Everybody,
We have determined that Worlds Enough experienced an email issue during the submission time period for our anthology, Fantastic Detectives. During this time, we were forced by our web host’s unexpected closure to move our website and email services. Our “submissions@worldsenough.com” email address was re-directed to a Yahoo email account because of this unexpected move. It looks like Yahoo’s spam filter zapped some of the submissions. Unfortunately, Yahoo also removes spam entries after 30 days, so we can’t go back and determine what was lost.
We’ve confirmed that at least three people were impacted, and possibly two or three more based on queries we’ve received. There are likely more.
We feel that we put enough pressure on authors when we ask them to write a good story that adheres to a specific theme. It’s a bridge too far to also randomly zap them with a spam filter when they’re kind enough to submit their work to us.
Everybody that submitted deserves consideration. Period.
Accordingly, we’re re-opening for submissions. All stories that we have actually received have either been notified of being “Not Accepted” or having made it into the “Final Round.” If you have submitted and not received a notification, then your story got lost. Send it again and we will expedite the review process so that you get the consideration you’re due.
All stories need to be received by April 30, 2022. The same email address will work (this time), submissions@worldsenough.com. We will also provide a manual email response acknowledging that we received your story.
We apologize sincerely for the inconvenience. Given the situation, we feel this is the only way we can deal fairly with this mess and ensure that all submitters receive due consideration for their stories.
— David Keener —
So far, after re-opening for submissions due to the email glitch, we have received 5 re-submissions.
— Dave Keener —
The final tally for April was 6 re-submissions.
And we looked at some stragglers, for a total of 9.
Is there any update on this? I have tried commenting on the submissions call blog but my comment seems to have vanished into the ether.
Everybody,
All submissions that came in during the re-opened submission period have been reviewed. All notifications related to those additional submissions have also been sent out.
Final selections for the anthology are in the process of being made right now. Four acceptances have already been sent out. We expect to have the final selection process done by this time next week. At this point, we’re projecting that the anthology will be slightly over 100K words with 12 stories.
It may also be of general interest to know that one of the already accepted submissions was a re-submission that occurred because of the email glitch that plagued our initial submission period.
— Dave Keener —
I just wanted to say thanks for how you’ve managed this whole tangle. I give you guys a lot of credit for identifying and owning the issue, and taking the time to make sure every story got read.
Thanks, Nat.
Honestly, what we did was, I think, the only fair way we could figure out to deal with the whole email mess during the submission period. I’m just sorry that so many folks got caught up in that.
— Dave —
I understand you must be busy so thanks for the update.
Acceptance emails for “Fantastic Detectives” are going out today.
— Dave —