Starting April 1, 2009 we will no longer send courtesy emails letting authors know that we cannot accept their submissions as is. If a submission does not follow our submission guidelines, it will be deleted unread and no receipt email will be sent.
The two biggest complaints are failure to put the story title in the subject line and incorrect attachments. If we can't open it, what's the point of sending it? If we can't find your submission amid the 300+ in our inbox, it wastes our time and yours.
All markets have specific guidelines they wish authors to follow, and ours are not incredibly difficult. So if you didn't read our guidelines prior to submission and you didn't get a receipt email within two days, assume you did something incorrectly, read the guidelines to figure it out, and resubmit it properly.
This may seem harsh, but we've had the same submission guidelines for more than a year and we still receive dozens of incorrect submissions. What's worse are the rude replies I've received to our courtesy emails letting the authors know why we can't accept their submissions as is. So enough is enough. Our submission guidelines specifically state that "Emails received without the proper subject will be deleted as junk mail." It's time we followed through.
JDawson
Editor-in-Chief
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2 comments:
Your submission guidelines are clear and reasonable. Aspiring writers need to realize that ignoring certain protocols is as counterproductive as going to a job interview wearing frayed jeans and a tee-shirt.
"Your submission guidelines are clear and reasonable."
- Thanks! That's good to know!
JDawson
Editor-in-Chief
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