Writers have always been put through the wringer to get published; even more so in the last three or four decades for the fast buck over true art. Fair? Hell no! But that has been the extremely flawed business model that the traditional publishing industry somehow got away with...Perhaps, the tables are turning on them now with the new empowering and equalizing technology that has exploded upon us.

I was reading 
Deborah Hansen's writers' group blog  (The Florida Times-Union) the other day in which writers' frustrations were bubbling over. Her post gives some excellent insight into how other writers feel about and handle rejection...With one good nugget of advice for writers.

Deborah says:

'Another rejection arrived today. I must have mailed the submission nearly a year ago, and had forgotten all about it. I thought it was ironic that it came when we were discussing this topic here in the Writers' Group.

Several group members have also experienced the pain of submitting their writing to various outlets, and offered the following:

Mary Jo (
http://jacksonville.com/users/scarlet) related a story from a friend of hers:      I met someone a few years ago who had published a couple of magazine articles and, got paid. I asked how he did it. And, he said. "I walked through hell" meaning, he did what you did. He submitted his brains out. And, no, I didn't hear how much he was paid. But, he did say that even if it had been ten times more than he got, he wouldn't go through it again. Sad, isn't it?

I was actually published in a magazine once! Yeah, I was stunned too! But, it was a small time magazine and I wasn't paid anything. Oh, they did send me a free copy of the magazine. I should try to find it!

New group member, Wyman,  said  "......my submissions have been to Writer's Digest contests, so far. I worried about their guidelines; feared my online submission got lost in cyberspace, which neither they nor I would know: plus, a million other worries a writer should not suffer with. You want to "understand" the need for fees in contests, but you can't help asking: Why should I pay to have my work published? Worse, why should I pay NOT to have my work published? Those dollars add up by year's end.

Tommy Thompson( http://jacksonville.com/users/t-f-thompson)   joined the conversation with the following comments about each call for submissions having different formatting requirements:     A universal rule would be fine and then we'll all have one simple standard, but no, it doesn't happen that way. Yes, I've done it more than once, twice and more than three times, and printing out a heavy manuscript, sending it off...I found it to be more like a shot in the dark. In fact, it was such a pain, I said to heck with it. I firmly believe that writers need agents. I see a lot of good stuff being published and some really bad junk published. Apparently, as you've written in the past, it's about marketing.

Let's hear from you. Why do we do this to ourselves? The odds are against us, and the rewards are few. Post your opinions in the comments section below.'

Ditto on posting your opinions and comments on this blog...I think you have to click on the title of this post at top to make the comments section appear...Thanks for any input, John...