Feel so good that my poem titled “I won’t retire” is (not) published in the anthology “Found A Proverb” by Poets’ Choice. Don’t be surprised. The poem is literally not published. The story goes like this,
A true story behind a poem submission
I got an accepted message for one of my poem submissions (A free submission) in the submittable on August 12th 2021. Also in the message editors of Poets’ Choice told like “You will be notified once the book is available on our website”.
Well, it was a wonder for me to know that poem is straight away going to the book without any further queries. No further details checking or nothing of that sort!
Anyway I thanked them for the acceptance.
Then on 28th August 2021, I further received a mail from the Poets’ Choice team like this “This is to notify you that your book “Found A Proverb” is now published and live on the Home Page of our website. It can also be found in the Featured Section of the Books page.”
I replied to ensure my poem titled ” I won’t retire ” is published in the anthology “Found A Proverb”. Also asked if there is any other information regarding the poems or poets published in their website?
They replied like they haven’t revealed names of poems or poets in the website.
Further I asked if I can have a screenshot of my poem from the book..
Well, what they replied to me was “Our editors’ just informed me that they removed your poem from the anthology. I apologize for communicating this at this point of time, when it should’ve happened much earlier.”
My initial wonder changed to utter pity. I just feel sorry for them. Is this how they treat pieces of works?
If I hadn’t asked further, I wouldn’t have even known this. And I would be thinking the poem is present in the anthology and hence I wouldn’t publish it elsewhere also. How sad!
I’m not claiming my poem to be extra ordinary or so. But once it is accepted, it means literally accepted. They should keep that word. At least it must be informed properly if not being taken and not when I ask about it. Now even I doubt if they really accepted it in first place..? Or was itself a miscommunication or a careless mistake or something else?
It is not just about a poem being absent while claimed to be present. More than that, it’s a matter of integrity.
Anyway I thank them for making me aware of such “wonders”. Also wishing them very best for their future endeavors. No, I’m not sarcastically complementing, but realistically!
Be integral to oneself
Beware of such anthology scams… I don’t know why they are becoming more rampant. I was approached by about 5 anthologies. They were all asking for participation fee in exchange of getting published in an ebook (which noone would read or buy).
You escaped them
Ha.. you are right…thanks for adding your experience here.. let people be aware of such scams!
Publishing or not publishing someone’s writing is entirely depends on the publisher, but it would have been nice if they would have informed you about it. There’s no scarcity of publishers and readers, you can submit it elsewhere.
Yessss…that was my point too.. I don’t care if they publish or not.. but first of all they should keep their words or else at least inform properly..
i just posted this article to keep my fellow bloggers and writers aware of such “wonders”