help with wonky DS title

If you haven't heard from the forum, I'd just write it as you mention and see what the editor will do with it. In fact, I wouldn't even put a note in to the editor and just hope they're thinking the same way you are. Worst case you abandon it and claim it when it goes back in the queue.

I've had the same issue with titles in the past. In this case, I just wrote the article to my interpretation and hoped it would be acceptable. Only about half of the time have I alerted the editor to my dilemma, and I haven't had any rejections yet. I hope your article worked out well.

I have started seeing that a lot more -- exact title matches at eHow and lots of times, howstuffworks.

I’ve noticed the same thing and in a lot of cases it’s actually helped especially with finding another reference source. I can’t use eHow of course but I can use the other writer’s sources if I need another one. I’ve had a few that were for whatever reason stomping me on how to phrase something. I knew what I wanted to say but it wasn’t clear enough, at least in my thinking but when I read how another writer words it, the light bulb will go off above my head. It’s weird though when the article you’re working on are for eHow and you find the exact same article when you’re searching. Do they really need two?

Last week I had a friend who had a CE send her to the forum for title clarification. The article was on how to work with a medical device. My friend wrote it as an instruction on how to work it and the CE said they thought the article should have been written on how to perform work with the device. The device is one that is surgically implanted. The CE told her that they would go with whatever she was told there. She posted the topic and received an answer that she was correct; the CE then approved the article. However, the person who responded at the forum told her that isn’t the purpose of the forum and to go to the helpdesk with stuff like that in the future even if the CE send her to the forum as they did.

I’ve been told to use the forum in the past but haven’t because the piece wasn’t worth the extra work to me. I have used the helpdesk and lately they haven’t been any help at all. I either don’t get a response back in time and the last two times I’ve requested help I’ve been told the email was received blank and to please send it again. It’s been too late to even bother with both times and I know the words were there, I could see them and check them until I got the response from helpdesk that the email was blank.
Any thoughts on that?

Also, has anyone appealed a reject using the form? I need to appeal a reject because the CE rejected it saying one of my sites was blacklisted and the site isn’t blacklisted by DS and that particular client doesn’t have a blacklist at all. The source is blacklisted by one or two clients but I wasn’t writing for them.

The form is a PDF, but not one that allows me to enter information on as some do. I can’t copy and paste it either so I can use the official form. I don’t want to waste ink and paper and add additional expenses on my part to print it, fill it out and scan it back in. Anybody else dealt with this? Is that how I have to do it, print it out and then scan it in? If so, do y’all think that is a way to discourage writers from appealing? In this case it would wipe out any profit, actually fighting it at all has already wiped out the profit but it’s a principal thing now. The CE was wrong and the article should be approved. There was one minor oversight on my part, that was corrected and the additional site was added to back that point up. The CE then likes the article but says the site is blacklisted, which again, it wasn’t.

I’ve also heard that the powers that be almost never overrule a rejection. I have a problem with that, because if the CE is wrong, the CE is wrong. Yes, stand behind your editors by all means however if they are wrong in the reason they rejected an article, such as this one than they ought to be overruled.

The same friend I’ve written about who has had so much success with DS has had two CEs tell want rewrites recently where they wanted something changed that should not be changed. Both times he told the editor, and it was one of those rude editors, that the he stood behind his article, to please reject it so he could complain about them, how rude they were and they could be dealt with appropriately. Both times the article was accepted after that without the requested changes or another word being said.

One thing I really wish they’d do is let us know who our CEs are. Give us a first name or an ID number. They know who we are and I think when they get out of line and are rude and condescending we ought to have a right to take action against them. We should have a way to contact them directly for clarification.

One last thing and I’ll step off my soapbox, if a CE wants a rewrite because they don’t understand something and you explain it to them and nothing is changed, than it should not count as a rewrite but as approved no rewrite because that is exactly what it is.

Okay, anybody have any answers or comments?

SS

From what I've read, once an article is rejected, that's the end of the story. You have to appeal when you get the rewrite request. I would say that once its rejected, just ignore it and move on -- whatever the process, it won't be worth your time for only $15 when you could write 5-10 more articles in the same time period.

As for the appeals on the rewrites, I think I've done that twice and it went my way once and the CE's once. But then I realized that was the same way -- the time and effort to put into getting that one article wasn't worth it because I could just ignore it and write more articles. When I get a rewrite request, if its not glaringly clear what they're asking, it goes in the "abandoned rewrites" pile for me and I head off and write two more articles.

Some CEs wake up on the wrong side of bed, and that's just the way it goes. Keep writing lots of articles and forget about those that don't go right through. As long as you're not getting tons of rewrite requests, its not going to be an issue.

This is a principal thing and supposedly, you can appeal a reject. The editor was wrong therefore, it should not be rejected. The moral victory is what I’m after here Jeff and maybe it’ll help teach at this CE to make sure he/she knows what their talking about. The article was rejected solely because of one site that was used as a reference the CE said it was blacklisted and it is not for this client and not by DS. Fair is fair and right is right.

Did you use the PDF form when you filed the rewrite appeals?

SS

Ok, Still Seaking, I understand. I have never appealed a rejection, so we'll see how stldenise's goes. When I appealed rewrite requests, they were just e-mails with no form or anything, but that was the second half of last year, so the process may have changed.

Thanks Denise and Jeff. I found instructions on how to copy the thing and submit it right before reading Denise’s post and Denise; I’ve been getting the same message that every email I have sent lately is being received blank. I’m going to mention that in my email to them as well. Either there is a technical issue going on or a way they are using to ignore our legitimate complaints/questions but then why respond at all instead of just claim to never receive it. I plan on filing the appeal today, gotta get my taxes finished and then it’s first on my to do list.