My Weirdest Publication Experience (or, why I want to submit to more print journals)

Late last year, I met up with he editor of a new online journal, who told me I should submit work, which excited me since it was an "invite only" type of publication. I won't say which journal, and the poem itself is now gone anyway (we'll get to that).

So on the editor's verbal recommendation, I sent some poems then didn't hear anything for a while. When I shot over a request for an update, I received what I guess was my "official" invite.

I guess it's "written" invite only

Sweet. I resent the work and was published later in December. I followed the journal from time from time and noticed that the editor used what appeared to be a lot of their original photography. I sent a quick FB chat message asking the editor if they would be interested in submitting to Oddball Magazine, which I help edit. A few minutes later, I received this from Facebook.

Yah, dude. Respect is key!

Okay. I'm just going to say that this person was guilty of something I have done in my past: Talking crap about someone and having said crap get back to the person via my own hands. I'm not proud of my own transgression, and it was a big one that cost me quite a bit. In fact, this recent experience is prompting me to air my own dirty laundry at some point in the future.

Anyway, out of sympathy for the editor (and maybe also due to a passive nature I can have in awkward situations like this), I was content to let things lie and not respond to the email.

Then, not even ten minutes after the bombshell, the editor followed up with this.

That's quite a...unique dare.

Said person was obviously embarrassed and flailing. I let it go. I really really did. Some people don't like Oddball. I get it. It happens. The editor got caught doing something foolish and maybe a little petty. I know what that's like. 

What I didn't expect was for the editor to take their embarrassment out on me.

A while ago, I was looking over my website, cleaning things up and checking for dead links. I found one, and it was my link to the aforementioned online journal. I went to the website thinking I put something in wrong, and looked for my poem again. It wasn't there. 

Was it deleted by accident? I decided to ask the editor directly. They were really quick to respond, unfortunately.

But I can resubmit, right? Right?

 

I emailed the editor the first graphic I showed here, proof of their own direct invitation. I saw in the chat box that they were typing a reply, but after a few minutes that reply never came. The editor was blocked on Facebook after that.

There was at least one other poet I knew with work on the site. As far as I know, they were not deleted.

I should have asked who this person that supported my work was. I want to follow them to whatever literary thing they're working on now.

This is one of the reasons I'm glad print publications still exist. It's much harder to be wiped out of existence due to the unstable whims of fellow artists. It makes me wonder how often it happens.