Why I withdrew my story from an indie pub

And what I learned from the experience

Hello! It’s been a few weeks since I’ve sent a freelance dispatch. My reporting trip on the Oregon Coast was much busier than anticipated, and then I caught a little cold from being rundown. And now here we are, in October. Steve has been making chili, and I’ve been running again. It’s not yet peak fall here in Portland so we have more time for quintessential autumn activities. A lot has happened since I last sent an update to paid subscribers, including a really shitty interaction with a local publication that I want to tell you about. I wrote an exhaustive post yesterday with screenshots of my email exchange with the editor, and then Steve read it and gave me the advice I needed. He said it sounded more like venting than anything actually helpful, so I’ve reigned in the bitterness in today’s rewrite.

What you’ll read about below is one of the most unprofessional experiences I’ve had in my many years as a freelancer. It left me feeling tricked and used. I’ll admit: I had high hopes. The magazine is beautiful, and I was excited to have a byline somewhere new and establish a relationship with a local editor. Maybe it would lead to more opportunities. But after what unfolded, I won’t be pitching the publication ever again. It’s sad, especially in a time of such scarcity. Print might be having a revival, but writers are still undervalued and published work is often still left up to an elitist few. This experience only added to that narrative.