Flaky, Flaky, Flaky

I have dealt with many fine publisher who have been a pleasure to work with. Why are there so many flakes? I sent two articles to a publisher. I never heard back, so I contacted him again. He said his computer crashed, could I please resubmit? I did so, and then waited six months. He never contacted me, so I reached out again. "Oh, I moved my office. Could you resubmit?" I did so, this time by both email and snail mail. No reply. I gave up on him, and sent it to another magazine, which took about fifteen minutes to accept both of them, and they appeared a few months later. It can be even worse. I sold an article (or so they told me) to a magazine in August, 2012. It never appeared, so I checked back with them again 20 months later. (I was being patient.) Me: "Were you still going to use that piece?" Them: "Oh, yes, it's going to appear. You just need to be patient, Mr. Leslie. These things take time." She was actually a little snippier than that sounds. This morning, they sent me an email: "Gee, we changed our mind." That's thirty months since they accepted it, and ten months since they reconfirmed the acceptance. Please, please, publishers please treat your writers with respect, as so many of you do. (You know who you are.) We pour so much of our heart into our writing. And writers, be respectful as well. Say thank you. A prompt no deserves a thank you just as a prompt yes. And be patient. But this latest was ridiculous.