My story "Through Thy Bounty" originally appeared in a small press anthology called The Midnighters' Club. As a result, it got an honorable mention in Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 15. Later, I re-sold it to Apex Online; as a result, it was optioned by an indie filmmaker (though, just like the vast majority of options, the film didn't get made). Still later, it was purchased by LampLight. Most recently, you can find the story in my Stoker-winning collection While the Black Stars Burn.
Which is a long way of saying: this is demonstrably a decent story. Not a story that sucks. An entirely publishable tale.
It also got rejected about a dozen times before the first publisher bought it.
The story was essentially the same the first time I sent it out as the lucky number 13th. But nobody knew who I was, and competition for slots in short fiction venues is tight. Paying publishers might only accept 3% of what they receive through open calls.
So, what can you learn from the tale of my tale?
Don't. Give. Up.
If you believe in a story, keep sending it out. If you get feedback that makes sense to you, act on it! But don't give up. You can write a good story and get lucky and sell it to the first place you send it, but chances are that if you're starting out, your first bunch of sales are going to be very difficult. If I had given up after ten rejections and thought, "Well, this story must not be any good!" I'd have been dead wrong.