Should I mention this in my cover letter?

[clintl]

I have a couple of stories that I sold to small press magazines that, as far as I know, folded before the stories were published. Well, maybe "sold" isn't quite the right word, because I never got paid for them. And I'm assuming they were never published, because I never got copies, either. I want to start submitting these stories again. Just to cover myself in case they were published without my knowledge, should I mention that in my cover letter, or is that not necessary?

[RGame]

If you know for a fact that the magazines folded, there's no reason to mention it. I had that happen to me a few times too. Those small-press magazines usually don't run more than a dozen issues. If you're not certain if they folded, try e-mailing them to make sure or send them a letter. It could be that they're just taking a long time to be published. That's also pretty normal in the small-press. I had one story accepted by a magazine that I assumed folded, then a year or two later I found out from the Internet that it had actually been published. I just never got my copy.

[maestrowork]

Unfortunately, probably not a good idea to mention it (sorry). The magazine folded, you piece was never published, and you didn't get paid for it. Three strikes against you. There's no way you can prove that credit...

[clintl]

Unfortunately, probably not a good idea to mention it (sorry). The magazine folded, you piece was never published, and you didn't get paid for it. Three strikes against you. There's no way you can prove that credit...

Actually, I would rather not mention it, because I want to market the stories in question as unpublished stories.