World Hum Rejects Me--with Class

I got a nice rejection letter from my friend Jim Benning who runs World Hum, an interesting travel website based in California. I have been interested in Jim because earlier this year the website was acquired by the Travel Channel. I remember talking with him about his business a few years back and it was clear that the part he liked best was editing and putting up stories.

He was working a day job then, and so my ideas about advertising and monetization weren't that interesting to him. But now he's worked out a great arrangement. The site is owned by the Travel Channel, promoted on their site, and he concentrates his time on editing and writing and finding great content for the site.

I asked him how it's going and what it's like to have a boss. He said he was having a great time, and that while he is in touch with the Travel Channel folks every day, it's a good relationship, they let him do his thing and happily, he no longer has to work that other day job.

As a result of the new owners, World Hum now pays $100 for stories, and so I had hoped to get my story published there. Unfortunately my piece about Italy didn't fit the criteria and so all I got was a polite rejection.

But I gotta give Jim credit; Most editors never bother to either reply nor read the submissions...and I think it was a kharmic payback since I reply to every query or email. I won't give up though, there is a good home somewhere for this story and I'll keep plugging away til I find it.