It's possibly happened to me again... 
For those who may remember, a while back I posted a gripe about how a certain publication had sent me an acceptance letter for a poem, only to then send me a rejection letter as if the acceptance letter was never even sent. Well, it's happened again, this time involving a different publication.
I just received an e-mail rejection letter from one of the editors at Illumen that completely conflicts a previous acceptance e-mail from the other editor. Now, this stuff can happen, but this particular poem is already listed in the Illumen ToC on the Genre Mall web site!
When you think about it, this could potentially harm the "previously unpublished" status of the poem if it has indeed been rejected by Illumen and I decide to send it back out. It's my word against the posted ToC. And if an editor does a search for the poem, it just may come up as being published in Illumen.
I usually try not to name names in situations like this, but I had already announced the publication of this poem in Illumen on various forums and blogs, as well as adding it to my list of publications on my web site. I in no way felt that I was "jumping the gun", since I had received the acceptance e-mail and confirmed the poem as being listed in the Illumen ToC. If this poem has indeed been rejected after all this, I will need to post a lot of corrections.
I'm starting to really prefer places that use actual contracts.
Perhaps I'm worrying over nothing, perhaps this is merely a breakdown in communication. And yes, I did send an e-mail asking for clarification. Now I wait and see what happens.
Yep, feelin' like I'm in the Twilight Zone again. Cue the Twilight Zone theme song...
"I'm going to do what the warriors of old did. I'm going to recite poetry!"
Richard H. Fay - Azure Lion Productions
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