I decided to shop one of my flash fictions around, and I submitted it to this magazine: Submit Your Work – Twist & Twain (twistandtwain.com) When I woke up this morning, I had an email saying the piece was published. I'm more than a little confused and angry, I never signed a contract, I never gave them permission, I just used the submission form. Is this normal? I'm going to ask them to take it down.
I’m sorry what? you wanted them to publish your work, which was why you submitted it to them and now you are angry that they have? If you didn’t want them to publish it why did you submit it to them?
If you are just going to be antagonistic, that’s not super helpful. I’m angry they did so without permission. Isn’t it normal for there to be a contract between the publisher and author?
Pretty much you gave them permission when you submitted it bearing in mind that they say they are a platform for new authors looking to promote their work and that it will be published in 24 hours or less bear in mind they are based in India so the law they operate under won't be the same as westerners are used to That said i really don't understand why you are angry, you wanted them to publish it, they published it. Written contracts tend to be a thing when money is changing hands, but for a site that just displays your work often the defacto contract is just in you accepting the terms of submission. If that's not what you wanted or if you were expecting they'd pay you, its a case of caveat emptor, its on the author to do their due dilligence on who they are submitting to.
There's nothing on the submission page at all like "by submitting, you are authorizing Twist and Twain to publish the story." I was not expecting payment, but it wasn't clear to me at all that 1) this is the type of magazine that will use other people's intellectual property without a formal agreement to do so; and 2) that this is the type of magazine that publishes with no editorial assessments. I suppose I can see #2 in hindsight. Regardless the question remains, is this normal practice for an online magazine? Maybe this is just my ignorance of the process, but I assumed there would be at minimum a contract describing which rights are assigned to the magazine, and some editorial suggestions to improve the story before publishing.
It does say on their about page that work is published within 24 hours...which would tend to suggest that they aren't very discriminating, and clearly can't be assessing the work submitted to any great degree Rights are covered on the submission page - ie that its not exclusive and you are free to publish elsewhere. I'd agree that its not what you would expect from a western company, but they are assam and bound therefore by Indian law I don't think this is usual practice for most magazines, but to be honest this is barely a magazine by most reasonable standards
I wouldn't bother having them take it down unless you just really don't want your work on their website. Even if they take it down, first rights are technically gone. It has been published. And you will not be able to truthfully sign any contract giving those right to another publication. Sorry, but that's the way it works. Not every publication uses contracts, especially if there is no money involved. Some do still use contracts when there is no pay, but those are mostly places that are well established and all you are doing with the contract is granting them first rights and maybe exclusive rights for a set amount of time. Again, your first rights are now gone no matter what you do. I had an online publication publish one of my pieces without even telling me. I only discovered this when I was googling myself to find a link to a different story I had published. But there it was and it had been on their website for months. I had thought it was rejected when I never heard from them. I was both upset that I hadn't been informed but also happy that it had been published in a place I had hoped to get in with when I first submitted it to them. There was no contract and no editorial changes, but I thought my piece was pretty much ready for publication when I sent it. And it's always a good thing to send out your polished and near perfect work when seeking publication. I emailed the online publication and they apologized for not getting back to me when the piece was published. I didn't ask them to take it down or anything like that. I actually think they did a good job with the layout, artwork, and presentation of my piece. I also knew first rights were gone at that point so there was no point in taking it down or really getting upset. I had wanted them to publish my piece when I sent it. And they did publish it. So, what was the problem, really? I'm still proud of that work and it's out there now. I got what I wanted just maybe not in the way I expected, and it sounds like that's kind of similar to what you're going through. It's important to read and research publications where you send your work. But a contract and editorial insight is not a given, especially at smaller and lesser known publications. I don't know. You're published now. Maybe you should celebrate that rather than dwell on the logistics of the publication's operating procedures.
Well definitely lesson learned there. obviously if they said “hey dude, like the story, please confirm we can publish” I would have said “yes!”. But just seeing the email that it was already posted really jarred me. maybe it’s the “any magazine that would publish me isn’t one I want to be published in” lol
I understand that feeling. But the thing is your story is out there now for people to read and enjoy. This isn't the last story you will write or have published. It's just the beginning of your publishing journey.
Took me a while to get back to my computer. Withdrew the submission from all but two magazines, one who says they accept reprints and the other who didn't mention it (but I sent them an email anyways letting them know).
It sounds like you need to read things carefully. (x) The copyright remains with you. You are free to get your work published elsewhere without requiring our permission. We pursue a very liberal policy and in fact we feel that authors should reach out to the maximum number of platforms to gain publicity. Twist & Twain cannot be the last stop. (xi) We do not offer a written contract as there is no exchange of money between the author and publisher Those two items, and the rest of the terms appear to be set up like software requiring you to accept terms an conditions to install. From a quick glance at the site, they appear to be more for marketing and not traditional publishing.
