Thread: simultaneous submissions

this is somewhat of a "newbie" question, maybe. most magazine publications state in their guidelines:
"no simultaneous submissions". i learned from submitting my 1st work that many times, these places
take many months to even respond with a rejection.
i have a problem with this kind of lagging waiting period between submissions.
is this a guideline most writers ignore?
this latest story i've written, i 1st sent it to a publication which has always responded within 3 days.
i received a rejection from them...and this time i just ignored that guideline when sending it out
other places and sent it out to 3 different publications simultaneously.
i mean...do they have a way of knowing?

As long as you are being rejected you are safe, if more than one decides to use it they sure do have a way of knowing, and I guess that will be the last thing they use from you. Keep a file so you have a record of what you have sent to who, update every so often and anything you haven't heard from for six months or so send on to the next publication on your list. It is tempting to want to send out lots at once, but a continual, methodical dribble will cover just as many bases and an editor who sees your name regularly might even think 'that's familiar' and have a read before throwing at the bin.

I've come across some fiction periodicals who accept submissions electronically, and whose submissions page allows you to withdraw your work from consideration if accepted elsewhere.

Or look at other magazines - most that I've checked on say they accept sim subs, but want to be notified immediately if someone else accepts.

I feel that it is oppressive for magazines to take upwards of 6 months to reject your work while retaining exclusive rights to do so. If they can't make up their minds quicker than that, it should be their problem, specially as some don't even tell you if they're not going to use your work, what do they expect writers to do, keep turning out new work till the four horsemen appear on the doorstep, on the grounds that it has been sent to Authorpoint magazine and they haven't rejected it yet....

You can also check on duotrope, if they're on there -- most mags have stats on there that tell you how long it usually takes the mag to respond. I submitted to one that wrote back within a day, and most others I've chosen have written back within a week or two. Then again, I'm starting at the smaller non-paying journals, so they probably also have fewer submissions.

But yeah, if they say they don't accept simultaneous submissions, you should honor that. If enough time passes, you should be able to send follow-up inquiries.

Originally Posted by shadowwalker

Or look at other magazines - most that I've checked on say they accept sim subs, but want to be notified immediately if someone else accepts.

yeah. i've seen a couple of these and figured that would be just what i do with all of them.
i'm starting to find resources now with many more options than i had previously. before i was using
a market site with only about 30 or so publications. i found a new source with hundreds of online
submission possibilities now, though.

Originally Posted by Bloggsworth

I feel that it is oppressive for magazines to take upwards of 6 months to reject your work while retaining exclusive rights to do so.

How many magazines do that? I've been sending out some short stories to SF magazines and the response times have varied from two days to two months... AFAIR the two months was Asimov's, which doesn't surprise me given the number of stories they must receive. The less popular magazines' response times were days, not weeks.

Originally Posted by movieman

How many magazines do that? I've been sending out some short stories to SF magazines and the response times have varied from two days to two months... AFAIR the two months was Asimov's, which doesn't surprise me given the number of stories they must receive. The less popular magazines' response times were days, not weeks.

I would say it depends on the number of submissions received. The smaller, less prestigious zines tend to have very fast response rates. I've had stories accepted (or rejected) the same day I submitted them, but these places either only paid a minimal amount or nothing at all. Submit to places like The Lifted Brow or Boston Review (basically most zines that pay pro rates) and you're looking at a several month wait. The fastest response I ever got from one of the big guns was two months from AGNI, and I have a feeling I only got such a quick reply because whoever initially read the story made the decision to reject it straight from the slush pile and not send it on for further consideration.