Public requests for articles and not reviewed in time!

[Yogagirl]

I have sold articles on and off here for the past year. However, I recently had my first experience writing for a public request. I PM'd the client ahead of time and asked her if she liked my article ideas. I received an enthusiastic reply that yes, she did like my ideas! I went ahead and wrote the articles and submitted BEFORE her deadline. However, the articles weren't reviewed in enough time and I never got an acceptance from the client. The second article got bumped back with editorial corrections. However, the deadline is past due so I'm screwed and can't re-submit for the public request. I PM'd the client and asked if she still wanted the articles?

Is this a common occurrence on here? If that's the case, I'm not sure I'm going to bother wasting my time for a public request when my articles aren't reviewed in a timely manner to meet the deadline and the client ends up not accepting/using the article. This was for a specific magazine with specific topics. I may just stick to what I was doing before as it seems my articles are being sold that way compared to writing for specific public requests.

Anyone else run into this problem on here? That seems a bit unprofessional and a bit on the slacker side with the editorial process. That wouldn't fly in my copywriting world/deadlines!

Thanks!

[Antonia]

Yogagirl,

when exactly did you submit your articles, and when were they reviewed?

[ProlificScribe]

I've had that happen to me with the picnic/summer articles requested sometime last week. I submitted one that was approved rather quickly (which she purchased) and upon hearing my idea for another article she told me to go ahead and write the other one.

By the time it was approved, she already had all of the articles she needed. So now I'm stuck with a rather specific article that is geared towards Orange County and a time sensitive subject such as summer. I will probably just rewrite it and remove any references to Orange County and resubmit it.

So far I've only written for public requests and so far this has only happened to me once. I just chalked it up to a learning experience, but I can see that probably happening again in the future.

I have a few ideas I'm working on that aren't for public requests. I think writing articles that are not for public requests is really the only way to avoid this sort of thing happening. At the same time, public requests are important for CC, if no one submitted articles for public requests, out of fear they won't be reviewed in time to be pertinent, then what's the point?

So I'm somewhat conflicted.


-Tara

[Antonia]

I've submitted dozens of articles for public requests. Only once did one not make it in time, and that was because I made a silly mistake and got a rejection. By the time I re-submitted, the request had been taken down. Even then, that same requester had bought 4 or 5 of my articles, so it wasn't a complete loss.

Public requests were also what led to the majority of my relationships with private clients. Which brings up another important point; if a buyer specifically requests an article or approves an idea of yours, ask them to make a private request. This way, your article will be approved much faster.

@Yogagirl--I'm not sure what you mean by "a bit on the slacker side." It's not like the editorial team is sitting around eating bonbons. If it takes longer than you expected to get an acceptance, it's because there are many articles in the pipeline in front of yours. They ARE reviewing--they just haven't gotten to yours yet.

I'd give public requests another chance before you chalk them off. Seriously, if the system didn't work 99% of the time, writers wouldn't use it.