The One That Got Away
I’ve come to the sad conclusion that the biggest acceptance of my writing that I have thus far ever received will not come to pass.
This is a hard one to swallow, I won’t pretend.
About a year ago, one of the oldest continuously published magazine on the art of writing, one to which I have been subscribed for many years, The Writer was purchased by a company mostly interested in creating television content. The current editor mentioned this in his note at the beginning of the last issue to be published, September of 2023. In that note, he called for “contributors” to offer pieces to the magazine’s next issue, as he sought to tighten the focus as well as the budget of The Writer by stepping away from national paid-freelancers.
In response to this call for content, I submitted a piece…and it was accepted.
I knew it could take a few months to show up. But as I communicated periodically with the editor, it became clear that although the magazine was not officially dead, his superiors had placed television on his main burner for the foreseeable future. He loved my piece and related to it on a personal level, but could not give an indication of when it would appear, because he had no idea when the magazine itself would return.
I have not contacted him, or he me, in the better part of a year now. My research from other sources has in fact led me to conclude that despite announced plans in 2023, the magazine is in essence, defunct.
I have a book coming out in a few months that talks more about my poor luck and difficulty in igniting my career, among other things, because of Autism. But since it is not yet out, I will use this post as a medium by which to express both how utterly disappointing, yet somehow utterly predictable this situation is.
That is to say, what was to be the first national (even if niche) byline of my life seemingly will not come to pass because the oldest magazine in the world dedicated to writing is, at the very same time, going belly up.
Such is writing, but shit. Talk about no honeymoon with success.
I am holding the piece for now, which I consider one of my better pieces, (and probably why it was accepted initially.) I am holding out for the possibility, at least until the end of this year, that the magazine could return in some form, long enough to publish my piece.
At that point, I will look for other places to submit it to. One professional editor liked it, I imagine another one might as well. I will make that decision no earlier than 2025.
I wish I had a grand lesson to share with you about this, especially fellow or potential writers who may read this. I don’t though, other than luck is a large enough factor is being a successful writer it borders on stupefying.
As my soon-to-be-released book on success and promotion talks about, some of us have more working against us than others.
Keep reading if you read, keep writing if you write.
- Posted in: Miscellany
Ty Unglebower 