Hey -
I bought "Click" and "Falling"... I've written hundreds of stories and a novel... but I gotta tell you, the submission page needs (at least) some clarification.
You could indicate what happens immediately after someone uses that web form.
If not, the hopeful author is left in the completely in the dark... particularly if you don't "like" what they've submitted. S/he should be informed ahead of time about what signals a successful use of the form. It is to be hoped that there is also an autoresponse sent by e-mail when the submission is first accessed by a human, since no database is infallible either.
This would be overkill, except that you've deliberately created ambiguity - "Sorry we cant respond to everybody...".
You know what events will follow, and under what conditions. Of course, we cannot be certain.
When people take the risk of giving you a peek at their work, choosing not to send at least an automated response would be a significant red flag, for me.
And if prospective authors can expect any deferred confirmation, I hope you'll consider elaborating about that a bit more on the submission page. Electrons are cheap, and people deserve to know more about your process if you're not going to commit to at least sending a customary rejection e-letter. It seems as though it would reduce the number of duplicate or test submissions too.
Hope this doesn't come off as snarky. I want you guys to thrive.
- c.
Another Sky Press Forums » Another Sky Press
What does "respond" mean to you ?
(7 posts)-
CGrrr
MemberPosted 7 months ago # -
Strangely, we only changed that text about 3 hours ago - before that, it read along the lines of 'We'll respond to everybody within a day or two'. The problem was that this can be, and was, overwhelming.
The secondary issue is that we don't always know how long it will take. For example, if the submission is for an upcoming anthology we wait until we finalize the entire set of stories that will be in the anthology until we make any official announcements. If the submission is for a novel there's generally quite a few other submissions before it in line as well. It's usually difficult to give an accurate time assessment.
We thank you for your input - we will switch it back to how it was.Posted 7 months ago # -
How does the new text sound to you?Posted 7 months ago #
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CGrrr
MemberThe phrase following "Please Note:" seems candid, and humane... You can only do what you can do, and most folks realize that.
I guess there's a variety of possible reasons for not sending a "Yup - submission received - please be patient" autoresponse e-mail.
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You're not after first rights, I take it? An author not hearing from you for months could have sold the submission somewhere in the meantime, which could un-finalize your anthology contents after the announcement.Posted 7 months ago # -
Judging by the responses you've given me to date, I believe I can well and truly congratulate the team on this forte!
Once more? Thank YOU.
;)Posted 6 months ago # -
Hey, just to update everyone... we've fallen slightly behind on submissions again (we get ALOT), but we're also in the midst of designing a new website that has a far better submission system. It's already tested and works great, but we're still getting the rest of the site beautified and all that good stuff.Posted 1 month ago #
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We implemented the new submission form on the current site. It should simplify the process greatly.Posted 1 month ago #
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