Prompt manuscript withdrawal

Hi all, It has come to our attention that one of our finalist manuscripts was accepted for publication elsewhere while under our consideration. Needless to say, we are highly disappointed in this development. The author has been contacted and has admitted her neglect, but we just wanted to publish a short statement here in case anyone becomes aware of this situation through other means. Once we had decided on the finalists, we did research online to make sure that none of our finalists had already published a book-length project, but we didn't contact the finalists personally because our judge had not yet decided on the winner, and we didn't want to risk any outside influences on her decision. Sincerely, Brandi Homan, Editor-in-Chief