Deadly Spam Filter - Why You Can't Get Published

With electronic submissions for our writing contest, we've discovered some frustrating use of spam filters. So far, we've had a half-dozen authors register with an email address that bounces our registration confirmation back to us. We don't know how many other emails ended up in junk folders. In one case (our most frustrating), an author registered and submitted a manuscript using an email address that rejected all of our replies. The rejection email simply said that we were not on the user's accepted list and the email would not be delivered. After a few days, this author sent additional emails to us wanting to know why we had not contacted him/her as we stated on our website. A few days later we get an outraged email from the author about how we don't respond, followed by a pledge to 'expose' us to the writing world. This particular author didn't supply a phone number, even if we'd wanted to take the time to call. We have a snail mail address, but do we take the time to send a personal note to this author advising him/her of his problem? We chose not to, perhaps because the submitted manuscript was rejected in the first page.

So please check your spam filters and junk mail folders, particularly if you'd like to receive email from others. Also, we're running our emails through a spam check filter now so we try avoid the bulk of spam trigger issues in what we send.