Ms. Wolff, please calm down. The only thing worse then your behavior is how proud you are to share it with the whole Internet. If you’re in the running for lamest looking person owning a keyboard, don’t worry, that was a big head start.

You’ve just destroyed any desire I had to read, submit to, or have anything at all to do with Fence.

(but very nice classy photo by the way. nothing wrong at all with your looks.)

The whole “you’re published, that should be enough, so just buy a copy and stop whining” argument does not hold water for me. In this day and age, if being in print is all you want, if having your words read is the goal–you don’t need Fence or any other literary magazine. You can put together your own little collection, have it published on cafepress or iUniverse, and sell it on Amazon right alongside the Random House books. If you want your words read, you can get a blog or a free website, market it well and garner millions of hits.

If you’re choosing to submit your work to a literary magazine, in the face of all that, it’s for many reasons–to get published, yes, but also to earn a respectable credit, to put your work in front of other editors who might not read the blogs–to earn some street cred, if you will, in the sometimes snobby literary world, if you will. Don’t forget that these magazines BUILD their reputations on the backs of the material they publish. One of their writers earns a Pushcart Prize nod? It reflects on the publication as well as the author. They benefit more than you do, at times. You’re bartering your work. The copies you receive are not simply to “show at cocktail parties” (I don’t know writers who actually do that), but to build your portfolio.

Along with that, if you’re submitting to literary magazines, you do expect a certain amount of professionalism. As I mentioned, I do not condone the way XXX flew off the handle, but I think the ball was in Ms WOlffe’s court, and that if she had answered that first email clearly, the situation would not have escalated as it did. The writer’s first emails to Ms Wolffe were professional and polite; she did not respond in kind. I will never submit to Fence again, because, after reading this exchange, I’m not sure that the editors of this publication can be trusted to treat ANY contributor fairly and professionally.

The best to you, GS–

also, i have loved fence mag in the past, but it seems to have been domesticated. bring back ben marcus plz!

I am also sorry that you believe that being published isn’t enough. That is unfortunate. Call me old fashioned or an idealist, but I think a very important question to ask is: Why are you writing? Is it because you have something original to say? Or, is it because you want your words/name in print? Because you want compensation?

But, again, to unmuddy the waters of discourse, I totally agree that promises should be kept and compensation should be made; but, as a writer, XXXX should have known enough about life that shit happens all the time and that a little patience goes a long way.

I hope this clears the issue up for you, Md. Thanks.

So you stressed out, the proper thing to do was not post the exchange on the internet, but write an apology. A sincere, groveling apology. Clearly the writer had thought his copy would be at his parents and when it wasn’t realized you had never given him a direct answer.

And Don, if you want to see folks who feel entitled, look to the editor who felt entitled to behave this way, not the poet who was gracious and thanked the magazine and ASKED if they provided copies. Stop sucking up and scratch this one off your list for submissions. No one deserves to be treated this way.

I’m an editor, far from perfect, often impatient with overly needy writers, but this serves as a welcome reminder that, as NBC noted above, we are not gods. We should be the grown-ups in the writer-editor relationship, not the mud-slingers.