At the weekend I withdrew a story from a market (that shall remain nameless) after seven months with no response. Now, it’s not the length of time that was the issue. Although, seven months is pushing it. I withdrew it because I recieved no replies to my queries about its status. Which is where the paranoia comes in. Paranoia: a state I have some close familiarity with, has a particular presence on the internet. I blame the impersonal nature of emails, chat, text, discussion forums, etc… (not that they’re all bad – and I regularly chat on a particular forum which is always warm and fuzzy…) If I receive no reply to an email, my brain starts to work overtime – “did they receive it at all? Should I send another? Or, would that just be annoying? But if I don’t then how will I know? Did they reject my story out of hand due to some error in format? Perhaps, but why haven’t they responded to my fourth email etc…
With the market in question, I queried after the specified time in the guidelines; no response. Queried again after another two months; still nothing. Left it another two months; still nothing. Withdrew it, and of course, no response to that either. Fair enough, I guess. Move on and don’t feel bitter. Just can’t help feel a little annoyed at the complete lack of any reponse – even if was just to tell me to feck off. I would have happily left it with them for as long as it took, as long as I knew that I existed to them.
And there endeth the rant.