 years, but the past few years, that’s been closer to 25–28 as I’ve gotten better as a writer.
2. This most-rejected story got near-miss rejections from Granta and The Atlantic, both of which are highly prestigious publications.