Is it normal for small publication editors to only publicize certain writers/poets?

novicewriter

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Hi, everyone.

I've had a poem accepted by a brand new, online poetry publication. The editor asked every accepted poet for a photo and bio, for social media purposes. I was asked for my Twitter handle; I mentioned I didn't have one, then the editor said that they'd Tweeted about my inclusion in the upcoming poetry issue.

I checked Twitter and didn't see my name, bio, or photo included on their account, the way they'd Tweeted about other accepted poets (almost all had/have social media accounts). However, there are other poets whose names, photos and bios haven't been mentioned, yet, either. I guess the "mention" Tweet he meant was the general Tweet about which countries submissions came from and that some rookie poets were being included.

So, I'm wondering, is it normal for publishers to only publicize certain poets, based on them having a social media account, a more impressive bio with major credits, etc.? (I.e. Is this how the social media "game" is played in publishing?)

I don't understand the reason for wasting a writers'/poets' time by asking them for a bio and photo, saying that they're going to use them for social media purposes only for the editor to choose to publicize only certain ones, in the end (when they'd Tweeted that newbies' work was equal to those who were established, that they should be proud, etc.)

I understand that I don't have as many impressive credits like other poets and writers who are being included; I can't help but feel a little disappointed because I wasn't aware that certain poets would be more publicized than others, that, I guess I'd be looked upon as less than others and not as included for not having a social media account, more impressive credits, etc.

Another editor from a different publication published a poem of mine, with my name, even though I didn't have a Twitter account.

I'm very confused and puzzled by all of this. From the editor's Tweets, they made it sound as though newbies and established poets' work was equally good; they said everyone was worthy of inclusion in the issue. I don't even know what to say to the editor, anymore. It's as though I don't know whether my work will really be included at all in the first issue.
 
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veinglory

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There is no rule that you have to publicize all contributors equally, especially if they are not on the platform you are using. Another option would have been to immediately set up a twitter account linking to your main web presence. It depends on whether the publicity you would get is worth the trouble.
 

novicewriter

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Thanks for your reply. I suppose that makes sense; it's just that I didn't understand why they decided to tell me that they'd Tweeted about me being a part of the project when I searched and didn't see any mention of me at all. After seeing most writers' photos and bios posted on their social media account, it gave me the impression that they decided to lie to me about that, for some unknown reason.

I saw them Tweet and publicize another poet who didn't have a social media account at all and others who weren't on Twitter (but who had social media presence, elsewhere).

I don't mind if people were honest about suddenly decided not to publish or publicize me; I don't exactly understand why when I've been nothing but respectful and honest with them, have the same, few amount of publishing credits as other writers who've been publicized and mentioned.

I just don't appreciate being asked for a photo and bio, told that I was mentioned in a Tweet when there isn't any mention of me at all, all when they expect me to be honest with them and answer their questions, which I have. It feels as though I'm being played for a fool, not having others be honest with me, leaving me in the dark.
 
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lizmonster

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Thanks for your reply. I suppose that makes sense; it's just that I didn't understand why they decided to tell me that they'd Tweeted about me being a part of the project when I searched and didn't see any mention of me at all. After seeing most writers' photos and bios posted on their social media account, it gave me the impression that they decided to lie to me about that.

I saw them Tweet and publicize another poet who didn't have a social media account at all and others who weren't on Twitter (but who had social media presence, elsewhere).

I don't mind if people are honest about not publishing me; I just don't appreciate being asked for a photo and bio, told that I was mentioned in a Tweet when there isn't any mention of me at all.

This would tick me off as well. I might be inclined to send a cheerful and disingenuous email asking for a link to the tweet with my name (you don't need an account of your own to see tweets).
 

novicewriter

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This would tick me off as well. I might be inclined to send a cheerful and disingenuous email asking for a link to the tweet with my name (you don't need an account of your own to see tweets).

Thank you! That is a brilliant, helpful idea!
 

ajaye

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Is it possible that they're spacing out the promotional tweets, and yours is still to come--or did this all happen a little while ago?
 

JJ Litke

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It doesn’t make any sense for them to lie to you about such a thing; it’s not like it takes big effort to post a tweet. So, I’m inclined to think that this is likely just an error. You also can’t completely rule out the possibility that they did post it, and you managed to miss it (maybe a longshot, but possible).

I’d do as lizmonster suggested and ask for a link to the tweet. That’s a perfectly reasonable request, since you could want to post it on whatever social media or blog you have. Then if it’s simple error (on their part or yours) it’ll be resolved.
 

novicewriter

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Is it possible that they're spacing out the promotional tweets, and yours is still to come--or did this all happen a little while ago?

They've been spacing out their promotional tweets, yes. He sent me an email claiming that he already Tweeted it; the email was sent several hours, ago (I don't check my email, instantly), and he added other writers/poets, earlier today.

I searched through all of their journal's tweets a few times, even on their own personal account, just to make sure. My photo would've definitely been recognizable to me. I searched for my name on Twitter, too: nothing from them. All of the photos and tweets are exactly the same on both accounts, with the same people promoted.
 
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ajaye

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I'd def ask for a link then, as suggested above. Just say you can't find that tweet. It will be interesting to see if they find it or post a new one.
 

novicewriter

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Thanks for your help, everyone. The editor finally added a tweet of my photo and name, after I'd contacted them.
 

lizmonster

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Thanks for your help, everyone. The editor finally added a tweet of my photo and name, after I'd contacted them.

I neglected to say it earlier - congratulations on the publication!

And yeah, some folks are well-intentioned and disorganized, which is what I'd assume here. Never attribute to malice what is adequately explained by a cluttered inbox. :)
 

novicewriter

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I neglected to say it earlier - congratulations on the publication!

And yeah, some folks are well-intentioned and disorganized, which is what I'd assume here. Never attribute to malice what is adequately explained by a cluttered inbox. :)

Thank you. Yeah, the thing about that is, he didn't offer any apology or explanation and we'd already just been into very recent contact with each other because only two days earlier, he'd hounded me/specifically asked me to resend him a photo and bio for the deadline (so, not only had I sent him those things, earlier in the week and he'd apparently lost the email, I'd resent them twice--and he'd informed me, twice, on Friday, that he'd received them.)

So, I just found it a bit surprising and odd that he'd sent me an email, later on Friday, that he'd tweeted my mention, yet suddenly, somehow, forgot to post those things when, earlier in the day--on Friday--it'd been on his mind and he'd sent me emails letting me know he'd received them.

I completely understood the first time he couldn't find my first email because he was still accepting submissions at the time. But, having this happen, again, after the submission deadline was over and he wouldn't be inundated with submission emails; when he'd just asked me for the emails, again, on Thursday, where I'd sent two to make sure he was receiving them in his inbox and where he'd just sent me emails on Friday, saying he'd gotten them, then incorrectly claimed he'd already tweeted them on Friday, when he didn't just seemed to me to be a little surprising, unexpected and strange.

I don't mind if people make an honest mistake. But, when they don't offer any explanation at all or apology for forgetting, it kind of does or can give the impression that they were purposely intending to deceive/not mention or leave a person out for some unknown motive/reason that they don't want to reveal to a person.
 
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lizmonster

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I don't mind if people make an honest mistake. But, when they don't offer any explanation at all or apology for forgetting, it kind of does or can give the impression that they were purposely intending to deceive/not mention or leave a person out for some unknown motive/reason that they don't want to reveal to a person.

Oh, I think you have every right to side-eye the daylights out of this guy. Not a good look for him, or for the publication. One never likes to think the only way to make another party do what they've actually promised to do (or said they've already done!) is by pushing for concrete answers. Sometimes the work these people do, or the people they work with, make interacting with them worth the trouble. Sometimes they become people you politely decline to work with in the future.
 

novicewriter

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Oh, I think you have every right to side-eye the daylights out of this guy. Not a good look for him, or for the publication. One never likes to think the only way to make another party do what they've actually promised to do (or said they've already done!) is by pushing for concrete answers. Sometimes the work these people do, or the people they work with, make interacting with them worth the trouble. Sometimes they become people you politely decline to work with in the future.

Right. Plus, I was concerned after my last experience with another small-time editor, who also wasn't a great communicator (at being honest about the problems the journal was having, who kept sending emails making promises that writers' work would still be published, despite the journal being defunct behind the scenes, etc.)

It just makes it more difficult to figure out whether or not an editor is just making a one-time error, is a little inept and overwhelmed by the experience of putting together a literary journal/magazine, or if they're genuinely a deceiving editor who should be stayed away from if all editors don't bother to communicate honestly with writers/poets and decide to stay silent.

Personally, I don't think it's too difficult and time-consuming to just quickly write one or two sentences of an explanation or apology to someone through email. I've apologized and given an explanation to an editor when I caught a misspelled word on a poem I'd submitted, months later; he'd also apologized for him and other publishing editors not catching it, too.
 
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lizmonster

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It just makes it more difficult to figure out whether or not an editor is just making a one-time error, is a little inept and overwhelmed by the experience of putting together a literary journal/magazine, or if they're genuinely a deceiving editor who should be stayed away from if all editors don't bother to communicate honestly with writers/poets and decide to stay silent.

I think one of the frustrating things about publishing is that you're never going to know. It's freelance work, and everyone who buys from you is going to be different. The only thing you can do, really, is learn to ruthlessly protect yourself and your work. You do it politely and professionally, of course, but with 100% clear-eyed get-it-in-writing consistency.

I don't think it's too difficult and time-consuming to just quickly write one or two sentences of an explanation or apology to someone through email. I've quickly apologized and gave an explanation to an editor when I caught a later misspelled word on a poem I'd submitted.

Oh, I agree. But I will say I've found pockets of publishing here and there where standard email etiquette seems to involve no actual response. In these cases the people I was working with absolutely did what they said they'd do, and I'd cheerfully work with them again. I would do it, though, recognizing that I was going to have to explicitly follow up if I wanted to make sure they'd received what I'd sent them.
 

Diana_Rajchel

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There is very little in the publishing world that is actually industry standard...save one thing: chaos. I have yet to write for any publications that don't have the following incidents: contracts get misplaced, "sent" emails turned out to be ones sent in someone's head, my name (or once their own) get misspelled, and so on. Also, having had to sit down and sift through contributions, work with contributors, work on social media for myself and others I want to suggest this: operate on high forgiveness. Maybe the editor lied, but it seems unlikely that this was an intentional slight. The people that put together these publications have to sift through a great deal of material. It's true, sending one tweet doesn't take a lot of energy. However, scheduling several, with author photos and a pithy writeup does take mental energy, detail management, and usually requires several pieces of organization before you do the work to keep track. If this person is using a social media scheduler, it's that much more work because sometimes the scheduler fails. Even when everything goes right, you can't always control which tweets/posts get attention and which don't. Then, if the post doesn't get attention, you may have to deal with authors that are upset about that.

If this is important enough for you to be upset about it not getting posted, it might be worth considering setting up that Twitter account. Social media is a big part of marketing writing projects, and if someone likes your work and wants to follow you, they now look for your social media first. If you move on to books and finding agents, one of the first things both look at is whether you have any kind of platform (audience) already established online. Yes, it will probably make you more memorable to the editors as well, since it's much easier to track a tweet that has a twitter handle you can link. You may have solid reasons for not having social media, and that's fine, but this situation is one of the cons side of the pros and cons of not having it.

Right now you're worried about your project and your profile, and it's good that you are. The editor is handling every single person included in the project, while probably also handling other publication details authors rarely see. So while you're frustrated at a lost tweet, to the editor that's one detail in a sea of details to manage.

I agree that asking for a link to the tweet is a good, indirect way of handling it. Editors tend to be stressed out people so why make it worse?
 
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veinglory

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I assume the publication credit is one worth having given the attention you are paying to it. So unless this becomes some kind of weird pattern IMHO the Twitter thing is no biggie.
 

novicewriter

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I assume the publication credit is one worth having given the attention you are paying to it...

Yes, to me all publication credits which place my work among more established writers and poets who've earned degrees and/or other writing/poetry awards are very important because I don't have a degree or any awards, myself; I feel it shows skill and professionalism in my work, also signaling to other agents and publishing industry people that I'm not a child or teen (since I've been mistaken for that for many, many years when strangers have first seen me, because to them I look very young). Since I don't have a university listed in my bio, I can easily imagine others incorrectly assuming that I'm a student attending a university.

I've heard of other editors and poets mention that there is a bit of a bias that goes on in the industry, where poets who went to top universities, who have MFAs, etc. are favored and praised more than others, that their work gets published more by literary journals because they're more famous than others.

So, when editors suddenly decide to stop writing pleasantries to me in their emails or not being as formal as they were earlier, after accepting my work, I can't help but wonder whether the fact that I don't have famous credits to my name or a university listed had something to do with the change in their emails to me, whether they would've continued writing the same way, more formal way to me like they'd done, initially, if I'd been more "famous" in the industry.

I guess it's one of my insecurities because I've experienced others talking down to me, looking down on me as being "less than" and presumed to not be as competent or experienced as other adults just because, to them, I look young. So, I'm conscious of when others decide to treat me differently from how they did, before, or when they decide to treat other adults with more respect and give them more praise and attention than me.

I've thought about having a social media account, but I was hesitant because I know I wouldn't have any or many followers. I wouldn't have a lot of publishing news to write about on social media because I don't submit as much of my work that often, compared to other poets and writers. I thought about waiting until I possibly had something more major to announce, such as a book announcement.
 
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cool pop

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Maybe they are spotlighting the biggest authors in the collection? This is a common form of marketing. They spotlight the big/popular authors of the bunch to get people's interest.

Don't take it personally. This is normal and is just the way it is. No different from being with a publisher. The publisher is always going to give the biggies special treatment because, it's a business.
 

novicewriter

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Maybe they are spotlighting the biggest authors in the collection? This is a common form of marketing. They spotlight the big/popular authors of the bunch to get people's interest.

Don't take it personally. This is normal and is just the way it is. No different from being with a publisher. The publisher is always going to give the biggies special treatment because, it's a business.

Eh, technically, the editor wasn't exactly only spotlighting the more well-known writers and poets; he was also spotlighting those whose first publication credit it was going to be. But, I could tell that he was way more excited about poets and writers with more accolades being included in the issue, mentioning them a few times and/or ending those tweets in exclamation points, etc.
 
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cool pop

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Eh, technically, the editor wasn't exactly only spotlighting the more well-known writers and poets; he was also spotlighting those whose first publication credit it was going to be. But, I could tell that he was way more excited about poets and writers with more accolades being included in the issue, mentioning them a few times and/or ending those tweets in exclamation points, etc.

I don't see the big deal. You're in the collection, which is a good thing. I wouldn't stress over the negative of it but if it bothers you that much, maybe ask the editor what the criteria was but the truth is, whether he spotlighted new authors or popular, etc., it's his decision. It might not be fair but it's his choice at the end of the day. He could be picking favorites or choosing those whose work he enjoyed the most, etc. We can't know but I think you're just going to bring yourself down more and more wondering about it. As I said, focus on the positive. You're in the collection and hopefully that opens doors for you in the future. That's the big picture.
 

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I don't see the big deal. You're in the collection, which is a good thing. I wouldn't stress over the negative of it but if it bothers you that much, maybe ask the editor what the criteria was but the truth is, whether he spotlighted new authors or popular, etc., it's his decision. It might not be fair but it's his choice at the end of the day. He could be picking favorites or choosing those whose work he enjoyed the most, etc. We can't know but I think you're just going to bring yourself down more and more wondering about it. As I said, focus on the positive. You're in the collection and hopefully that opens doors for you in the future. That's the big picture.

Just want to say that for me the dishonesty would be a problem. If the editor later followed up with "Oh, sorry, novicewriter - we were only tweeting about poets with attribute X. My mistake. Sorry to misspeak" that might ease my mind. As told, the editor's behavior seems at best disorganized.
 

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I struggle to see the editor maliciously lying about it for [reasons?]. I can't see any actual reason to accept a work, publish it, and then lie about a tweet. Seems like standard disorganization to me, which while not desirable is not something to be concerned about in the bigger picture of getting a good credit and building your network.

p.s. It seems like editors and poets you admire tweet. I see no downside to getting a twitter account and promptly following the other contributors while it is likely they will know who you are and feel good about it. New accounts start at zero no matter who you are.
 

JJ Litke

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Yeah, I agree that it makes no sense for an editor to buy someone’s work, then lie about promotions. I get that it’s frustrating that they messed up the tweet. My very first published story didn’t get posted on the day it was supposed to go live. But they fixed it, and I got to revel in having a story published. If that market seems too disorganized, don’t sub to them again. But for now, enjoy the publication, promote your work, brag to your friends, have some fun with it.
 

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All things being equal, I would go with the assumption the editor forgot to tweet your stuff by accident and let it go. You've accomplished something great here, a credit in a journal! That's a huge accomplishment! :snoopy:

I think learning to navigate social media is daunting for more people than you think. But it would certainly be worthwhile to pick one platform and start there, meeting people gradually (the suggestion to follow fellow poets from your collection is an excellent one) and learning the ropes. #amwriting and #writingcommunity are great hashtags on Twitter for meeting other writers and having writing conversations. There are things called "follow fridays" where you can follow lots of other people, and assuming your profile has information about you, and you look like a writerly-person as well, they may very well follow back! :)