Word count 1177

Poorly written reasons to cut back on writing:

1. I wanted to get an Iceland credit.  Close to two hundred days later after submitting to Mantlepiece,  I gave up and withdrew the sub and quickly got the “smart car” episode published the usual two places for smart car episodes.   The piece was then accepted at Mantlepiece despite the withdrawal, but wouldn’t run it because it was a reprint.  I told them what I thought of them, but got no reaction.

2. A story was accepted enthusiastically at Ariel Chart.  Publication date came and went without publication.  I asked why.  Somebody overrode the publication, but wouldn’t tell me why.  Ariel Chart’s website whined about writer’s behavior.  I countered in comments about their rotten behavior.  Somehow those comments went away, but all of the praise and the back patting stayed.

3. Can’t remember the name, may be suppressed , but it was a flash publisher.  I had published one story in the “mature” publication which was pretty raw.  A second was accepted which was also “mature” because of the success of the first.  It was run a day and then pulled.  When asked, I was told that they did a post publication rejection.  I cut off all contact with said publisher.

4. The few places that have rejected a story after I’ve withdrawn it.  Don’t remember names.

5. The publications that don’t care about the story, but pull out the “rule book”.  We found an adverb or exposition – get out the reject stamp.

6. The really stupid reasons for rejection.  A fat cat couldn’t dance – yes that was a rejection reason.  He wouldn’t have taken her back – somehow the editor can see into the character’s brain.

7. I won’t Shunn again.  Shunning a story of three pages takes as long as it does to write.  I won’t send a story to someone who needs to be reminded (header or footer) the name of the author and title on every page of a three page story.  The few times I tried, it didn’t work.

8. I probably won’t go a publisher that cares about the number of spaces after a sentence.  The publisher wants to put older writers at a disadvantage, and what reader cares?  The only place that had a one space story of mine, Potato Soup went out of business, and I’m glad even though I lost a credit.

9. I usually avoid the many publishers that don’t respond to publications.  We are supposed to guess when something has been rejected.

10. Based on rejection notes, many of those rejecting are bad writers.  The usual boilerplate isn’t too bad, but why are they rejecting “at this time”?  I should send it back in a week?  And no, it didn’t take a lot of courage or work to submit to you.  I threw some words together in a few hours and sent it off.  Your rejection doesn’t bother me; I’ll send it somewhere else and get it accepted.  Your opinion doesn’t impress me more than my opinion and they are all subjective.  I’ve had a rave follow a rejection for the same story.  See You hope I have better luck somewhere else?  I take it you didn’t see that it’s a reprint, I’ve already had better luck.  I don’t want critiques, particularly those that sound like they came from a lit prof grading a paper (adverbs, exposition).  One publication ignored the request and told me it’s what they do every time. Didn’t go back there.  I can think of three times that I sold out to get a story published based on a publication’s critique.  Teleport wanted more detail, so I did it.  The story got four thousand reads, of which I estimate three thousand were from me.  Teleport died.  Another was deleting a “damn”.  No problem, didn’t change the story.  See 13. for one where I messed up.

11. I think it was called Other Stories or some such.  I sent off a sub to them.  When they sent out a message, I’d forward it with an ad for myself.  Other Stories told me to stop it and say good things about them.  I checked on Duotrope and found out they had a low acceptance rate and were bad at responding.  I told them I had nothing good to say about them, but would not add myself to their emails.  I was asked to sub something to them, which I already had.  Instead I withdrew all of my subs.  I think the publication is gone.  In more detail https://doug.car.blog/2020/10/24/exchange/.

12. I had good luck with Terror House.  It published several of more stories, including some in the R or X rated Good Demon series.  A few years ago, the main guy Matt Forney quit responding to submissions and would not give a reason.  It could be politics based on what I’ve heard from him in Twitter.  A few weeks ago he said he’d email me something.  He hasn’t.

13. Like Terror House, I did well publishing on Bitchin’ Kitsch until a rejection was based on grammar “issues”.  Editor didn’t finish reading the story.  I was irritated because I don’t think issue is a synonym for mistake.  Further inquiry indicated the “issue” was commas.  Two humans and one computer had accepted comma placement.  Later I subbed a story purporting to be political candidates’ diaries.  It deliberately had diary grammar errors because I didn’t think much of the candidates.  It was rejected on the grounds of grammar in what was close to monologues.  In response I cleaned it up and it was accepted.  Then I screwed up after changing my mind and withdrew it.  That got me banned which I can’t argue with.  Later the publication began to ask for the ethnicity of submitters which would have been a deal breaker for me anyhow.  I avoid the publications that explicitly or otherwise tell me paleface older males need not apply unless you have a disability.

14. I won’t pay to submit.  It seems a bit like vanity press, which I avoid, but worse in that paying to submit probably doesn’t get you published.  I have subscribed and done Patreon, but may not anymore.

15. I read through my website counting the number of stories which were in defunct journals.  When I got to the 450^th story, 100 were in defunct journals.  It would be a nice gift to the authors published in those defunct journals to either find a way to keep the website up or convert to WordPress which would continue to exist without any maintenance.  In decreasing order of my happiness with defunct journals:

            1.Give a warning the site will not publish more stories, but old publications will still be available.

            2.Give a warning the site will no longer exist.

            3.Disappear with no warning

I have examples from each category.  Not quite defunct, but one publisher is taking a year’s vacation.

16. Not an additional gripe, but I was forwarded a Reddit note which echoed and expanded on my feelings about format, response time/simultaneous submissions, and fees.

17.What did I forget? Must be the Men In Black.