question about rejection

[aneeta]

Hi,

I submitted an article entitled, 'Writing Good Reviews'. I was very careful to follow the submission guildelines. I received notification that the article was rejected. However, what baffles me is the reason given, which is this: We do not accept content with website addresses/links. http://www.constant-content.com/blog/?p=35

My article contains not one single link or website address. How do I reconcile this?

I don't quite know what to do next. Can anyone help me understand this?

Aneeta

[BarryDavidson]

Did you type a www. anywhere in the article, or embed one in there by accident? Or is it about a proprietary address?

[aneeta]

Hi Barry,

No. I've got a copy of the article (a Word doc. file). I typed 'www' in Find and there isn't one at all. I've read the article one more time since typing this post and can't find any reference whatsoever to a website.

The article makes reference to titles of books - 'Pride and Prejudice' and 'Truth, Love and a Little Malice: An Autobiography’.

What is a proprietary address?

Aneeta

[aneeta]

Hi,

I have been reading the submission guidelines and also other posts in this thread. I read one by someone who has the name 'trilob' and I see that one of the things discussed is the formatting in the long summary. It has many sub-paragaphs and I used a lot of bullet points. I wonder if this could have been the problem with my article. I know that many articles are submitted each day but I would really appreciate some assistance. This was one article I took extra care to prepare. I was very cautious and did not even put a price for 'Unique' or 'Full Rights' ... just in case it might be similar to another one I wrote.

I really cannot see how the reason given ('We do not accept content with website addresses/links.') can hold water. I am not keen on re-submitting until I know what the real problem is. I'm paranoid that my account is going to be suspended.

I would appreciate any help at all understanding this.

Aneeta

[BarryDavidson]

When using bullets, you will have to ensure the spacing between paragraphs rule is followed.

Also, you you have any sources quoted?

A proprietary address, in the way I used it, would be a website which directly compete with this site.

What version of Word are you using?

[aneeta]

HI Barry,

Thanks for the reply. Here are my asnwers to your questions.

Bullets: I am pretty sure that I followed the spacing rule when using bullets; however, I wonder if I still made a mistake and don't recognise it.

Sources: The following is how I presented the book I quoted from. Please note, in the Word document I submitted, the first line of the passage quoted (i.e. the sentence which begins with 'Among other honours ...') is indented; I cannot seem to do this here. Here is the passage:
... A good example to look at to explain this point is Khushwant Singh’s, ‘Truth, Love and a Little Malice: An Autobiography’. The passage below is printed on the inside cover of this book:
‘Among other honours, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1974 by the President of India (he returned the decoration in 1984 in protest against the Union Government's siege of the Golden Temple, Amritsar).’
In your review, you might say that your interest was instantly piqued; ...

Thank you for explanation about proprietary address. The answer is no. I have not used a propietary address.

As for the version of Word, it's Microsoft Word 2003.

I'm sorry. I'm still dumbfounded as to how this article could have been rejected. Have you got any other suggestions?

Aneeta

[BarryDavidson]

I can tell you that when I use Office XP, there are no spaces in between the bullets. I have to play with it to get the "extra space" in between. Annoying, but we do what we must.

I'm not sure about what others do, but I don't put any formatting (indentation) in my articles. Depending on what program is used to open the documents, any number of things can happen. 12pt, New Times Roman is the best I've found without any other formatting, unless a word needs to be in bold (but that's only in tutorials where I'm showing the keys to hit).

[aneeta]

Barry,

Thank you for your replies. I shall try to figure out what went wrong. Nevertheless, while it all makes sense, I am still baffled by the original reason given for rejecting article. While I will try to see if I can re-work the piece and not use bullets, I'm really disheartened. I did not use a single website address or link in the article. Very disappointed with all this at the moment.

Aneeta

[BarryDavidson]

Perhaps, although I'm not 100 percent sure on this, there is only a drop down list of reasons. In other words, only so many reasons Ed can choose from. Also, with the number of submissions a day here, it would take him days just to accept or reject one day of submissions.

Leave the bullet numbering. Hit enter after the first one. It'll screw up your numbering, but... Then, place your cursor on the right side of the next number, and hit the backspace key. That should make it disappear, and the numbering for the rest to go back to what they were. You should be able to hit the down key twice to get to the next bullet, just like between paragraphs. If you have a lot of bullets already in place, you'll have to do that in between each one.

[aneeta]

ok. thanks. I'll try that.

[Celeste Stewart]

Aneeta,
It's possible Ed copied and pasted the wrong reason for your rejection. I imagine he has stock phrases that he uses all the time. Since you have no links, and the reason said it was for links, I wouldn't get too flustered. There are so many potential reasons for rejection that it's impossible to speculate without seeing the article. Hopefully, Ed will recall the actual reason and chime in (though with so many submissions, it may not be possible). If not, do your best to ensure the article meets all guidelines and try again. Good luck!

[aneeta]

Hi Celeste,

Thank you for your message. I think I will look at this article again and see what I can do about it.

With much thanks.
Aneeta

[aneeta]

One last question: it has been suggested that a web address may be embedded in the document somewhere. Is there any other way (besides reading the text closely - which I have done several times now) for this?

[Celeste Stewart]

If there's not a visible URL or the telltale blue underlining of a hyperlink, I'd think you'd be fine. You know that you didn't insert any links and you can't find any, so I'm still thinking that Ed may have picked the wrong stock answer for the rejection notice.

You can look in the document properties for extra information that maybe shouldn't be there but I doubt it will reveal anything. In Word 2007, go to the Office button and click Prepare> Properties. I believe in other versions, you would go to File > Properties or maybe even right-click the page and choose Page Properties though it's been so long that I can't recall for sure. Within the document's properties, you'll find the author's name, title, comments, subject, and other fields like editing time and statistics. Some of this info is generated automatically but unless you purposely entered links in these fields, they wouldn't show up on their own.

[aneeta]

Celeste,

Thank you very much for this information. I really appreciate it.

Aneeta