Wednesday, September 06, 2017

Withdrawal symptoms

When editors fail to respond to submissions, and then fail to respond to status queries, it's time to formally withdraw ms. from those editors. I've done it several times over the years, most often withdrawing stories from publications that were new or new to me. A few times lately, I've even withdrawn stories from publications where I suspect the editors never saw my submissions (or my withdrawal letters) because they don't monitor their spam folders.

But last night was different.

Last night I withdrew 15 ms. from a pair of markets that have been exceptionally good to me over the years.

Monthly publications, they haven't published an issue since July, haven't paid for several months, and haven't responded to emails from me or from other writers I know. So, even though the publications might be dead, I went through the process of identifying and withdrawing everything in their slush pile.

The two publications represented the last of a dying genre, and the unpublished stories I wrote for them will be difficult to place elsewhere. So, it is time to move on, to write more in other genres while seeking appropriate places to submit these 15 withdrawn stories, and to move forward rather than look backward.

1 comment:

Lida Bushloper said...

I agree, Michael, it's good practice to tie up loose ends, even when we think it doesn't matter. Good luck re-working or otherwise placing the stories elsewhere.
Lida Bushloper