Hi, I keep getting rejected no matter what I do. I don't get over wordy, I don't indent paragraphs, or any of that other stuff. I follow the guidelines to the T, and still I get rejected.
I have submitted 3 articles, and 2 have been rejected. One of them was rejected about 3 times, after several modifications to it. I KNOW I am not a bad writer. I have been a professional writer for a few years now, and I have never had my work rejected like this.
I understand this site tries to uphold the highest standards in accepting submissions, but don't you think if someone is posting an article for a public request, that person who is posting the request should decide whether or not the article is good enough quality? You don't even give my work a chance. I correspond with these people who request articles on this site, and every time I end up having to suggest another website to do business on, because you make it so difficult for the buyer to choose what content they want. Ive been told personally by some of the people requesting articles, that they find that a bit off putting as well.
Maybe I am overreacting, and maybe I am just perturbed because every time I submit something here it's rejected, but the moment I submit it to Articlesale or DemandStudios, or when I bid for jobs on Elance, I very very rarely get rejected, maybe 3 out of 20 articles get rejected on the other sites, and i get excellent feedback. Why is this place so strict? Why aren't the people requesting articles able to actually READ the submissions instead of you making the choice for them?
Sorry about the bad grammar. It's late. I'm tired. I'm annoyed.
"Constant" rejection......
Moderators: Celeste Stewart, Ed, Constant
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Celeste Stewart
- Posts: 3528
- Joined: Sun Jan 08, 2006 5:28 pm
- Location: California
- Contact:
Re: "Constant" rejection......
The fact that CC pre-screens articles saves customers the hassle of weeding through poorly written articles or articles that do not conform to CC's guidelines. Imagine purchasing an article and then not being able to open the document because it's in a non-standard format or purchasing an article that looks good on first glance but is filled with run-on sentences, never comes to a solid conclusion, or is plagiarized.
Remember, you're not the only one hoping to fill the public request - many other writers are too. Within hours of posting a public request, the customer will have plenty of editor-approved articles from which to choose. In most cases, there's no interaction between customer and writer - no bidding, no "I can do all of these articles for you," none of that. Rather, the accepted article does the talking.
Suggesting that a customer go elsewhere in order to purchase work that does not meet CC's standards, doesn't exactly inspire confidence. More importantly, it is against the terms of service.
Many established writers here regularly help newcomers get past the early learning curve. We've all had rejections, especially in the beginnning. However, we value - and need - CC customers. Please do not work around the CC system; doing so is wrong and it hurts us all. Come to the "Constructive Criticism" thread and ask us for help. You may not get the sale in the short term, but in the long run, CC can be extremely rewarding.
Remember, you're not the only one hoping to fill the public request - many other writers are too. Within hours of posting a public request, the customer will have plenty of editor-approved articles from which to choose. In most cases, there's no interaction between customer and writer - no bidding, no "I can do all of these articles for you," none of that. Rather, the accepted article does the talking.
Suggesting that a customer go elsewhere in order to purchase work that does not meet CC's standards, doesn't exactly inspire confidence. More importantly, it is against the terms of service.
Many established writers here regularly help newcomers get past the early learning curve. We've all had rejections, especially in the beginnning. However, we value - and need - CC customers. Please do not work around the CC system; doing so is wrong and it hurts us all. Come to the "Constructive Criticism" thread and ask us for help. You may not get the sale in the short term, but in the long run, CC can be extremely rewarding.
Re: "Constant" rejection......
Celeste,
Thank you for addressing me, and I apologize for the combative manner in which I approached this. I am just tired, I suppose. I just don't understand what I did to be rejected. The rejection email is so generic every time, and never says anything other than "doesn't follow submission guidelines" or something to that effect. I understand maybe the moderators/owners/webmasters of this site are probably very busy, and can't take the time to be hands on with every writer for this site. However, wouldn't it be .... at least, HELPFUL, to include a little something more in the emails, instead of just sending the same carbon copy email to every writer who gets the big red rejection stamp? Perhaps you wouldn't have to reject some articles/photos/etc so many times, if you would just TELL US what we're doing wrong after the initial rejection. It would also save people like me some grief. For instance, I submitted an article on catching online cheaters, in response to a public article request on said topic. It was rejected because I didn't double space between paragraphs ( i figured that out on my own) I fixed the problem, proofread it several times, and resubmitted it, just to be on hold for a week and be rejected with no explanation again.To which I AGAIN double checked my work, found NO errors, (neither did my Mum, who is a professor at UNLV here in Las Vegas)
These are just suggestions. I appreciate and admire that the moderators of the forum are prompt usually in response to threads, but the overall moderation of the submissions and whatnot is kind of below par.
I know that everyone has different standards, and I wouldnt want to pay for something that isn't satisfactory in quality, but letting people know WHY they're not good enough, instead of simply telling them they are NOT good enough would probably help a lot of people out and make things run a little more smoothly.
Thank you for addressing me, and I apologize for the combative manner in which I approached this. I am just tired, I suppose. I just don't understand what I did to be rejected. The rejection email is so generic every time, and never says anything other than "doesn't follow submission guidelines" or something to that effect. I understand maybe the moderators/owners/webmasters of this site are probably very busy, and can't take the time to be hands on with every writer for this site. However, wouldn't it be .... at least, HELPFUL, to include a little something more in the emails, instead of just sending the same carbon copy email to every writer who gets the big red rejection stamp? Perhaps you wouldn't have to reject some articles/photos/etc so many times, if you would just TELL US what we're doing wrong after the initial rejection. It would also save people like me some grief. For instance, I submitted an article on catching online cheaters, in response to a public article request on said topic. It was rejected because I didn't double space between paragraphs ( i figured that out on my own) I fixed the problem, proofread it several times, and resubmitted it, just to be on hold for a week and be rejected with no explanation again.To which I AGAIN double checked my work, found NO errors, (neither did my Mum, who is a professor at UNLV here in Las Vegas)
These are just suggestions. I appreciate and admire that the moderators of the forum are prompt usually in response to threads, but the overall moderation of the submissions and whatnot is kind of below par.
I know that everyone has different standards, and I wouldnt want to pay for something that isn't satisfactory in quality, but letting people know WHY they're not good enough, instead of simply telling them they are NOT good enough would probably help a lot of people out and make things run a little more smoothly.
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Celeste Stewart
- Posts: 3528
- Joined: Sun Jan 08, 2006 5:28 pm
- Location: California
- Contact:
Re: "Constant" rejection......
My rejections usually have a specific comment. For example, recently "Please make sure to use singular pronouns to refer to singular nouns."
If you're gettting "Does not follow our guidelines," the writing may be error free but something is not conforming to the guidelines. Is the font 12-point Times New Roman? Is the file in the .doc format (not .docx)? Is the title properly capitalized? Is the short summary a brief summary of the article (not a copy and paste job of the intro paragraph)? Is the article free of hyperlinks? Ed won't even read a submission if the basic guidelines are not followed. If he can't open the document, he won't read it. If the document is typed in a fancy font, he won't read it. I know it's crummy not to get more input, but there are hundreds of articles that come through that don't meet these basic requirements.
Compare your rejected article to the guidelines (http://www.constant-content.com/about/w ... elines.htm) one more time and see if you can't find any other possible guideline violations. Even including a brief author's bio is forbidden, so if you have a few lines at the bottom saying, "Ms. Stewart is the CEO of the popular website www.blahblahblah.com" the article would be rejected with a "Does not follow guidelines" comment.
Also, be careful when copying and pasting into the long summary. If your word processor automatically inserts spacing between paragraphs and you do not do a hard enter to create the space, when you copy and paste the text, it will appear without proper spacing- and your article will be rejected! After clicking the Submit button, go back into My Content, click the Edit link and see if your text appears properly or if it's one big block of text.
If you're gettting "Does not follow our guidelines," the writing may be error free but something is not conforming to the guidelines. Is the font 12-point Times New Roman? Is the file in the .doc format (not .docx)? Is the title properly capitalized? Is the short summary a brief summary of the article (not a copy and paste job of the intro paragraph)? Is the article free of hyperlinks? Ed won't even read a submission if the basic guidelines are not followed. If he can't open the document, he won't read it. If the document is typed in a fancy font, he won't read it. I know it's crummy not to get more input, but there are hundreds of articles that come through that don't meet these basic requirements.
Compare your rejected article to the guidelines (http://www.constant-content.com/about/w ... elines.htm) one more time and see if you can't find any other possible guideline violations. Even including a brief author's bio is forbidden, so if you have a few lines at the bottom saying, "Ms. Stewart is the CEO of the popular website www.blahblahblah.com" the article would be rejected with a "Does not follow guidelines" comment.
Also, be careful when copying and pasting into the long summary. If your word processor automatically inserts spacing between paragraphs and you do not do a hard enter to create the space, when you copy and paste the text, it will appear without proper spacing- and your article will be rejected! After clicking the Submit button, go back into My Content, click the Edit link and see if your text appears properly or if it's one big block of text.
Re: "Constant" rejection......
Celeste, I have just re-submitted my "Travelers Guide to Osaka : Visiting Japan" article. Please be the one who checks it and let me know what's wrong with it. Id really appreciate it.
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Celeste Stewart
- Posts: 3528
- Joined: Sun Jan 08, 2006 5:28 pm
- Location: California
- Contact:
Re: "Constant" rejection......
I would love to except that I am not an official CC staff member - just a volunteer moderator who cleans up the spam :)
If you'd like me to take a look at the article, head over to the Authors link and find me in the list. From there, you can send me a message. Copy and paste the text into the message along with the "short summary" and I'll be glad to take a peek. Maybe I'll see something you're missing. Also, let me know which file format (.doc/.txt/.rtf etc) and font you are using so we can rule those issues out.
Ed's traveling this week, so he's probably not checking the forum too much.
If you'd like me to take a look at the article, head over to the Authors link and find me in the list. From there, you can send me a message. Copy and paste the text into the message along with the "short summary" and I'll be glad to take a peek. Maybe I'll see something you're missing. Also, let me know which file format (.doc/.txt/.rtf etc) and font you are using so we can rule those issues out.
Ed's traveling this week, so he's probably not checking the forum too much.