PW News | PW SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Getting Back To Our Roots
An update to the Submission Guidelines
Greetings PW writers and potential writers. I owe all of you an apology. When I began PW back in October 2021, I wanted this to be a place where seasoned and new Medium writers could come for prompts and to have their work published. I wanted PW to be a fun and welcoming space. And it was, I believe, for quite a few months.
So what happened?
Well, to put it bluntly, we became very rigid and strict with our guidelines by adopting a Zero Tolerance policy. I now admit that policy was more dictatorial than friendly and inviting. For that, I am truly sorry.
A recent new writer on Medium asked to join PW, but felt weary about submitting work due to our overly strict guidelines. That was an eye-opener for me. A HUGE eye-opener. A shameful one at that. This was not what I wanted for PW. I’d been a writer for a publication that adopted a restrictive policy before and chose to leave that publication because of it. And here I’d done the same to PW.
I won’t rehash the reasons I’d adopted such guidelines. Just suffice to say I accepted counsel that swayed me toward it. I now regret doing so. Sure, it lessened our workload as editors, but it also alienated PW to new writers, and probably seasoned writers as well.
What’s changed?
I have removed the Zero Tolerance policy from PW’s Submission Guidelines.
What does this mean for writers going forward?
It means that we will no longer reject your work for minor infractions like lack of Subtitles or mislabeled Reader Interest tags. Instead, you will receive Private Notes to remind you of them. Your work will remain in the Queue until corrections are made by you. It also means if your work needs editing for grammar, spelling, and/or punctuation, your work will be forwarded to Rose Malana for line editing. She will work with you to polish your stories before they are published.
It is my sincere hope that by getting back to our roots as editors here at PW, writers will once again feel like they are welcomed here because you are. Without you, we editors don’t have a job to do. Without you, PW may as well shutter our doors and drift into oblivion.
I don’t expect writers who have felt rejected by us to forgive me for my misguided mistake. All I can do going forward is to ensure that writers who do submit their work here are treated with respect and dignity.
I want to thank all of the writers who have stuck with us during these troubled times. And I want to invite back all of the writers who have chosen not to submit work here because of our dictatorial stance.
I honestly believe that when I make a mistake, I must own up to it. And this was a HUGE mistake. Again, I offer my sincerest apologies to all PW writers past and present. And I want to thank Willow Dickerson for opening my eyes to this mistake.
Thank you all for reading this.
~Ravyne Hawke, EIC
