Substack Glitch: Adding a Co-Author May Cause Their Name to be Published Without Permission, Even If Is Says, "Pending"

On My Side, I Saw, "Pending" and Assumed that @CJ Lewis Had Received an Email Request to Publish. I Scheduled the Post. It Posted With Him as A Co-Author, Yet He Had Apparently Never Given Permission.

Addendum February 6, 2024:

My apology for any angst and misunderstanding.

I wrote this article on @CJ Lewis, a truly heroic advocate against censorship. I added him as “Co-Author” and I saw the post as “Pending” Co-Authorship, and did not know that Substack would or could publish without his actual permission.

This is what I saw on my end:

I had no idea Substack could or would allow this to happen, otherwise anyone with ill intentions can do anything like this.

I had no idea this happened until I checked my email only to find a very irate message all capitol letters, which I totally get. I clicked on the Note, replied to it, and then deleted CJ as a co-author.

This is what got published:

Literally within seconds, this what I did:

I am still not clear on how this could happen.

My email led me to this Note from CJ, who had reached out to Substack in a Note, inquiring the same.

Now We All Know

And we should definitely communicate with co-authors prior to allowing a publication to go through. And if you have problems on Substack, you can go to:

#1: The person you have a problem with. I would encourage you to try not to yell at them in capital letters, and unless you have reason to believe otherwise, also try to assume it was done as an honest error without malfeasance.

#2:

Substack Writers

- They were tagged but probably too busy to respond.

#3:

Frank Drevin

- Frank responded to the above Note, and I am grateful. Thank you for publishing this solution, which prevents anyone from doing what I accidentally did:

#4:

Holly’s Substack

Interestingly, Holly also attached an explanatory image to a Note. I have not seen this before, so I asked her how she did it.

Grateful to the Substack writers who think the best of one another, tolerate mistakes, are nonjudgmental, offer constructive advice, and show themselves to be the best person they can be! Hat’s off to you!

Bottom Line:

Do not assume that Substack has an internal capability that prevents an invitation to Co-Author, especially a “Pending” Author, from going through and publishing without their express permission.

Thank you!

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Goodness knows that as an anesthesiologist, I am not allowed to make one mistake, ever. But I would like to think that making honest mistakes in the writing world of Substack is still okay in today’s world, because we can learn from them.