The Laughing Wolf

Shoe Was Right

In the march of progress, there are always stubborn pockets of athletes foot. In today’s freelance market, there are scores of publications that refuse to join the electronic age. This in and of itself may not be bad, after all there are all those paper related industries to support, a post awful to confuse, filing cabinet makers to support, and landfills begging to be clogged.

From my biased perspective, it is just plain bad business. With e-mail queries, I can get my rejections at the speed of light if the publications have me in their filters. On the positive side, it means that I can query an editor, get interest or non-interest comments and/or acceptance/rejection notices in a fairly timely manner. Since I make my living by the word, and timeliness is critical to making sales, determining what stories I am going to do or not do, when things are scheduled, and all such things as that, I am most interested in pitching ideas and getting replies as fast as possible.

It amazes me the publications that will not accept electronic submissions, from the old and stuffy to the new and sleek. The only correlation seems to be lots of attitude, of “We are it, and you are not” within the folds. That fits, given the games that used to be played in the submissions department. Items were rejected, or just flat out thrown away, because of some implied lese in terms of the envelope used, the paper used, or even that the address wasn’t done in the preferred way.

As a freelancer, I, along with others, eagerly sought after the mystic knowledge of such arcane twists. The foibles of any given magazine or editor were things to be treasured, to be shared with trusted friends, or doled out as favors to be collected upon later. It was not enough to have a good story or idea, but to meet all the hidden hurdles as well. Good stories are a dime a dozen, getting them into print is the hard part.

It still goes on today, even in the electronic age. Care is lavished on subject lines, greetings, and your lede. There are many schools of thought, and at those publications that do accept electronic submissions there are probably just as many foibles as before. They have changed from paper to matters of type and word choice, but they are there just the same.

Which makes it all the harder to understand those that refuse to join the modern world. They can still be as fussy and snobby as they like, just about slightly different things. It can’t be because of the volume of submissions, as such is actually easier to deal with in electronic format. Not only do you have a delete key as needed, you also have the ability to do automatic boilerplate rejections and more. You can clear the slush pile in record time if need be, or sit and take your time if desired.

The advantages are with it, but I suspect that the musty smell of tradition is in the air. The old adage of “this is the way we have always done it” lilts along the corridors. In some cases, it may be a simple lack of thought. Just now, I was contemplating a trip down to the library to do some research on a particular subject and a particular publication. It was several minutes before the neurons connected and I realized that I might just be able to do it online.

Time to get out the powder, and make sure that I am not a kettle calling the pot.

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