When last I wrote, I was still licking my wounds. I had submitted my very first academic article to a well esteemed academic journal and it was rejected!
Yeah. That hurt. Badly.
I know I was not the first and certainly will not be the last. But it hurt anyway.
It took me a month to even look at the feedback. They wanted me to refine my perspective on one part of my argument and this refinement was accompanied with an extensive reading list.
Let me say that the rejection did not help with the book writing project either.
My partner kept saying hurry up and incorporate the edits. Let's just say that rejection and "hurry up" don't go together well.
This summer I plodded through their reading recommendations. I enjoyed that and my mind started grappling with changes in my argument. I loved reading this stuff just for the sake of reading it. It's part of what I live about being an historian. I found the love of doing this part of academic work. And that made the rejection worth it!
By December, though, I realized I had something new and improved! Their feedback did make it a more subtle article. I have lovely people around me and I had another journal teed up. I'm pleased that it is submitted!
I have a four month wait for that article. Meanwhile, the journal that rejected me said that they would be interested in an article using a particular clump of sources, so I shall get to work on that. I have a nice part of a draft, there's more to go. Belcher shall guide me on writing it (How to Prepare an Article in 12 Weeks or something like that!).
And I know that I very well should possibly expect another rejection. Perhaps a revise and resubmit? That would be progress!
Stay tuned!
