Vocal.Media Need New Glasses

Maybe They Need New Glasses

I have spent the last two days pulling my hair out, wondering what on earth I was doing wrong. Every poem I tried to put on Vocal got the same message back. Not in English. Not in English. Not in English. As if I had suddenly decided to start writing in ten different languages overnight.

I only speak English. I only write in English. I always have. So when they kept knocking me back, I sat there thinking, has the world gone mad or is it just me.

Then I started reading through other people’s posts and comments. And that is when it clicked. It was not just happening to me at all. It was happening to loads of writers. Some of them write every day. Some have been on there for years. And every single one of them was saying the same thing. Rejected for being not in English when it clearly was.

What made me laugh was this. The ones who write a two word line, or a three word line, or a little tiny line at the top of their verse — they were getting it the worst. It was almost like the system took one look at a small line and thought, well that must be foreign then.

I never said anything to anyone at first. I just took it all in and watched it play out. But honestly, the way things are going, I am starting to think someone over there has been given the wrong pair of glasses.

Maybe they popped to get their eyes tested this week and came back with the wrong prescription. Because they are definitely not reading what is on the page.

So here is my little message, with a smile:

Vocal, why don’t you go to Specsavers. I believe there is an offer on this week, and maybe then you will see things in the language they were written in. Please 👓🔎🕶️😎🤓