Wait, they asked you? You seem like you're a professional writer and you have a good idea about the whole not-submitting-to-publications-that-would-rather-swallow-glass-shards-than-publish-your-viewpoint. Your response has been haunting me for a few weeks, actually. There are definitely a lot of good publications that don't pay (or at least plan to do so once they get proper footing), but they're always very honest and up front about it. They don't pull any bait-and-switch bullshit like what you're describing. I know that you say that you've forgotten finer details, but any more light you could shed would actually be really enlightening. How did it even happen in the first place? I hope this doesn't come across as accusatory. I'm genuinely interested. If that's all you remember, then I'm sorry for wasting your time. :-P
A lot of web zines (especially of the feminist variety) tend to be hit or miss. I don't read xoJane on a regular basis. To all of you making fun of that girl who dated that faux-Aspergers dude: love is a crazy, crazy drug. Also, I've noticed that A LOT of people tend to conflate douchebag traits with Asperger traits which is infinitely insulting to people with Aspergers. I've had a lot of experience with Aspies (always had a lot of Aspie friends due to my offbeat interests and overall laid-back, eccentric personality) and it pisses them off so much when people excuse someone's asshole behavior because they have Aspergers. I can't count how many times I've heard one of my friends say, "He/She/Zi/Whatever isn't an asshole because they have Aspergers. They're an asshole because they're an asshole." It's so fucking ableist, though many would call my viewpoint that. We've all noticed that parents do often play a part in perpetuating this kind of assholery by rationalizing it as opposed to making an attempt to stop it. That guy is a supreme douche and I feel bad for the girl who had the misfortune of becoming infatuated with him.
Just dug through my emails from 2011. It looks like they had a call for writers and were immediately interested in a pitch I sent them. As it turns out, which I did not immediately recall, they seemed to have taken my pitch and given it to someone else on the site to write. They said that it was "different", but it was essentially the exact same idea. I think that this was around the time that some controversial Wonder Woman designs were published - so while it was a topic of conversation, and not an uncommon topic, it was weird to see it pop up on the site by not-me.
I could screenshot for proof, but I'd have to edit out all of the incriminating info. The correspondence has bugged me for years as an example of how NOT to treat writers or other people, but I've let it go. I sent them a few pitches.
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8/4/2011 : Hey Total Dingus:
I'm not sure if you're what we're looking for in a full-time contributor, but I'd love for you to write the Wonder Woman post as a freelancer. If you're game, shoot me a line at [redacted,
a different email address].
xo
[Note : 'Shoot me a line' does not imply, to me, "write us an entire article and we'll see if we want to post it or not, or whatever". It implies "email me and I'll give you the rundown. Most of the places I've written for and have managed have had a kind of style bible.]
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8/4/2011 :
Good afternoon!
Thanks a ton for your quick reply. Exciting! I'd love to write, in any capacity and at any time, for you. Let me know anything I need to know regarding terms & all of the usual blog-writing stuff.
Thanks!
[There was no response to my request for terms after this. Months pass. 'Usual blog writing stuff', for a professional, would be voice, length, forbidden things, etc. Months later, I see a post very similar my pitch posted on the site. Maybe I should have detailed exactly what I needed to know, but I assumed that professional places with an established readership would get it.]
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11/9/2011
Good morning -
While you never responded to my reply to your e-mail back in August, I noticed that you ran a post which was very similar to one which I pitched (during a time in which you solicited pitches). The sequence of e-mails, in full, is below.
While I realize that it's not an uncommon topic (body image in comics), I'm disappointed that my pitch was acknowledged, then ignored, and then used by someone else. While I'd like to think that this particular article was simply a coincidence, this sequence of events is disheartening and points towards a kind of duplicity on the part of those soliciting pitches for your website.
As a reader, there's little else to say other than this is quite a bummer - even if it is a coincidence.
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11/9/2011
Hey Total Dingus
[they didn't even use my correct name anyhow]:
I gave you the go ahead to write that post and I'd still be happy for you to.
[Redacted] doesn't pitch to us, she just writes what she's feeling each day. I have no idea what she will write about before she turns it in. I don't think the two posts are on the same topic at all.
For the record, what I said before that was "I'd love for you to write the Wonder Woman post as a freelancer." I intended for you to go ahead and write the post, I'm sorry I didn't get back to your next email, it just got lost in the shuffle, which happens a lot with editors. Again, your post idea was about the new Wonder Woman's smaller body, whereas [redacted]'s post was bout how comic artists contort female bodies to show oversized breasts and butts. They are in the same topic family, but two totally different stories.
I'm sorry if you feel differently, but I can assure you there was nothing shady going on here. xo
[Nowhere in her email did she address any of my questions important for a professional writer.]
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So, I think it's just a free-for-all over there, and their editorial impulse was to blame me for not just sending them a post without any kind of structure in place - payment, etc. I guess that's how it works over there, but I've never in my life experienced that, and I've written for a bunch of much smaller outlets who were more well-structured. Hell, I've even done free album reviews in trade for being able to enjoy new music - but this was the bottom of the barrel.
I hope that this illuminates things. Maybe it was ME being an exceptional individual, because I don't always pick up on everything, but I came away from them not liking them on a personal level.
