Rejection. Never something to relish but, sadly, a necessary part of working in PR… you write an article or opinion piece and try to syndicate it to relevant publications to gain profile for your client, or for yourself. Sometimes, despite you feeling all zeitgeisty and flooding with confidence, the product of your tapping digits is rejected or, if it’s done nicely, not considered ‘relevant’ for the readership. It all amounts to the same thing – a big fat NO that sends you scurrying back to that little safe place where you try and persuade yourself that it’s not you, it’s them and they’ll be crying into their decaf rooibush when they see it placed elsewhere and realise with crushing clarity that they’ve just done the literary equivalent of Simon Cowell turning down the Spice Girls.
It happened to me this week, I’d just finished writing a piece about ‘The Female Future – a New Business Model’. My focus was on the Print industry, which is where I spend a good chunk of my time, but the points raised had a much wider application. I had fun writing this, it was factual, well researched and pertinent (if I say so myself) and more than that I was excited by it. “This is it” I thought to myself as I sent it off to the the publishing editor, “this is going to start a progressive discussion that might actually bring about positive change.” “Ha-de-Ha-Ha” any cynical onlookers would have thought, “here comes a living illustration of the fabled fall following the pride.”
