This Rock submissions

MarcoPolo · #1 Dec 7, '10, 5:28 pm

I submitted an article idea to This Rock magazine. I only sent the idea because the submissions page says: "This Rock magazine does not accept unsolicited articles for publication." That was over 2 weeks ago. I have followed up with one email since then asking if I could receive a reply. Still nothing. Is this normal? Is that email address active?

Rach620 · #2 Dec 7, '10, 6:52 pm

I work for another Catholic publisher. If their submissions page says that they do not accept unsolicited manuscripts, then they do not accept unsolicited manuscripts, including ideas for articles or other queries. They likely do not have the personnel to review such submissions at This Rock as the magazine is only published six times a year.

Additionally, you should never expect any sort of response within two weeks of submission. It can take weeks or months for submissions to be reviewed and for a response to be prepared. The Catholic Answers site also says that it can take "up to three months or more" to hear a response for book manuscript submissions. From my experience, that's a fairly accurate estimate.

You could always try another magazine, or another Catholic website or blog, for your submission.

**puzzleannie** · #3 Dec 7, '10, 6:56 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by MarcoPolo

I submitted an article idea to This Rock magazine. I only sent the idea because the submissions page says: "This Rock magazine does not accept unsolicited articles for publication." That was over 2 weeks ago. I have followed up with one email since then asking if I could receive a reply. Still nothing. Is this normal? Is that email address active?

I don't know about TR but as a sometime writer I can tell you when a magazine says they do not accept unsolicited mss they mean it. That is not a call for article ideas or proposals rather than completed material, it means they assign the material to writers they have in mind, or solicit articles from their regular authors or from those they would like to publish. A response within two weeks from any publisher is simply unheard of, 6 months seems average, and most would not respond at all to unsolicited submissions if their policy is not to read them.

MarcoPolo · #4 Dec 7, '10, 8:30 pm

The reason I asked is because I got responses from 2 other Catholic magazines within a week that declined my article, but were very nice. For one of those other magazines, I sent a follow up email after a week just to confirm they received it. A gentleman was kind enough to reply within a day. So far from This Rock, I have not heard back so I figured maybe someone here might see this who is affiliated with the magazine. But thank you both for your replies.