Early hours of Day 59. I had an email from an editor last, which made me irritable, to say the least. It featured block capitals and exclamation marks and various instructions. As block capitals and exclamation marks always make me feel like I’m being shouted at, and as I’d followed all the instructions, I began to think critical thoughts.
This is the second journal to start carrying on like a tin-pot dictator in the last few weeks and as I write for relaxation I can do without it. Americans, though supposedly laid back, decentralised and in favour of freedom, do seem to like issuing instructions, just like any other nationality.
I didn’t reply. There is no point.
Then I got the second email. It seems he was declining my submissions as they were two days late. They weren’t. They were two days before the deadline. It’s not a problem, as they are only words, but it’s annoying to be called unprofessional, which is basically what is happening here. So I have dropped him a polite line telling him that I fear something has gone awry with the system. It may well be Russians messing with communications, but it isn’t me. It does, however, explain the previous email with the block capitals etc.
I am going to have to get a move on and get my submissions in earlier.
The question is, how do I count this for submission purposes? I’m inclined to count it as a submission, because I did the work. I’m not so sure about counting it as a rejection, because it wasn’t really rejected. It was hung up in the system and I’ve been asked to resubmit next month.
This is the third time I’ve had a submission disappear into a black hole that was not of my making. I’ve also had one disappear as a result of my email ineptitude when I blocked gmail (which could have been worse). The editor who got shirty with me with that one was English (I add that for the sake of balance – the Irish, Canadian and Indian editors all took it in their stride).
I like email. I tend to avoid ordinary mail now if I can. But sometimes it is a pain.
My Orange Parker Pen
In electronics, there is a tri-state condition that can be designed in. Your submission that “did not get there in time” could be considered that, and not influence your count. Perhaps you could make a third category. 🙂
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-state_logic
I agree, the postal service is not what it was, which also affects Fed-Ex and UPS. I had a package yesterday that was delivered to a house across the road and dumped in a ditch near her gate up a very long driveway. The package was heavy, and it was raining. She saw it when she came home from work, and came over here to let me know. I called the shipper. The shipper used Fed-Ex which they think used the postal service here as the last leg. A complaint was filed. They will be hearing from me today.
Yes, a third category is the way froward. I will count it a s a submission but ignore it for the purpose of acceptance/rejection and think of a name for this third state.
There is NO EXCUSE for that sort of behaviour!!!!
Absolutely! 🙂
I think people are less inhibited by civility and more easily pushed into uncontrollable irritation now. Mostly, my complaint is that everything submitted disappears into a black hole for 6 months, yet, heaven forbid you should send out multiple submissions. I did once have an editor get nasty with me over a submission, but I can’t remember now what it was about–and it was back in the days when they wanted an SASE for return. I do remember rolling my eyes and thinking “I paid for that–twice.”
The ones that really irritate me are the ones that tell me that if I don’t hear in three months I can assume they don’t want it. I only submit to them when I have nothing better to do. Email is so much simpler than stamps and envelopes and the thud of returned submissions landing on the mat.
🙂
I agree with Derrick again. Someone who thinks it necessary to ‘shout’ in an e-mail is obviously suffering from stress and anxiety and not necessarily to be relied upon. The fault is not with you.
🙂 Into each life, some rain must fall. Longfellow. Though the internet tells me that it’s also Ella Fitzgerald and the Inkspots. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJ9IaplRrm4
Very nice! Thank you. 🙂
🙂
In such a message BLOCK CAPITALS and a surfeit of !!!! make me question the sender’s mental health. I once had a crossword editor who would telephone me with effusive praise then suddenly dropped me with no explanation.
People are strange, aren’t they? And the more I see of them, the more I wonder about them. WordPress is the last oasis of sanity on the planet, apart from the people I have blocked . . . 🙂