Sending Articles For Publishing In A Stamp Society Journal

I was wondering if I should continue sending articles to a stamp society that I am a member of since I have not been told by them whether they will publish anything or not. I assume that if they were interested in any of my submissions, I would have heard back from them, but since I haven't heard back from them I would assume that they are not interested in any of them. Thus, I am thinking of not renewing my membership in the upcoming year if I don't hear anything from them.

Ask them to give you a straight answer. If not, find another philatelic outlet that might be interested.
Or publish in your own blog/simple website, if possible.

Even if they don't want to publish your stuff, they still owe you the courtesy of a reply. What seems to be occurring is a version of poor customer service. Even if just volunteers, the editor(s) still needs to communicate with members.

Jogil. Two suggestions. Post the name of the publication. Publish your articles on Wordpress.

It would be interesting to know who you are talking about. I recently joined both the BNAPS and the RPS of Canada and hope neither organization would behave in this fashion. You are owed a response whether they regarded your submission as having any merit or not.

Generally, whenever one sends written articles, etc to a place to be published you will not hear from them unless it is published and sometimes not even then. Sometimes there are 100s or 1000s of material submitted monthly.
This may help"

http://www.freelancewriting.com/art...magazine.php
http://www.writerswrite.com/journal/jun03/bell.htm

Also, send a self addressed stamped envelope and ask they return unused material if within their guidelines.

I don't think free lance writing is the same thing as what the original poster is identifying. Most philatelic society publications; in my experience; do not pay for articles. Specialty societies; at least the ones I belong to; are usually in need of articles.

(Disclosure: I do not belong to any US stamp specialty societies).

I won't be revealing them yet unless I decide to not renew my subscription or resign from membership. I will still try to give them the benefit of the doubt since they probably get many submissions. Sometimes, it's just because someone on their committee doesn't like or agree with what one has written, but they don't have the courtesy to tell you so that you can deal with or respond to their objection.

How long has it been since you submitted the manuscript? Receipt should have been acknowledged immediately, but acceptance might well take longer. Send the editor an email and ask if he got the manuscript and when you might excpect a decision on publication. Those are reasonable questions.

Don

It has been over six months. They did acknowledge receiving it but nothing else. I think that I am jumping the gun here. I need to be patient, but unknown anticipation of their yes or no decision can be anxiety provoking.

jogil:

After six months, I think it would not be inappropriate for you to ask the editor when you might expect a publication decision. At the same time, editors move slowly, some times asking for an outside opinion on the appropriateness of your article. Also, if you sent a physical manuscript as opposed to a digital format the manuscript will surely need to be transformed into a digital format. That too take time and effort from the editorial staff.

So, my advice is to check on its status, but at the same time be patient. Getting to the publication stage takes time. In any case, I don't think you should quit the society you submitted to because of slowness or rejection of the manuscript. Chalk it up as knowledge and understanding acquired and submit your article to a different publication next time.

Don