So glad to know that my instincts about promoting stories with ads were right. Even when a friend shares an article as a “must-read”, I usually don’t read it. I think the advice about submitting to multiple publications might not be true for everybody. If you are writing to a very specific audience, I can see where it might not make sense, but I write about topics where it’s not always apparent which publication is a good fit. A haiku, for instance, could find a home at any number of publications and might be rejected by one simply because they have enough haikus at the moment. You can also re-write an article that doesn’t appeal to one publication in a way that might appeal to another. If you really believe your article has something to say to somebody, it may take a little work to figure out who, but I don’t think you should give up after one rejection. You might let it sit and percolate a while and go back to it later. It’s worth a shot.