Try and Try Again?

Years ago, I was told a particular website wanted to publish a piece I wrote on not having a diagnosis. Then they never got back to me. Then when I bothered to follow it up later, I was told to email someone else, but I couldn't be bothered at that point. And all I came away with was the thought that it's a good thing I don't have rejection issues or any illness that causes me to have a breakdown over being ignored. Because a website supposedly existing to support people with mental illnesses should really be careful about who they disregard, their core audience has difficulties with emotional connections and rejection and you... ignored one of them.

Anyway, I also like magazines who use Submittable for submissions, I also hate it because if you put up barriers to submissions I won't bother as much, so Submittable makes it too easy. And I don't like the process, but every now and then I think, hey if I could get a piece in put up on an online magazine, that wouldn't be so bad. I had a short rejected while I was waiting for my first trad pub, I mentioned in my letter I was trad pubbed, because I can say that. I'm still trying to own it. Apparently they're not interested in people's publication history, so I just glossed over it, gave them three sentences of my bio which I recycle, and sent an edited version of the piece the other website never gave me an answer on. It was the right word length. I'm just waiting for them to say, yeah this wasn't what we were asking for. I guess I'm also sick of reading other human interest stories on the ABC that end up mentioning a book deal someone got for leaving a particular job to write about it or who had some harrowing experience worthy of a book deal, where the piece is almost an add for their book as well. Which is a bit thin considering it's a public broadcaster that doesn't have ads.

I don't particularly care if it is rejected. But they did say they wanted stories about mental illness. I have one. It just got ignored by a website that claimed to want to publish it then completely forgot to even get back to me, never mind publish it.