Today’s topic comes from a reader. (By the way, I am always open to topic suggestions, so feel free to drop me a line anytime about something you’d like to see discussed.)
The questions are, What do you do when a journal accepts your work, but then it never gets published? How should one withdraw a piece that has been accepted? How long should a writer wait? What is the editor's responsibility?
These are great questions, and I can share some of my own experience, as this has happened to me.
Awhile back, a solid, reputable online lit mag accepted a short story of mine. I was psyched. The editor informed me the piece would go live in the spring.
Alas, this was right around March 2020. As it turned out, nothing went live that spring.
When I checked in with the editor, she assured me the piece would appear in the summer issue. Fine, no problem. We were all readjusting our lives in countless complicated and overwhelming ways. A delay was more than understandable.
Then, summer came and went. I contacted the editor. She told me the issue would go up in another few weeks.
It didn’t.
Shortly after, she stopped replying to my emails.
This, here, is where I draw a personal line. To the question of what is an editor’s responsibility, I think an editor always needs to communicate with contributors. If an issue is delayed, fine. If the issue won’t come out for another year, fine. If you’ve got toddlers flinging jelly at the wall while you try to zoom with your colleagues and keep flaming zombies from bursting through your windows and it just so happens that getting your lit mag out on time is the very bottom thing on your enormous toppling-over tower of things, okay, I get it. We’re all human. (Except the zombies.)
The only thing I ask is that there is communication. When a writer thinks they’ve been cast aside, when a writer has no idea when the issue will come out or if it even will come out, that’s when there is a problem.
I politely emailed the editor and asked to withdraw my story. There was no reply, which confirmed that I’d made the right decision.
Then, sometime later, the editor emailed me. She had the proof ready. The issue with my story could go live that week. She showed me the page with my story, asked me if I still wanted to withdraw my work.
I said I did, and withdrew it.
I want to be 100% clear that I have absolutely no hard feelings toward that editor or that magazine whatsoever. The past two years have been bonkers, and that spring and summer were especially disorienting.
However, for me, failure to communicate in some instances is a real show-stopper.
It’s hard enough for writers just trying to get our work published. The entire process already makes us feel like squirrelly little supplicants, submitting ourselves relentlessly, our most cherished words at the mercy of inscrutable, unpredictable, inaccessible yet extremely powerful kings and queens who just might hold the keys to the gates of our future.
When our work actually gets accepted, and we still go on to linger in uncertainty, I think it’s best to (politely) wrest as much control of the process as we can and, if we feel we need to, cut ties.
As it turned out in this case, there was a happy ending. The editor completely understood and was nothing short of gracious; I congratulated her on the new issue. I went on to submit my piece elsewhere, and several months later it was accepted at another magazine where they did a beautiful job with it.
Of course, it doesn’t always turn out this way. (I’ve had less happy endings, which I can discuss another time.)
For now, my advice? As a wise man once said, you’ve just gotta know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em, and know when to walk away.
What do you think?
Have you ever had work accepted, only to see it languish?
Have you ever pulled a manuscript because the editor wasn’t clear on what was happening? If so, how did you explain your desire to pull the work?
Could withdrawing your work be a mistake?
How long should you wait to hear back from an editor?
Have you ever pulled a piece of writing and regretted it?
Right now I'm sitting on a uncommunicative editor who accepted five of my poems six months ago. I'm about to pull them after multiple emails without a response. I pulled four poems from an online review that said they'd be up and running again by 1 August (the current page is dated May 2022) but also has stopped answering emails. I just don't get why a simple email saying we're on hiatus until X is so difficult for some folks to write, or write twice in the case of the latter journal. Parenthetically, I have over 50 person-years of editorial experience with scientific journals. Only once did we have a situation like that and it was quickly rectified.
I had a poem accepted about a year ago. The original estimation from the editor was that the issue (it's a print only publication) would drop in February. In March I received a contract to sign and a proof of the poem. The message was "I expect the issue to publish very soon." On the web site you can see the cover of the issue and a listing of contributors, mIy name included. I began a casual and friendly email exchange with the editor in April focused primarily on our mutual commitment to the Chicago Cubs -- lots of humor, a few photos of T-shirts exchanged. Then silence -- crickets.
I'm honestly concerned about the health of the editor (we both enjoyed the correspondence) and certainly the financial state of the journal. I don't want to pester any more and I'm reluctant to withdraw the poem because the journal is visually stunning and the poem is a little specialized but a perfect fit for the journal. Sigh. I'm just going to continue testing my patience for maybe another six months -- I understand it's supposed to be some kind of virtue or something...
Yes. It happened to me with an elegantly-produced webzine that underwent first, some sort of management crisis, and eventually just fell into radio silence for well over a year--this was before Covid. Eventually I sent a final email withdrawing the story, which I have still not placed, though honestly I've been focused on newer work.
There's another story out at an idiosyncratic one-person operation that I suspect will also never see the light of day, though the editor does keep in sporadic touch. It's not one of my greatest, so I'm letting it ride.
Magazines that tell you up front of standard delays--one rag publishes a year after acceptance--those don't bother me.
This happened to me with my first chapbook, and I let it go on way too long. After the ms was accepted, I didn't hear from the publisher. A lot of time went by, but--since I didn't know my way around chapbook publication--I wasn't sure what to do. Then Covid hit, and there was a message on their website that they were shutting down for a while. I let some more time go by, then--when the message was removed--I wrote to the publisher. She didn't answer, so I wrote to the editor who had sent me the acceptance; she didn't answer, either.
I knew that they were running behind, but it was beyond my understanding why they didn't have the courtesy to reply to my emails. Eventually--a long time later--the publisher sent me a perfunctory "apology." She also informed me that my contract had run out; I thought that it might have, but that particular wording in the contract was vague, so I wasn't sure.
She offered me a new contract. I didn't want it, but I also didn't want to have to start over, so I said yes, provided I be given a precise timeline. The new contract was unacceptable--this time, they wanted money--so I just never replied. I've had three chapbooks accepted (one was published while all this was going on) since I got mixed up with these people, but my first one is "out there" again, looking or a home. These people wasted a whole lot of my time.
Thanks, Becky, for sharing your own experience with an editor who dropped into the void on you. I am glad you found a comfortable way to end that situation with respect expressed on both sides. I have experienced the same lack of communication following an acceptance a couple of times, both times with print journals that disappeared and didn't inform me (so I assume the other contributors weren't informed either). One of them was a fly-by-the-seat-of-its-pants journal but the other was affiliated with a university - it had a prestigious poetry editor, who was also left totally in the dark and finally suggested I withdraw my work. I think we have to decide when it's time to do that and go ahead, maybe with a "if I haven't heard by such-and-such a date, I'll send the work elsewhere". I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I knew I'd made commitments and then left people hanging, maybe indefinitely, but we all deal with overwhelm in different ways.
I think that is great advice. This is also a good warming (especially reading the comments here) for those of us easily given to overwhelm, if/when they take on publishing roles.
I had a story accepted for an anthology. Long long delay. Finally I followed up and got a voicemail from the editor, telling me she loved the story and literally begging me not to withdraw it. When the book came out at last, it included a tribute to the editor, who had committed suicide. You never know.
So, I had a poem accepted by a publisher who has an established journal and does anthologies. My piece was for a COVID anthology to be published "at the end of the pandemic"--ha. Accepted in Feb. '21, I followed up Nov. '21, said they were still waiting. Emailed them more recently and no reply. I understand the intended goal but...they are STILL supposedly accepting submissions on Submittable per their website and they are DNQ now on Duotrope due to lack of activity for a year. Trying to decide if it's OK to submit to other journals BEFORE trying to withdraw, especially since they don't respond
I have had this happen to me exactly once, for a piece written specifically for a particular journal. I still don't know if it was published. But I got a check for it, whether it was payment for publication or for a kill fee, I don't know. The journal is hybrid and only half of it shows up online, and I never got a contributor's copy, so I'm leaning toward it being a kill fee, as the essay was commissioned by a previous editor and centered around a particular event.
Note: for those who are unaware, a "kill fee" is what you get paid for an item that is submitted but not published, often an item written after you've had a query accepted by a journal.
"Communication" is my number one priority when dealing with a publisher of any sort. A failure of communication such as you describe speaks to other potential issues with the publisher in question, and in my book, means that I add that publication to the list of places I won't submit to (which also includes any journal that requires a submission fee or subscription. Period. I am capable of self-publishing anything I write in a couple of venues, and I'm not sufficiently stylish to win awards, so I don't really care).
Great advice! Too much time is wasted being angry with journals who don’t respond. I especially like the picture you chose to accompany your article. Thanks for the good morning chuckle.
Great topic. I had an anthology accept a story of mine, one that promised payment. It took a loooong time for the contract/agreement to appear, but I didn't have a problem with that. What I wasn't excited about was that they wanted all the same rights but now weren't going to pay me — the best they could do was to offer me a discount on copies. I did not sign the agreement and told them so — and then, crickets. As far as I know that story is out there somewhere in their anthology. Left a really bad taste in my mouth.
Lol @ "squirrelly little supplicants," Becky! Ain't that the truth!
I've never experienced this exact situation of such a long lag between acceptance and publication that it becomes worrying. What I've now been through twice is having editors provisionally accept my work, but then the back-and-forth revision process becomes so drawn out I end up withdrawing the piece. It's one thing if the mag is paying, but if they're not, no I won't endlessly churn out new versions only to have an editor continue to be dissatisfied. And no, I won't wait for weeks between communications. I hate that feeling of limbo.
I've also had lovely experiences with provisional acceptances, where I make the necessary revisions and boom, the piece is the better for it and is published in a timely manner. The only difference between the two scenarios? In the successful one, there was an established pub date from the get. As others have said, I think having a pub date up front is key.
Yes. I have had this happen twice. The irony is I always go for the expedited process, even if I pay, or pay extra. But a fast acceptance is not gratifying if the venue takes forever (sometimes literally) to publish, it simply ties up the piece. I wish Duotrope or someone tracked stats on time-to- pub! I am not getting any younger.
The one very cool magazine said in the guidelines it could take six months, which is OK. But they had told me in the acceptance three, and were not nice when I asked about it at the five month mark, referring me to the guidelines, when I had thought the personal correspodence might superscede those. OK...so a few months later they accepted a different (faster, tho no shorter) genre from me, and put it up immediately. I took that opportunity to ask about the first piece, and it finally went up over a year after it was accepted. I sill really vibe with that place, but would not submit to the "slow genre" ever again.
The other acceptance is from over two years ago and they place seems to have gone defunct after only one issue. I really should withdraw that poem, and maybe I will, but I have kinda moved on, anyway, myself, and would probably not send it out now anyway.
A well-known children's magazine accepted and paid for five short nonfiction pieces over two years ago. They only published one of them. The editor who accepted them has transferred. I haven't been focusing on writing for children lately so I've just been letting them sit there. Sometimes I think about asking from them back. If I did would I have to return the payment?
Great topic. I haven’t had this happen but on a related note about communication I wish journals when they accept work would also tell writers about payment, or lack thereof, even if it’s in copies etc., and or/ discounted copies. It’s uncomfortable to ask even though it obviously shouldn’t be.
Well that sucks, I'm sorry that happened to you. I try to be clear to writers about what to expect when I send acceptances. I say here's my plan, I'm going to send you a link to proof and then we'll go live on this date (and I send separate messages for all these things). I think I do this because of the anxiety I've seen writers have around NOT knowing what's happening or when. I also welcome any questions, although it may take me a few days to respond. Sometimes time flies by so fast before I realize it. I say, if your work is accepted, and then there are crickets, you have every right to withdraw your story.
Your lack of empathy for editors confronting flaming zombies is a sad sign of our times. While flaming zombies generally burn themselves out rather quickly and are less harmful than the non-flaming variety, my experience with them has been distinctly unpleasant and I totally sympathize with your non-responsive editor.
Hi, I've had this happen a few times. In the last 12 months I've had 2 short stories accepted then rejected. One was rejected after the editor got a second opinion. The other story's editor told me he had no funding and was closing his doors. In 2019 I had a translated story enthusiastically accepted which required that the publisher pay for rights, and though the editor was ok about that, I got nothing but promises for the next 2 years, till eventually I got no answers at all. I withdrew the story and submitted it elsewhere, successfully. I also once submitted a collection of short stories to a publisher which was accepted straight away. However, I then bought a similar book from them to see what their quality was like, and found it full of typos and no evidence of proofreading other than a spellcheck, and when I mentioned it to them, they asked me to provide a list of the errors and suggest corrections, which I refused to do. They instantly changed their mind and cancelled my contract, saying they already had too many books to publish. Since then, I've sent many individual stories from that collection to various journals and had success. I have no regrets about any of these acceptance fails, since it often worked out for the best.
It shows extreme unprofessionalism on their part to hold up a work like that. There must have been some major chaos going on in that journal's boardrooms. I'm glad it turned out well and I think you made the right decision not to be drawn into this kind of turmoil and indecisiveness. They need writers to make their journals work but they don't often show the respect they should. RT
I haven’t had this happen...yet, but did once email an editor who accepted my piece, and named the specific month it would be published. Two days before that month came to a close, I emailed to kindly ask if perhaps it had been moved back a few weeks, and feeling a little pushy nonetheless. They responded, kindly as well, a day later and it appeared that day. The last day of the month.
Right now I'm sitting on a uncommunicative editor who accepted five of my poems six months ago. I'm about to pull them after multiple emails without a response. I pulled four poems from an online review that said they'd be up and running again by 1 August (the current page is dated May 2022) but also has stopped answering emails. I just don't get why a simple email saying we're on hiatus until X is so difficult for some folks to write, or write twice in the case of the latter journal. Parenthetically, I have over 50 person-years of editorial experience with scientific journals. Only once did we have a situation like that and it was quickly rectified.
I had a poem accepted about a year ago. The original estimation from the editor was that the issue (it's a print only publication) would drop in February. In March I received a contract to sign and a proof of the poem. The message was "I expect the issue to publish very soon." On the web site you can see the cover of the issue and a listing of contributors, mIy name included. I began a casual and friendly email exchange with the editor in April focused primarily on our mutual commitment to the Chicago Cubs -- lots of humor, a few photos of T-shirts exchanged. Then silence -- crickets.
I'm honestly concerned about the health of the editor (we both enjoyed the correspondence) and certainly the financial state of the journal. I don't want to pester any more and I'm reluctant to withdraw the poem because the journal is visually stunning and the poem is a little specialized but a perfect fit for the journal. Sigh. I'm just going to continue testing my patience for maybe another six months -- I understand it's supposed to be some kind of virtue or something...
Yes. It happened to me with an elegantly-produced webzine that underwent first, some sort of management crisis, and eventually just fell into radio silence for well over a year--this was before Covid. Eventually I sent a final email withdrawing the story, which I have still not placed, though honestly I've been focused on newer work.
There's another story out at an idiosyncratic one-person operation that I suspect will also never see the light of day, though the editor does keep in sporadic touch. It's not one of my greatest, so I'm letting it ride.
Magazines that tell you up front of standard delays--one rag publishes a year after acceptance--those don't bother me.
This happened to me with my first chapbook, and I let it go on way too long. After the ms was accepted, I didn't hear from the publisher. A lot of time went by, but--since I didn't know my way around chapbook publication--I wasn't sure what to do. Then Covid hit, and there was a message on their website that they were shutting down for a while. I let some more time go by, then--when the message was removed--I wrote to the publisher. She didn't answer, so I wrote to the editor who had sent me the acceptance; she didn't answer, either.
I knew that they were running behind, but it was beyond my understanding why they didn't have the courtesy to reply to my emails. Eventually--a long time later--the publisher sent me a perfunctory "apology." She also informed me that my contract had run out; I thought that it might have, but that particular wording in the contract was vague, so I wasn't sure.
She offered me a new contract. I didn't want it, but I also didn't want to have to start over, so I said yes, provided I be given a precise timeline. The new contract was unacceptable--this time, they wanted money--so I just never replied. I've had three chapbooks accepted (one was published while all this was going on) since I got mixed up with these people, but my first one is "out there" again, looking or a home. These people wasted a whole lot of my time.
Thanks, Becky, for sharing your own experience with an editor who dropped into the void on you. I am glad you found a comfortable way to end that situation with respect expressed on both sides. I have experienced the same lack of communication following an acceptance a couple of times, both times with print journals that disappeared and didn't inform me (so I assume the other contributors weren't informed either). One of them was a fly-by-the-seat-of-its-pants journal but the other was affiliated with a university - it had a prestigious poetry editor, who was also left totally in the dark and finally suggested I withdraw my work. I think we have to decide when it's time to do that and go ahead, maybe with a "if I haven't heard by such-and-such a date, I'll send the work elsewhere". I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I knew I'd made commitments and then left people hanging, maybe indefinitely, but we all deal with overwhelm in different ways.
I like your strong-willed confidence in declining the late chance for publication. Most people would have folded; me probably, for instance. 😎
I think that is great advice. This is also a good warming (especially reading the comments here) for those of us easily given to overwhelm, if/when they take on publishing roles.
I had a story accepted for an anthology. Long long delay. Finally I followed up and got a voicemail from the editor, telling me she loved the story and literally begging me not to withdraw it. When the book came out at last, it included a tribute to the editor, who had committed suicide. You never know.
So, I had a poem accepted by a publisher who has an established journal and does anthologies. My piece was for a COVID anthology to be published "at the end of the pandemic"--ha. Accepted in Feb. '21, I followed up Nov. '21, said they were still waiting. Emailed them more recently and no reply. I understand the intended goal but...they are STILL supposedly accepting submissions on Submittable per their website and they are DNQ now on Duotrope due to lack of activity for a year. Trying to decide if it's OK to submit to other journals BEFORE trying to withdraw, especially since they don't respond
I have read all the comments here... they are a bit depressing for a newcomer to submitting, but it is so good to know. thank you, everyone..
I have had this happen to me exactly once, for a piece written specifically for a particular journal. I still don't know if it was published. But I got a check for it, whether it was payment for publication or for a kill fee, I don't know. The journal is hybrid and only half of it shows up online, and I never got a contributor's copy, so I'm leaning toward it being a kill fee, as the essay was commissioned by a previous editor and centered around a particular event.
Note: for those who are unaware, a "kill fee" is what you get paid for an item that is submitted but not published, often an item written after you've had a query accepted by a journal.
"Communication" is my number one priority when dealing with a publisher of any sort. A failure of communication such as you describe speaks to other potential issues with the publisher in question, and in my book, means that I add that publication to the list of places I won't submit to (which also includes any journal that requires a submission fee or subscription. Period. I am capable of self-publishing anything I write in a couple of venues, and I'm not sufficiently stylish to win awards, so I don't really care).
Great advice! Too much time is wasted being angry with journals who don’t respond. I especially like the picture you chose to accompany your article. Thanks for the good morning chuckle.
Great topic. I had an anthology accept a story of mine, one that promised payment. It took a loooong time for the contract/agreement to appear, but I didn't have a problem with that. What I wasn't excited about was that they wanted all the same rights but now weren't going to pay me — the best they could do was to offer me a discount on copies. I did not sign the agreement and told them so — and then, crickets. As far as I know that story is out there somewhere in their anthology. Left a really bad taste in my mouth.
Lol @ "squirrelly little supplicants," Becky! Ain't that the truth!
I've never experienced this exact situation of such a long lag between acceptance and publication that it becomes worrying. What I've now been through twice is having editors provisionally accept my work, but then the back-and-forth revision process becomes so drawn out I end up withdrawing the piece. It's one thing if the mag is paying, but if they're not, no I won't endlessly churn out new versions only to have an editor continue to be dissatisfied. And no, I won't wait for weeks between communications. I hate that feeling of limbo.
I've also had lovely experiences with provisional acceptances, where I make the necessary revisions and boom, the piece is the better for it and is published in a timely manner. The only difference between the two scenarios? In the successful one, there was an established pub date from the get. As others have said, I think having a pub date up front is key.
Yes. I have had this happen twice. The irony is I always go for the expedited process, even if I pay, or pay extra. But a fast acceptance is not gratifying if the venue takes forever (sometimes literally) to publish, it simply ties up the piece. I wish Duotrope or someone tracked stats on time-to- pub! I am not getting any younger.
The one very cool magazine said in the guidelines it could take six months, which is OK. But they had told me in the acceptance three, and were not nice when I asked about it at the five month mark, referring me to the guidelines, when I had thought the personal correspodence might superscede those. OK...so a few months later they accepted a different (faster, tho no shorter) genre from me, and put it up immediately. I took that opportunity to ask about the first piece, and it finally went up over a year after it was accepted. I sill really vibe with that place, but would not submit to the "slow genre" ever again.
The other acceptance is from over two years ago and they place seems to have gone defunct after only one issue. I really should withdraw that poem, and maybe I will, but I have kinda moved on, anyway, myself, and would probably not send it out now anyway.
A well-known children's magazine accepted and paid for five short nonfiction pieces over two years ago. They only published one of them. The editor who accepted them has transferred. I haven't been focusing on writing for children lately so I've just been letting them sit there. Sometimes I think about asking from them back. If I did would I have to return the payment?
Great topic. I haven’t had this happen but on a related note about communication I wish journals when they accept work would also tell writers about payment, or lack thereof, even if it’s in copies etc., and or/ discounted copies. It’s uncomfortable to ask even though it obviously shouldn’t be.
Well that sucks, I'm sorry that happened to you. I try to be clear to writers about what to expect when I send acceptances. I say here's my plan, I'm going to send you a link to proof and then we'll go live on this date (and I send separate messages for all these things). I think I do this because of the anxiety I've seen writers have around NOT knowing what's happening or when. I also welcome any questions, although it may take me a few days to respond. Sometimes time flies by so fast before I realize it. I say, if your work is accepted, and then there are crickets, you have every right to withdraw your story.
Your lack of empathy for editors confronting flaming zombies is a sad sign of our times. While flaming zombies generally burn themselves out rather quickly and are less harmful than the non-flaming variety, my experience with them has been distinctly unpleasant and I totally sympathize with your non-responsive editor.
Hi, I've had this happen a few times. In the last 12 months I've had 2 short stories accepted then rejected. One was rejected after the editor got a second opinion. The other story's editor told me he had no funding and was closing his doors. In 2019 I had a translated story enthusiastically accepted which required that the publisher pay for rights, and though the editor was ok about that, I got nothing but promises for the next 2 years, till eventually I got no answers at all. I withdrew the story and submitted it elsewhere, successfully. I also once submitted a collection of short stories to a publisher which was accepted straight away. However, I then bought a similar book from them to see what their quality was like, and found it full of typos and no evidence of proofreading other than a spellcheck, and when I mentioned it to them, they asked me to provide a list of the errors and suggest corrections, which I refused to do. They instantly changed their mind and cancelled my contract, saying they already had too many books to publish. Since then, I've sent many individual stories from that collection to various journals and had success. I have no regrets about any of these acceptance fails, since it often worked out for the best.
It shows extreme unprofessionalism on their part to hold up a work like that. There must have been some major chaos going on in that journal's boardrooms. I'm glad it turned out well and I think you made the right decision not to be drawn into this kind of turmoil and indecisiveness. They need writers to make their journals work but they don't often show the respect they should. RT
I haven’t had this happen...yet, but did once email an editor who accepted my piece, and named the specific month it would be published. Two days before that month came to a close, I emailed to kindly ask if perhaps it had been moved back a few weeks, and feeling a little pushy nonetheless. They responded, kindly as well, a day later and it appeared that day. The last day of the month.
So, people: should I have waited?