Saturday, March 01, 2008

Lost Respect

When you only get to the computer after a 10-12 hour work day, and help with kids' homework and caring for a geriatric person, you make mistakes. a couple of months ago I submitted a story to Alien Skin Magazine, where my work has already appeared twice. One of those appearances was an editors choice story. On this particuar occasion, I was tired and misread the guidelines, transposing the first and second digit of the word count limit from 3500 to 5300 words.

For a simple error, I get listed, without warning, here. To be perfectly frank, it pisses me off. I have a list of publications to which I refuse to submit, but I don't advertise that list to the world. I find the page at the other end of the above link to be unprofessional, in poor taste, and just plain petty.

Despite very little new material produced in the past six months, I still have 42 unpublished stories in the marketplace. I track them in a spreadsheet by story and by market when I submit. I update the spreadsheet on the fly, but guess what? Mistakes do happen when you try to keep that much inventory in the market.

Petty can go both ways. You won't again see anything of mine appear in Alien Skin.

No comments: