Professional Courtesy 101

[Harlean Carpenter {★}]

An article I posted over on my blog...

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Print-on-demand magazine publishing has created a fantastic opportunity for creative people to get their work on paper and into the world.  It’s like the Internet equivalent of a wealthy benefactor; you invest your time and creative energies in a project, and someone else picks up the tab.

 

Unfortunately, unlike an actual wealthy benefactor, print-on-demand publishing requires no real accountability and, as a result, professional conduct is falling further and further by the wayside.

 

I’m speaking as someone who has been on both sides of this equation.  I’ve been an editor in the past, and am currently working on a new project that has put me back in the editor chair.  I’ve been a contributor, as a writer and a model, published by both print-on-demand and traditional publishers.  And some of the things I am seeing lately, from both print-on-demand publishers and hopeful contributors, just make me want to cry, throw things, and consume far more chocolate and tequila than I can reasonably consider healthy.

 

Lack of money changing hands anywhere in the process does not give any parties the right to not behave like professionals.  These are a few things I’m seeing a lot of that are just not okay:

 

1) NOT REPLYING TO CONTRIBUTORS

 

I don’t care how well-established an artist or model might be, it takes guts to submit work to a complete stranger, and to just leave people hanging by not acknowledging submissions is not only grossly unprofessional but frankly downright thoughtless.  I have seen more than one publisher cite the number of other things they have going on in their lives as their reason for not replying to every submission, they “just don’t have time”.

 

Really?  You open the emails to look at the contents, don’t you?  If you don’t want to use the contents in your magazine, how long does it actually take to click “reply/paste/send” with this message (which I will happily allow you to copy & paste)?

 

“Thank you for your interest in our magazine.  Unfortunately, your submission does not meet our needs at this time”

 

Because if you really don’t have time to do that, 3 seconds of time to acknowledge a contributor as a human being and treat that human being with the basics of common and professional courtesy, do you really have any right to be asking people to put themselves and their work out for you to turn into something YOU will ultimately be profiting from?  No news is NOT good news in this scenario.  A swift “no, thank you” is infinitely preferable to just leaving people hanging indefinitely.

 

2) REPLYING TO CALLS FOR SUBMISSIONS WITH SCAVENGER HUNTS

 

A call for submissions is exactly that; a call for you to submit work.  Replying to such a call with “Here’s 12 links to places you can view my work on the Internet, go look and see if there’s anything you want” is not appropriate.  If you want to submit work, submit it.  If, in that submission, you want to say something like “Here are 3 poems/photos for consideration for your magazine.  More of my work can be viewed at YesIAmAwesome.net.”, that’s fine.  But asking an editor to chase down your work online and look through multiple portfolios isn’t okay.  I have a form letter for that, too, if you’d like it:

 

“Thank you for your interest in our magazine.  Please visit this page for complete submission guidelines and instructions: DoItRightOrDontDoItAtAll.com”

 

3) NOT READING SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

 

When an editor takes the time to write down specific and detailed submission guidelines and instructions, there’s a reason.  It’s so contributors know what work to send and how to send it.  For example, I recently received a submission of political and 9/11 tribute poetry in response to a call for love poems, with the poems in the body of an email after I had specifically requested they be sent as an attachment in .doc or .rtf format.  And the contributor got rather belligerent when the poems were not accepted, because he hadn’t read that we weren’t looking for political and 9/11 tribute poetry.

 

Editors ask that things be done certain ways for a reason.  And that reason is usually because doing things that way allows them to review a greater number of submissions in the time they have to review things.  A lot of magazines won’t even bother looking at your submission if it isn’t sent in the way they’ve asked for things to be sent in.  So do yourself a favor, read the guidelines and FOLLOW them, you will stand a much better chance of your work being accepted.  And if you have questions, ask them before you send your work in.  The people who write guidelines aren’t any more perfect than anyone else, if you have a question it’s probably because they forgot to specify something in their instructions, and they need to fix that.  So you’re doing everyone a favor by asking those questions upfront.

 

Okay, there’s my rant ;)  Anyone have anything to add?

[Roxy Tart {PL Team / Comm. Mgr}]

I think this is a great post. You covered things on both sides that are important. I hope everyone reads this and the next time they are in one of these situations they think back to what you have written. Well done.

[Harlean Carpenter {★}]

Thanks, Roxy.  These kind of things are just so frustrating on two levels.  First, people (including me) and their time are not being respected.  Second, I want to see people succeed, and far too often what I see instead is people shooting themselves in the foot by doing things that could so easily be avoided if they would just pause a moment and ask "is this how I would want to be treated?"

Roxy Tart {Madam/Community Mgr} said:

I think this is a great post. You covered things on both sides that are important. I hope everyone reads this and the next time they are in one of these situations they think back to what you have written. Well done.

[Edson Carlos]

I COULD NOT AGREE MORE WITH #1. On the content creator end, I've submitted my content to "zines" that I felt were producing a level of quality I could stand behind and be grouped with.

 

Unfortunately I haven't heard back a yes or a no on exclusive shots that were submitted to them. It's a real pain in the ass. And they even state that they will NOT reply if they aren't interested. I asked if there was a certain timeframe I should wait before assuming" my content was reviewed and saying oh well. I never received a reply.

 

It irks the hell out of me to see all the "magazines" that are popping up with people behind them that have ZERO experience in editing or publishing. Facebook pages and other social media interaction reveals there isn't a business mind there either. It's saturating the market with sub-par quality and diminishing the value of the word "published".

 

On the PinupLifestyle end of my persona, this is the exact reason we were able to stand behind Retro Lovely Magazine from the moment it was being created, even before the first page was printed. We knew there was an experienced print publisher on the back end that conducted proper business via email/phone from the start.

[Rockabetty Bags !!]

THANK YOU so much for sharing this...I cannot count how many I have reached out to for my design, I have contacted talk shows, celebs, celebs agents, music artists, retail storefronts, just to name a few, and have rec'd less that a five hand count! I absolutely do not understand why someone can't take one minute even to say "kick rocks" it's the no response that hurts the worst...we are all busy, we are all trying to survive this economy, so I am so delighted to see you stand up for what I have been going through...ai don't know you...but boy do I respect and appreciate you xoxo

[Angela DeLegge]

This is lovely, thank you for writing!

[CTDude]

I totally agree with you Harlean. I'm a graphic designer in addition to other advertising and marketing responsibilities for my company and when I submit work to magazines I expect that they should at the very least respond as to that they received the file and whether or not it meets their needs. But when they don't reply, it's frustrating as hell. Have been a publisher and web designer and when I ask people to send me content in certain forms (i.e. Word.doc, .jpg images etc.) and I get nothing of the sort I get a bit annoyed. There have been times I haven't post contributors content (images or text) because it didn't meet the requirements. Then they get angry and ask why. By the time I reformat the text or resize the images I might as well have done the work myself rather than rely on them to send. I'm in your corner for sure!

Gary Coles (CT Dude)

[Scarlett_Rose]

Super helpful information! Thank you for sharing :o) :o)

[Fan122346]

Edson, you hit the nail on the head... I am to the point where I don't want any of my work in them at ALL.

Sad thing is all the 'Models' & some Photographers want to be "Published" so bad- they don't care WHERE it is published.. If you can't "make it" into the bigger Magazines such as retro Lovely, then step up your game & get better at your craft. I am certain all the contributors to RL have def paid their dues..

 

I agree 1000% percent:

It irks the hell out of me to see all the "magazines" that are popping up with people behind them that have ZERO experience in editing or publishing. Facebook pages and other social media interaction reveals there isn't a business mind there either. It's saturating the market with sub-par quality and diminishing the value of the word "published".

 

On the PinupLifestyle end of my persona, this is the exact reason we were able to stand behind Retro Lovely Magazine from the moment it was being created, even before the first page was printed. We knew there was an experienced print publisher on the back end that conducted proper business via email/phone from the start.

 

Edson Carlos {PL Team} said:

I COULD NOT AGREE MORE WITH #1. On the content creator end, I've submitted my content to "zines" that I felt were producing a level of quality I could stand behind and be grouped with.

 

Unfortunately I haven't heard back a yes or a no on exclusive shots that were submitted to them. It's a real pain in the ass. And they even state that they will NOT reply if they aren't interested. I asked if there was a certain timeframe I should wait before assuming" my content was reviewed and saying oh well. I never received a reply.

 

It irks the hell out of me to see all the "magazines" that are popping up with people behind them that have ZERO experience in editing or publishing. Facebook pages and other social media interaction reveals there isn't a business mind there either. It's saturating the market with sub-par quality and diminishing the value of the word "published".

 

On the PinupLifestyle end of my persona, this is the exact reason we were able to stand behind Retro Lovely Magazine from the moment it was being created, even before the first page was printed. We knew there was an experienced print publisher on the back end that conducted proper business via email/phone from the start.

[Some Like It Shot Photography]

I agree with all of the above. From a photographers perspective I think a physical copy of a magazine should at MINIMUM be provided for the photographer if the publication is making a profit. It hasn't been until the last year or so that I have been asked at least monthly to basically donate images to publications that are selling them. I am contracted with 3 different paid publications and although I don't make much I still have to somehow afford to continue my work....by donating an image to 1 publication means that I no longer have the potential for the paid publications to use it (since they typically want unpublished images). It is insulting for a publication to ask for free work for me and then sell it to an audience--somehow I am supposed to perceive that as free advertising ...most times I am declined even a copy of the magazine for free in exchange. I personally believe that too is unprofessional. 

[Harlean Carpenter {★}]

That's another very good point that, to be honest, hadn't even crossed my mind as I was writing this; people insisting on exclusivity then basically holding work hostage by not replying.  And that should have occurred to me because I was in the same situation recently.  I sent a set of photos to a magazine that only uses work not previously published or posted elsewhere, and never got an answer.  I finally wrote back and said, as nicely as I could, "I'd like to post these photos on my website if you won't be using them, here's the date I plan to do that, if I don't hear from you by then I'll assume you're not planning on publishing them."

 

At the VERY least (and I do mean VERY least because this is only slightly better than nothing), post a specific date and say in your submission guidelines, "If you have not heard back from us by Day/Month/Year, please take that to mean that your submission has not been accepted."  But even that is only acceptable if they confirm that they received the submission in the first place.

Edson Carlos {PL Team} said:

I COULD NOT AGREE MORE WITH #1. On the content creator end, I've submitted my content to "zines" that I felt were producing a level of quality I could stand behind and be grouped with.

 

Unfortunately I haven't heard back a yes or a no on exclusive shots that were submitted to them. It's a real pain in the ass. And they even state that they will NOT reply if they aren't interested. I asked if there was a certain timeframe I should wait before assuming" my content was reviewed and saying oh well. I never received a reply.

[Shannon Fatale]

Yes!!!! A response is SO important, whether its a yes or a no,  because I don't want to submit the same content to multiple publications.  Sadly, I've even found photos of myself I submitted months before in a magazine, and they didn't even have the courtesy to let me know I was chosen to be published!  Sheesh!  Get on it people!  I totally understand not being what you are looking for, or even not for this issue, but they'd like to consider for a future issue, or whatever, just don't leave us completely hanging!

Edson Carlos {PL Team} said:

I COULD NOT AGREE MORE WITH #1. On the content creator end, I've submitted my content to "zines" that I felt were producing a level of quality I could stand behind and be grouped with.

 

Unfortunately I haven't heard back a yes or a no on exclusive shots that were submitted to them. It's a real pain in the ass. And they even state that they will NOT reply if they aren't interested. I asked if there was a certain timeframe I should wait before assuming" my content was reviewed and saying oh well. I never received a reply.

 

It irks the hell out of me to see all the "magazines" that are popping up with people behind them that have ZERO experience in editing or publishing. Facebook pages and other social media interaction reveals there isn't a business mind there either. It's saturating the market with sub-par quality and diminishing the value of the word "published".

 

On the PinupLifestyle end of my persona, this is the exact reason we were able to stand behind Retro Lovely Magazine from the moment it was being created, even before the first page was printed. We knew there was an experienced print publisher on the back end that conducted proper business via email/phone from the start.

[Shannon Fatale]

This may be controversial: but seriously, all the contests!  Basically what it appears they are looking for is your ability to self promote!  (Thus if you win, and are published you will sell more magazines)  Regardless of if you are a model, photog, writer, whatever, we all deserve our work to be judged for the work itself, not in a popularity contest and to be paid for the use of the work!  It's so basic!  Sadly, that is not the way things are currently done...