For those who have published in jewish mags

amother

Sun, Aug 08 2021, 1:00 am

I have had quite a number of articles published in the Jewish magazines.
For the most part, I have found that the magazines would lightly edit them, and in many cases, would leave the whole thing intact.

I recently submitted a story I have been working on for a few years. It is an incredible story told to me by someone I know well. It's a rather long story with many twists and turns. It took so long to write because it was hard to decide what to keep in and what to leave out. I worked on it on and off over the course of a few years. In the end, the version I submitted was about half the size I started out with, but it was still quite long. I know its longer than what they usually print, but I was thinking they may choose to print it in installments. It is a really special story.

I was really happy when they accepted the story. They said it would be an honor to print it.

Now I received the edited version, and more than 40% of the story was shaved off. Sad

I'm quite disappointed. They took out whole parts of the story, and edited many of the conversations. Some parts I don't mind so much that they took out, but others I do.

For those of you who have had work published, have you ever been in my shoes? What are my options?

amother

Lightyellow

Sun, Aug 08 2021, 1:03 am

I worked at a magazine, not on the articles but I did overhear things. You can tell them you're pulling the story because you don't like how it was cut and they might give you more leeway. If not, you can pull it and submit to to a different magazine that might be less slash-y with the editor's red pen.

amother

Sun, Aug 08 2021, 1:08 am

amother [ Lightyellow ] wrote:

I could.
This magazine was my first choice and I don't know if another would accept it. So it's a risk.

Now that I think of it, I do remember another time when I submitted a story and they wanted to put it into a certain column which would require a lot of slashing. I told them I dont want it cut at all and they ended up putting it in another column and kept it completely intact (literally without changing one word.)

amother

Lightyellow

Sun, Aug 08 2021, 1:11 am

Sounds promising. What's the risk, that another magazine won't print it? You can always swallow your pride and go back to the first magazine. Or you can keep trying all the publications. But something tells me, based on the quality of the piece you describe, and the fact that they said they'd be honored to print it, that you won't have too much trouble getting it accepted elsewhere.

Another thought: did you tell them you were thinking of publishing it in installments? Maybe they didn't think of it.

amother

RosePink

Sun, Aug 08 2021, 1:49 am

I once submitted a piece to the Ami’s “My Take” which I was pretty passionate about. They accepted it but then sent me the edited version which I felt was edited in a way that it lost its passion and I asked that they not publish it and was planning to submit it elsewhere. I didn’t get a response and found the edited version in that weeks magazine. I never got any reply to my inquiries about it.

amother

Sun, Aug 08 2021, 1:54 am

amother [ RosePink ] wrote:

That is so frustrating! I totally feel for you, and I would have been very upset in your place.

I also once had a story sent to Ami where they changed some words, and kind of changed the rhythm I was going for. I was upset at the time, but in the end, I let it go. Sometimes, you scratch your head and wonder what about the "edited" version was an improvement over the original...

But for them to not reply is very frustrating.
BH. I am lucky that almost all of my stories have been left intact. But now I am pretty upset with having so much of the story slashed.

amother

RosePink

Sun, Aug 08 2021, 3:13 am

It was very frustrating. Not so much because of the article being published, I was happy it was out there in the end, but because I was denied basic courtesy as the author of the article.
I find Ami editing to be the most frustrating to deal with, there’s a certain attitude of entitlement and they tend to change everything to fit a certain tone. I’ve been published by Binah and found the editing to be minimal while retaining my voice in an article.

amother

Snowdrop

Tue, Aug 17 2021, 7:00 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

If they already spent hours editing your story you don't really have any options. You submitted it, they accepted it, someone spent hours and hours working on it and cutting it to fit their word count and now they are going to publish it. That's the risk of submitting. If you want to withdraw it make sure you speak to them asap!! Because its probably already slated to go to print. I guess next time make sure to tell them the submission is on condition they don't cut more then x % of the article.