Article submissions

Question for DC1 - being posed on open forum because I think the answer would be of general interest.

Should one expect an acknowledgement of submitted articles and/or an indication of whether such items are/are not acceptable?

I ask, having submitted an outline DRAFT article with no such response. The item, as submitted, was not intended for publication as is and there is no point in my producing an edited, finished version if it is not considered suitable. IF, however, policy is to ask for articles and not bother to acknowledge receipt or indicate acceptability, perhaps David's regular pleas for contributions may not be very fruitful?

Discuss???

Rgds

Bill

I too have requested DC to let me know if articles I have submitted are satisfactory for publication without any helpful result. I have submitted several articles over the last 2 years with some acknowledgement, requests to re-submit them as they have been "lost on the system" and other frankly lame excuses. I am not prepared to go to the trouble of preparing articles for them just to get lost in the system and to receive no feedback as to their suitability.

If my submissions are no good all I ask is to be told so and perhaps receive some indication of why.

DC is constantly requesting articles and I find this so frustrating that I have asked him to no longer consider my articles for publication.

This has also happened to me, however, initially it may have been because my submissions were not as per the relevant submission instructions. To be fair, one of them could also have been a bit awkward, dealing as it did with a repair of my DOL switch which involves mains and made the device non-standard, but without feedback, I have no idea about it's acceptability.

Nevertheless, all have been re-submitted correctly and in accordance with the then relevant submission instructions, but still no acknowledgement or explanation. However, as one of the articles (of the four submitted on CD) has made the magazine, then I know that they have all been received. But, I still do not know whether the others are acceptable or not.

This situation does not engender a good response from me.

Regards,

Peter G. Shaw

Like the other replies I submited an article over two years ago with no response. Earlier this year there were requests for articles so it would appear that it is not that the magazines are not snowed under with articles. If people were told why the articles were not suitable then it may be possible to correct them or at least future articles submited by that person would be more likely to be acceptable.

Les.

Hi There

I try to acknowledge receipt by email or phone.

I do have a lot of articles but if I don't ask for them, they would run out.

The DOL article is near the top of the queue.

I have on occasion asked people to remind me what articles they have sent.

Often this results in several of their articles being published.

I can't remember all the articles I have, too many.

Very few articles are unacceptable, In 5 years, I can't remember one more than a couple I have said no to and that was because they were far too long.

Each issue, I select articles from the pile and when I have enough the others are left to one side until the next time.

I use more from the pile in the summer as I get fewer submissions then.

regards David

Edited By David Clark 1 on 19/05/2012 14:34:27

Hi Cornish Jack

I only received it a week ago.

I have not had a chance to look at it yet.

As it stands, with 500 words and one useable photo it might make half a page.

Perhaps a page with drawings.

With most magazines, articles will sit for months or even years before you get a reply if you ever get one.

regards David

Edited By David Clark 1 on 19/05/2012 14:50:15

Most magazines want postal submissions, not email, and return postage in case it is unsatisfactory.

Editors do not have time to sort through hundreds of submissions and reply to all of the submitters.

Not to mention the cost of postage which is at stupid rates..

regards David

Edited By David Clark 1 on 19/05/2012 19:10:51

David, thank you for your reply.

"Most magazines want postal submissions, not email, and return postage in case it is unsatisfactory."

Interesting, but not very informative. Does it mean that ME/MEW require this or do they prefer email (given postage rates)?

Would a simple standard format email reply really be so very time-consuming?

I can quite understand that editors dealing with professional contributors would require professional standard input but that is not what we have here. One-off amateur articles from men-in-sheds offering (in the main) odds and sods which might have further, but ME specific, interest. If you want to cultivate more such participation, as you frequently say you do, we amateurs need some feedback - even if it's ^%&" off, this is rubbish!! The more regular contributors will, no doubt, be perfectly happy with the 'in limbo' state of communications.

Rgds

Bill

A couple of years ago I asked a friend who has a vast amount of information of my side of the hobby to write an article for another magazine as I felt he was more competent.

After a great deal of research he sent the articles and received no response it was only when I got the magazine and saw his articles that he knew they had been accepted.

Speaking to a well-known club member who has submitted articles to various magazines.

His reply was that it is very common for UK magazines not to respond yet when his articles are submitted to American magazines they keep in touch with you.

When a contributor spends time to write an article surely it is polite to acknowledge their receipt?

Windy

Hi Cornish jack

I only read submissions when I get time.

Usually evenings or weekends.

They all get looked at eventually.

I just don't have time to drop everything and look at them as soon as I get them.

I have to get 3 magazines out every 4 weeks.

regards David

The whole "system" seems slightly weird to me.

If a person submits an article for publication, there is presumably an implied onus on him not to submit it to another publication also. If he receives a negative response that would release him and allow him to submit elsewhere. Surely, if he receives no acceptance (or no response at all) within a reasonable time he is likewise free of that onus.

Since "no response" apparently also means it may get published at some point, it seems possible that he would, by that time, have submitted it to another magazine and the same articles might be published concurrently..

Maybe a bit far-fetched, I don't know, but surely any magazine would want to avoid such a situation by making claim to the article as soon as possible if they intend to publish?

How can I send an intention to publish when I don't know it will be published?

Also until I am ready to use it, I wont commit myself to publishing something.

It may look fine at a quick glance but when we come to edit it something may be wrong, photos too low a resolution, drawings won't open, even on a couple of occasions, the text would not import because it was not utf8. In these cases it is quickly replaced with a different article.

Take the portable engine series. At first glance it looked fine. The wheel article seemed ok and drawings were reasonable. It went downhill from there. The time spent trying to edit this article and sort it out is many days rather than hours.

I try to use articles as quickly as I can. Regular contributors often go straight to the top of the pile as they are a known entity. An article received this morning has already been put into MEW 192.

Two articles received were in Microsoft Publisher format. I want to use them but I can't open Microsoft Publisher documents. Sometimes I get Word documents with the photos imbedded in them, again the photos are no use as the resolution will be too low.

Sometimes I get articles with dozens of photos and I get told to pick what I want.

That will change editing time from a couple of hours to a couple of days.

Guidelines are available but many contributors don't bother to read them. They are not written in stone but should not be ignored.

I use about 35 to 40 articles every 4 weeks, 3 magazines worth.

If I have 140 articles in stock, that will only last two months as 70 of them will already have been scheduled in for the next month or two.

I do have to balance articles as well.

Two ways, firstly a variation of content and secondly I have to work to a budget.

It would not take me long to run out of articles especially through the summer when I don't receive so many.

regards David

Edited By David Clark 1 on 19/05/2012 19:23:13

I would of thought it would be common courtesy to acknowledge a submission. You rely on your readers to submit articles but cannot find time to acknowledge. Surely it cannot be difficult to set up an auto reply for submissions by email and if contributors submitted by post cannot they include a sae for a reply. Without wishing to be rude I find some of your bullet point answers slighly arrogant and contradictory without seeming to give a dam.

Hi Paul

I get about 300 emails a day.

Inevitably some will get missed. Often because the date on the submitters computer is wrong and it does not go to the current date in the email box.

I sort through email every few weeks to see if I have missed anything and usually I have.

I too have submitted articles, up to 2 years ago, no response and they are no longer relevant now as they were event write ups, one I was even asked to do by DC. I shall not write any more, not for this magazine. I was considering a build series for the Romulus I have just started...

Edited By Steve Purves on 19/05/2012 20:07:37

Hi David

It seems to me that you are being pooly served by your masters. Surely, with 300 emails a day on top of your publication deadlines, you really need some administrative assistance - someone who can sort through the mail, acknowledge it , categorise it , and give you a summary to help you in your job. I think your publishing schedule alone is punishing enough and I guess that must take precedence.

You have often said that the content of the magazines is down to the readers input hence the quality (and quantity) of that input is what sells the magazine ( and produces profit for the owners). Now I don't feel able to contribute to the article pot but, if I did, I too would want to receive, at least, some acknowledgement of my submission and feedback as to its suitability. Thus I can sympathise with how those others here feel.

Regards

Norman

I agree with Norman, David, 300 emails a day is a vast number, even if you only give each one half a minute that is two and half hours and if you only deal with 150 then there are 450 emails the next day. You certainly need to get some help by some means! However, how many of them are magazine related, or are you including in that number your internet "Aim for Profit" activity, for which, obviously, the publishers would not be prepared to offer help.

I also agree with Norman that an acknowledgement for articles received should be the norm. I calculate that in the three magazines over four weeks there are in the region of 36 items. Some of course are series so probably only 25 needing acknowledgment. This amounts to about one a day. If you were receiving more than that then your article pot would be growing all the while and you would not be asking for articles. Surely, with a standard letter format, sending one a day, on average, would not be over taxing.

Having been the editor for a short while I am though mindful of the pressure you are under, and realise that your period of ill health will have set you back quite a lot in terms of managing the magazine! Do hope you are back to full health.

Harold

David, you keep asking these (presumably rhetorical) "how can I ...." questions and frankly my reaction is "I don't know ..... but then I'm not an Editor".

I would have thought that managing article submissions including basic acknowlegments/communications was fairly and squarely part of an Editor's function. More so, say, than sorting out readers' subscription problems and other such "off-topic" things - much as we all appreciate the help that you give us. I think Norman is right that you are badly served by your masters. (I don't suppose there's any chance that they soil their eyes by readinng these forums? )

I do know that in the unlikely event that I felt able to produce a screed worthy of publication I would be very loath to submit it into a bottomless pit where, by the act of submission, I apparentl;y give MHS exclusive rights to print it while MHS can take their own sweet time in deciding whether to do so - and keep me completely in the dark in the meantime.

I'm with Sid and Norman on this. There appears to a systemic problem with the way the magazine editing is being managed and David needs some assistance to rectify. These days there's no excuse for not having a simple system of recording the receipt of articles and acknowledging their receipt. If David hasn't the time to record, acknowledge, check or read any of the articles then there is clearly something wrong. We also know from the responses to "drawing errors' the final output isn't proof read very well is at all. Clearly help is needed.

The other worrying thing here is the implication of publishing something that is unsafe (remember the IEC connectors on 12v cordless drills?). I would have thought the magazines lawyers would have something to say if they were aware of the process being followed (or not).

On Sid’s observation of David’s habit of answering with rhetorical questions we probably have all noticed it's a habit he has in his replies, which unfortunately come over as a weak excuses rather than the more positive "point taken I'll fix it".

The worrying thing about this thread is those who were going bother writing something and are now having second thoughts. We're all likely to miss out.

Pete

David,

I have read your rather dismissive replies with interest. You seem to be making the point that you are over stretched producing 3 magazines every 4 weeks. I am not surprised it must be a daunting prospect that is probably too great for one person to tackle effectively. However I would suggest that you need to recognise there is a problem and address it.quickly as it is vital to keep on the right side of all contributors as without them there would be no magazines.