I have sent off lots and lots of article proposals to newspapers and magazines from this years yearbook as well as pitches to publishers for my book. I am receiving NOTHING back. No acknowledgments. No rejections even. Is this common? Very demoralising/uninspiring.
Publishers do not usually accept unsolicited ms, and if they do can take 6 months+ to reply and often simply do not if they are uninterested.
As for magazines/newspapers...are these the top ones, do you have a published backlist to inspire confidance/reputation, are the articles written, of good quality and relevant?
Are you mass pitching and building an amateur reputation for yourself? Be wary of this.
Are you pitches/proposals perfect and well researched?
Depending on where you are in your writing career in may be worth concentrating on local, small platform sources to build up reputation.
thanks guys. At least it's not just me!
Sometimes you will hear back from them several months later, but yes often the response can be absolutely nothing.