I've been Held Over twice now.

[Wiley Koyote]

First off, hello NTWF. Nice to be here. I've submitted a few comics that are currently being held over, and now I'm here because I think I might have done an oopsie.

Okay, this question is kind of a doozy.

I have submitted three comics in the past month or so, two of them being held over, and one I'm still waiting on a reply for (I submitted a Halloween comic yesterday). I was under the impression that "Held Over" meant it would appear in next week's issue. When it didn't appear then, I assumed it would be the following one. It didn't appear in the following one either. I was assuming that one would be published this week, issue 703, with the next one being published next week, leaving my Halloween comic to be published on the 30th, (assuming it's accepted). Well, this Halloween comic involves one of my pets being painted. I wanted to coincide the painting of my pet with the Halloween comic. The first two comics I submitted involve one of my pets, unpainted, and then the Halloween comic involves them getting painted. If the Halloween comic is published first, it would mess up the continuity of the comic itself. (Although I could always recolor the first two if needed)  So I guess my question might be: should I have submitted all of these comics sooner? Or did I mess everything up by waiting until yesterday to submit my Halloween comic? I'm not entirely sure what I'm asking anymore honestly. The whole unpredictability of when my comic would be published in the NT is kind of the whole crux of the issue here. I guess I'm just looking for advice on what I should be doing as of right now. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks NTWF. ^^

[Ian Wolf-Park]

Held over is exactly what it means, not that it will be appearing in the next/upcoming issue. Accepted is the one you should be looking for if it's appearing in an upcoming issue.

A general rule of thumb is to submit 1 month before the actual issue, although it isn't unheard of for submissions to be held over and/or accepted days before the issue is released. You were cutting it close to the deadline, but I wouldn't be surprised if your Halloween themed comic is accepted in a couple of weeks.

I am curious, did you put a note specifying when you wanted your other two comics to appear? If not, that might be a problem as the editor, Country Queen, may not have known that it was for a specific issue.

[Wiley Koyote]

I did not lay out a specific date that I wanted the first two comics to be published. The only one I did kind of put a date on was the Halloween comic, and that didn't even have a date on it. I just specified that it was in fact a Halloween comic, and I think it's safe to assume CQ is intelligent enough to know when that one is supposed to be published. =P But anyway, I also just remembered I wanted to have at least one of the first comics appear before the Halloween issue did, as the thumbnail for my comic includes one of my pets, currently unpainted. The Halloween comic would have been a surprise to the readers. If only the Halloween comic is published without the other two, the thumbnail doesn't make a whole lot of sense, having my unpainted neopet on it.

[Ian Wolf-Park]

I thought so. It wasn't your fault as you didn't know, but for next time, either put a specific date/issue in the comments or Part 1 of whatever in the title if your next comic is a series. That way, CQ will know what to publish first and you won't worry as much as you did this time. Here's an example . However, because you do have two comics being held over at the moment, there is a possibility that one may appear next week and the other appearing on the 7th of November.

[Wiley Koyote]

Yeah. That makes sense. It isn't so much a series of comics that relies on continuity, apart from the fact that one of them involves my pet getting painted. Still a noob to the NT, despite reading it for years on and off. ^^; Ah well. I just hope that 1) The Halloween comic is accepted for Halloween, and 2. Either one of the first two comics I submitted is published next week. After that, I'd rather just recolor and resubmit whichever one is dated by that point. Thanks for you advice, Ian. ^^

[Zoey]

Yup, I agree with what Ian said. ^.^ I submit a lot of comics, but I submit it in like hoards of two or three at a time, so eventually I have a bunch held over and don't see them published until a month and a half or more after they were "held over". If you need a series of comics published in a specific order, definitely specify which issue number you want it published in as a note in the comment box.

[Coaster]

First off, welcome and it's nice to meet you and it's always good to have comic artists around!

Secondly, what everyone else said pretty much sums it up. Held over just means it's getting in sometime in the indefinite future (and is sometimes immediately followed by an acceptance, or it could be a few more weeks). If the ordering is an issue, technically you could contact CQ (I'm not certain of the exact protocol because I have never had to do so myself, but I think it would just be to send an explanatory Neomail to nt_editor? <_<) to ensure that it's the correct order, though, I think.

[Wiley Koyote]

Ah. Yes. thank you both. ^^ I have just contacted nt_editor. I will keep you posted on what they respond with, and I basically shortened what I said here as much as I could. Hopefully this can all be worked out. Once again, I appreciate all the responses. :3

[Wiley Koyote]

I got a neomail earlier today, telling me that my first comic I submitted was accepted, and now I have a shiny trophy on my lookup. Thanks to everyone for the advice, and I hope you enjoy the comics when they come out. ^^