Color Me Puzzled

In the writing world, we write, we submit to an editor, and then we wait. Sometimes, we wait a very long time. Sometimes, we never stop waiting as there is no response at all. If we're ready to face rejection, we know that the editor didn't like, want, or need our story.

Sunday, I ran across a market new to me--a children's ezine that looked interesting. It's a paid subscription ezine and the sample issue ran about 59 pages, so they use quite a bit of material each month. I read the writers guidelines and was surprised to see that they paid 20 cents a word. A good rate for an online magazine. I flipped through my children's stories mentally, then went to the files and read through one that I thought would work for this publication.

I sent the story to the editor about 5 p.m.. After dinner, I came in to do some work in the office and there was a message from the editor. I figured it was one of those "thank you for submitting" standard messages, but instead it was an acceptance for the story sent only two hours earlier.

Well, sort of an acceptance. The whole thing is a bit perplexing. The editor began the message with "I love your story, and I want to use it in January, February or March." Happy Nancy at this point. Next she said she's promised a lot of others to do the same and so she isn't sure if she can fit it in. Sad Nancy. She next wrote that if at all possible, she'd fit the story in one of those months. Happy Nancy again. She finished by saying to go ahead and send it to other magazines. Bewildered Nancy by now.

I thought about the so-called acceptance all day yesterday. What I finally concluded is that this is an editor who is new to the game and she wants to please everyone. In the writing world, we know that's a veritable impossibility. I'm not going to bank on "Angels In The Snow" landing in the ezine. If it does, it will be a nice surprise. If it doesn't, I know I've been forewarned. At this point, color me puzzled.