William Sanders, one of the editors of Helix SF, recently wrote a rejection letter. The author who received it posted it on the web, and included a derogatory racial comment Sanders had made, which has caused an uproar in, as he Sanders terms it, “Blogistan.” In response only to authors’ relations to Helix, Sanders is offering to remove stories from the site’s archive. In his own words:
Certain people, in response or sympathy to the things being said about me, have requested that their stories be deleted from the Helix archives.
Wait, wait; this was originally my suggestion. One person, whose excellent work had graced the pages of Helix on two occasions, had voiced such strong sentiments that I wrote to her and, among other things, offered to delete her stories from the archives if she felt that way about it. She replied at first in the negative, but later changed her mind; but anyway, I want to make it clear that this began as an offer that I made.
I made it to only that one person, and I confess it did not occur to me that anyone else would make a similar request; but a couple more did. Their requests have been honored as well.
But I have been informed that there are other Helix authors who are also participating in the slagfest, in private venues; and perhaps there are others as well who while not openly falling in with the lynch mob, still share the basic sentiment.
So I would like to publicly announce that if there is anybody who wants his/her/etc. story removed from the Helix archives as well, a written (emailed) request to me—not [Managing Editor] Lawrence [Watt-Evans], not [Website Designer] Melanie [Fletcher]—will be honored.
(That is speaking strictly of archived stories. Anything in the current issue will stay there, as per contract, for the duration of the quarter.)
But it’s not fair for Melanie to have to keep fucking with this; she’s already had a hell of a lot of extra work handed her because of it. So this offer is not going to remain open indefinitely. Speak up within a reasonable time—such time to be determined entirely by my caprice; tough shit if you don’t like it—or forever shut your pie-hole.
I should add that if anyone feels strongly enough to want to return the money they were paid, we will not accept it; I suggest donating it to Obama’s campaign instead. However, so far nobody has made any such offer, and I don’t seriously expect it.
Please spread this around. For this one occasion, everyone—that includes the lurkers too—has my formal permission to quote the entire text of this message. In fact I’d appreciate it. I want the word out.
What I don’t want is some damn fool coming around a month from now with “I didn’t know! Nobody told me!”
So if you agree with the Sanders Whiners, you’ll be doing your cause a service by getting this out. And if you don’t, then you’ll be doing us a service by helping speed the process so Melanie can put all this extra work behind her.
That’s all. We can talk about the other shit later on.
Sanders later amended his comments with the following:
By Christ, Melanie, you’re right! Why should you have to do all this extra work for nothing, just so some silly people can make a big grandstand play to impress their bloggy pals with the Correctness of their convictions?
I am hereby making a change to the aforestated offer. Effective as of now, any Helix contributor who wants his/her work deleted from the archives will have to pay for the privilege. Specifically, it’ll cost you forty bucks, payable to Melanie.
And that’s if Melanie figures it’ll take her an hour or less to do the job. If you’ve had a whole bunch of stories in the magazine, and/or a lot of other related entries—award nominations, etc.—to be taken out as well, then she’s at liberty to charge whatever she thinks is right.
But forty is the minimum. This is not negotiable.
Come now—forty bucks, that’s nothing, is it? I mean compared to the inestimable value of keeping your precious principles all shiny and pretty. Not to mention the basic principle involved at her end. Call yourselves feminists, do you? Then you ought to be ashamed of yourselves trying to exploit a woman’s labor like that.
I’m not just jiving around about this. I’m serious as a rattlesnake bite. You want your stuff deleted, you can pay for the privilege. Not to the magazine—none of the rest of us will touch a nickel. (Though no doubt Lawrence will have to handle the transaction, unless you happen to have Melanie’s mailing address.) If you’re not sure how to make the check out, email us, we’ll forward it to her.
But inquire first, because it’s still going to be up to Melanie whether or not she wants to fuck with it. I’m done giving her orders on this shit that’s not part of her job. (And if she doesn’t want to do it, then you’re shit out of luck, little buddy. Because contractually we’re not under any obligation to do it at all—as a couple of the earlier deserters have admitted.)
Hold on, now; two very important exceptions:
1. This does not apply to those needing something deleted for professional reasons. I mean anyone who, for example, has a chance to sell a story again or put it in a collection or something, and the publisher demands that it not appear anywhere else. If you’ve got a chance to make a little extra money, why, that’s an entirely different matter. Just write me with the details, we’ll work something out.
2. This rule is not retroactive. The three or four contributors who have already had their work deleted will not be affected. Just think, they not only got to display the purity of their principles—or their solidarity with their mates in Blogistan; the two concepts seem to be pretty much interchangeable anyway—but also realized the true American Dream: something for nothing. Their reward for getting there first.
Now will everyone who posted or otherwise circulated the previous announcement please follow up with this addendum, so that we don’t have any unnecessary misunderstandings.