The Clouds Have Lifted

Well, well, well. I finally got my article published.

Are all magazine publishers impossible to work with? Rhetorical question, since I'll never have to deal with any of them again, but this is not the first time I've had to jump through hoops to get a publishing issue resolved. Has anyone else gone through this? 

It all started innocently enough. The book blogger, who also publishes a magazine, routinely solicits authors whose books she reviews to pen an article for her publication. I finally managed to spit one out. There's a 300-word limit, so the only difficult part was coming up with a topic. When I submitted it to her, I asked if my novel's review would be situated alongside it. You bet! Great. I can use any publicity I can manage to scratch out.

After some time had passed, I emailed and asked when my article would be published. She professed ignorance that I'd even submitted an article to her, but luckily I still had our email correspondence as proof. Oopsie! She'd mixed up my actual name with my pen name. Not a problem---I would be in the January issue.

Four days ago, she shot an email to all her subscribers, announcing the latest issue. Yay! Finally! I clicked on the link she provided, searched the blurb that listed all the contributors, but my name was missing. I stewed for about a day, then emailed her again, politely asking if she'd given me the wrong date for my inclusion. Then I waited. And fumed. I'd, after all, donated fifty dollars, which she'd asked for, and which I considered fair. Now I was fifty dollars poorer, with zilch to show for it.

Well, today I (finally) got a rather snippy response. It's right there! (is essentially what she replied.) This time she sent a different link and even a zip file to, I guess, vindicate her. Is it my fault her latest issue announcement included the wrong link? 

Ever have to fight so hard for something trivial, that when you finally get it you don't care anymore? Well, here I am! 

Regardless, I'm now published:

Click on the image to be taken there. 

 

I'm pretty sure this won't be the sales magnet I hoped it would be. The physical version costs $9.99, and for a digital copy, $5.99.

Have I mentioned before how glad I am to be out of the publishing biz? 😀 I can't handle all the aggravation.