FineScale Modeler and Articles---Has Anyone Tried?

[Ong]

Has anyone ever wrote and submitted modeling articles to FineScaleModeler (FSM)?

I did a few weeks ago and I find the Editor replied some time later that he received it and will look at it when he has the time. Since then, he has been non-responsive. Granted, FSM is published 8-9 times a year so perhaps he's on a two-month break, but I sent a couple of other follow-up emails and he still has not replied. I don't know if he read it, rejected it, or just deleted it. No one there seems to have an email address.

So that gives me the impression that FSM doesn't care or has bad Customer Service and that the submissions go into some Black Hole never to be seen again.

I ask because FSM doesn't seem to have a lot of articles published. Most modelers post on the forums for free instead.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Henk]

The editor has acknowledged your submission, and will have a look at it. He gets lots of submissions, some good, some less so. He also needs to sort out all the other jobs, and probably has a job and private life too. Realisticly, he wont really consider your submission for some time, unless a brief look makes it immediately obvious that it is no good. To start nagging him after a few weeks with emails, only puts your submission to the bottom of the pile.

Print magazine or online?

Print magazines have a long lead time, and content will have largely been decided some months in advance. A submission, if it gets printed, may be printed much later on in the future. Also, most magazines work with a pool of regular contributors, because their style is familiar, and they usually submit their content in such a manner that the editor has to do little to get it ready for print. (And they are friends of the editor... )

Online mags are different, of course. Feature articles are dealt with in a similar way as print, but the mag usually has a forum where you can post your own work, just not as prominent.

I did online editing in a previous life, and it's a thankless and hard job. Print publishing editors get paid, but often online editors dont, just like the mods on forums like this one, dont get paid. Contributors often think that their submission is the best, perfectly formatted, and can and must be published immediately. In reality, the model is average, the photos mediocre, the writing stilted, and that's the ones that can be considered for eventual publication...

Good luck anyway

 

[Ong]

You're correct, Henk, thanks!