Diary of a Mad Editor

As I’ve stated in a previous blog entry, I like to occasionally lurk on discussion forums “eavesdropping” on idiots. So, yesterday, after returning from my daily walk, I was lurking on The Gazebo, reading through some old posts and I came across this conversation between a group of poets about a particular editor (not me, my dears) who had reacted negatively to a poet who withdrew a poem that had already been accepted. I gathered the reason she withdrew the poem was because she’d sent it elsewhere (several elsewheres) and had it accepted by another publication she deemed more worthy than the publication that first accepted it. She tried to salvage the situation by pulling a “bait and switch” — submitting lesser poems to replace the one she’d withdrawn. Since the editor was close to deadline and was not terribly pleased to release a poem she’d accepted in good faith, she more or less declined to play footsie with the poet. The poet thought the editor was being unfair. Of course this lead to the discussion — more like a witch burning — in which several poets consoled the poor poet for being so ill-treated. One poet even had the nerve to rant: “Where do editors get off thinking they’re doing us a BIG favor by accepting our work?” Or something to that effect. I’ve discussed this topic on this blog on several occasions — both the etiquette involved in simultaneous submissions/acceptances and the attitude among writers that they are doing us greedy editors a favor submitting their work. I guess I’m not done discussing these matters, because obviously no one’s getting the message.

It doesn’t really help that the poet who spurred this discussion, the one who had the problem with the editor is someone I’ve published in the past. And even though she wasn’t talking about me, I took the matter personally. As I recall, she was a royal pain in the ass when I dealt with her, so I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me that she’d have problems with another editor and be on The Gaz badmouthing her.

My dear poets and writers, you are not doing us editors a favor by submitting your work. In the best of circumstances, it is a symbiotic relationship. We, hopefully, have good material to fill an issue and you have, if not monetary gain, at least some good exposure and a legitimate publication credit to pad your precious C. V. with. In the worst of circumstances, we ARE doing you writers a favor. Take it from a guy who is battling cancer, folks: your writing ain’t gonna cure cancer. We editors aren’t getting rich, fat and happy publishing largely unknown writers who routinely whine and crybaby on discussion forums about what ogres we editors are. And, just for the record, it’s not my job to wipe your rear-end and bake you cookies. So get over it already.

And as for withdrawing a poem after it’s been accepted — especially so close to a publication deadline is just not right. There is a protocol for simultaneous submissions. You must inform the publications you submit work to that it is a simultaneous submission and once it is accepted, you must inform every other publication that the work is no longer available. What you don’t do is wait and see if the really, really important literary journal accepts it, then inform the poor ezine editor that she can’t use it after all. An acceptance is a contract. It’s a matter of honor — yours, dear writer. Me, I don’t have to publish you. I don’t have to read your submissions. But you have to write and you want to be published. If you keep making a horse’s ass of yourself, sooner or later, you will become persona non grata among those you send your work to. And guess what, dear writers, we editors talk about you guys too.