Mystery of Disappearing Article

[cherylannej]

Has anyone experienced the mysterious disappearance of a submitted article for approval?

I suddenly realised that a piece I submitted a few weeks ago, that was 'in review', has disappeared, not been rejected, nor accepted...just missing from the articles list.

It's my longest article and a good business piece on a specialist subject. Do you think I should re-submit? Could it simply be too long for consideration, at 3k words? However, the subject matter is weighty and it's something large companies are currently keen on.

Thanks, all!

[Gauderbock]

Have you checked your notifications to see if it's been 'purged' ie rejected and deleted? It's the only thing I can think of...

[cherylannej]

Ah, Gauderbock! Thanks for that; I never thought to look there as I had not received anything. I see that on 16th December it was 'deleted' but I still haven't the faintest idea why. It was about security protocols for high net worth individuals, i.e. how to keep safe in the current climate of attack on individuals and companies.

There's no 'rejection' just deletion--does that make sense to people? Maybe it's too sensitive a topic, then, but is odd if so as it's not controversial, any more so than fire evacuation or lifesaving tips at sea would be. I've had no email or notice not to re-submit and never had a piece declined so I really need to understand it. On the assumption it had simply not submitted successfully, I resubmitted before reading your suggestion and 'delete' doesn't seem to delete a submission so, it will be interesting to see what happens.

Thanks again.

[Pellucidean]

The one time I had an article rejected and purged, I definitely received a message about it, I believe by both email and as a notification on CC itself. Seems very odd what happened to you, I think resubmitting under the assumption that somebody at CC screwed up somehow make sense.

[cherylannej]

Hello, all, and especially Pellucidean...

Thank you for posting too; I do appreciate when people help me especially as the forum is not so busy these days, and I only just checked in and saw the message you left.

To update, I discovered that the article was indeed purged as it was too long for CC. I hadn't realised there was an upper limit and my best-sellers were long pieces in the past, but it makes sense.

I will revamp it into three separate articles on the one theme and see how it goes next time. I didn't get a rejection notice at all, although it was purged twice (I'd resubmitted before determining why it disappeared the first time, assuming it was a glitch). It seems purges don't produce an email, but do produce a Notification once logged in.

Thanks, all! Happy writing.

[Gauderbock]

Did you get any indication of what the upper limit is? I can't find anything in the guidelines. Just asking, as I have a few 'bare bones' drafts which are already pushing 1k words, and they could easily get quite large...

[cherylannej]

Hi, Gauderbock.

It is pretty much a mystery to me also; I tried to find some indication of the maximum words permissible, but also couldn't locate anything anywhere.

I have had articles accepted when they are up to 2300 words with no issues, and quite a few of them. The article in question--the purged one--was around 3k words so I am now working on the assumption that the ideal is under 2k words... and likely to vary editor to editor?! I say 'the ideal' as I see that hardly anyone submits articles over 2k words--or I don't spot them--and I assume again that my longer ones only just escaped the chop previously!

I have now withheld a number of long pieces and will try and chop them down. Ouch. It's easier for me to write 3k-worders than 500-worders. I just don't find 500 words long enough to say anything impactful! I definitely do not feel it's professional to try and submit articles on close protection (the rejected title) at under 1500 words, per piece, as 'snippets' of information do more harm than good in this sphere.

I think I will have to try and make the revamp into some kind of series but without labelling as such, e.g.:

High Net Worths: Stay Safe at Home
High Net Worths: Safe Travelling
High net Worths: Stay Safe During Working Hours.

I did the same to a piece about driving safety, and I just sold the first tranche of the chopped-down article, at $79.99, so there's hope the split-down method works.

I am going to be holed up in a bunker for the next 5 days from tonight so will try and redraft the wretched close protection piece accordingly. : )

Almost all my pieces are over 1200 words and no editor has had a problem with those, so it appears you're safe at that length! (Famous last words...)

Ho hum!

Annie

[Gauderbock]

Hmm. I've had several pieces accepted and sold at 2.5k+ words, albeit for requests. Do you still have the rejection notification to hand?

Thanks

[cherylannej]

Indeed, I do. Seems it's fine for requests to be long, but otherwise, this is what was said (twice!):

"We do not accept content of this length. These are reserved for requests."

The second rejection of the resubmission said the article would make a good series 'but only for a request'! So I have to hope someone realises they need the exact articles I have already written, ha, without them seeing them first... most unlikely unless we have telepathic clients. Anything's possible....

[Lysis]

It all depends on the editor. I was all into an article once and it came to 2500 words. It went through and actually sold already.