Struggling Authors

Back in September, I was excited because I had my first full-length article accepted by a regional magazine. I had to provide photographs as well as the text, and was told the feature would appear in the October edition. October came, and I was told they couldn't fit it in, but that it should appear in the November edition. November has now come round, and . . . yep, I've now been told it should appear in the January edition. I am disappointed to say the least. If my article does eventually appear in the magazine then great; I will be thrilled. But will it ever see the light of day? Has anyone ever experienced this? If it's never going to get published in this particular magazine, I'd like to pitch the article elsewhere, but how long should I wait? It's a dilemma.

Well you actually own the article, the magazine has no hold over it whatsoever so you can pitch it elsewhere any time you like, but of course then you face the problem of severing ties with the magazine that have agreed to run it already . Tricky.

It must be very frustrating being told it will appear only to have it pushed back. And of course you don't get paid until after it appears which must make it all the worse. It's not something I've ever experienced (simply because I don't have the guts to do a pitch) but I've heard about it happening a lot. Bloody editors. If I were you I'd wait until the Feb edition is out (just to give them that extra chance) and if it's still not in there then start pitching elsewhere.

Anyone got any good magazine addresses?
I'd like to start sending articles/short stories/mindless drivel but I don't have the time nowadays to trawl the net for addresses/websites/free nude pictures.
(Ok, I lied on the last one but don't tell my wife please)

Find this book next time you go to Barnes & Nobles...
http://www.amazon.com/2007-Writers-Mark ... 1582974276
I know for a fact they have a huge list of different places you can submit short stories to. I'm not sure about magazine submissions.

Thanks Spur.
It looks good, just got to convince myself to buy it, lol.

You can always copy addresses and phone numbers straight out of the book. You don't have to buy it.

I have had my first article published! Whilst I am chuffed, some of the pleasure has been taken away by how amateurish the magazine concerned has been. They kept putting it back, saying it would appear the next month, and it never did. The last I heard was that it may appear in the January edition. I found out recently, however, that they printed it in the December edition. I wasn't sent a copy at the time, and despite being offered a small fee for the article, nothing was sent regarding that either! To top it all, my surname has been spelt wrong. But on the positive side . . .

It's a dirty business we've dipped our collective toes into, isn't it?

I sent an email with a short story to a magazine and they didn't even acknowledge that they'd received it. I mean, if it was some massive publishing house or nationwide publication I wouldn't mind but it wasn't; it was some ploppy little science fiction rag that I'd never heard of before.

I don't expect acknowledgement of receipt when I send printed pages and I don't expect a personally scripted reply when I send electronically.
However, a simple, "we've got your email sucker, we'll get back to you" is just plain common courtesy.
I even asked to make sure they'd received it but again there was no reply.
It's not the the fact that they didn't answer that annoys me though, it's the arrogance and the lack of respect that it denotes.