A "Scummy" Choice
So, on Friday–actually Sunday morning is when I first saw it–but it was sent on Friday, so that’s what I’m going with . . . so, on Friday, I got a response back from a market that I sent my story to . . . back in September.
Yup, you read that right. A story that I sent to a market back in September of 2019 just sent me a reply as of March 2020.
I just want that to sink in.
Long Response Time Suck!
There’s no other way to articulate it–long response times suck! For those who are wondering, that’s five months and approx. 7 days. How do I know . . . because i have an internal “clock” of sorts that somehow triggers right around the 6 month mark. A week before, my clock had triggered and I went to look up how long it had been.
I’d originally submitted on September 21, 2020 to a Sci-Fi market that I’d never submitted to previously, but seemed to have a fairly high “reputation” as it didn’t have a high “lost/no response” rate and seemed to have a fairly robust rate of submitters along with a open response call for submissions that seemed reasonable. My story fit under the guidelines, so I decided to submit.
Poor choice on my part. I can’t remember whether or not I looked at the length of time for response–I usually do and if I find that response take too long–usually over 90 days is a bad sign, but I often go up to as high as 100-120, then I don’t submit, no matter how lucrative the market or high good of a “fit” my story is as I find markets with long submission times problematic.
Again, I can’t remember if I checked or not (it’s been nearly 6 months after all), but even if I didn’t check, I don’t remember seeing anything in the market listings that raised a red flag.
What’s the Problem with Long Submission Times?
First, it is disrespectful. Your business is a journal/magazine, but you can’t easily fill it with your own staffers (or you can, but may take a hit to your “reputation” if you do), so you solicit material from writers (either actively by sending queries to writers to send their work individually or by opening up your submissions to everyone–either year round or through certain submission periods). However, you “lock” up that story for writers like me who only submit one copy of the story to one market at a time–sequential submissions. Most writers don’t do this anymore for just this reason–the whole idea of the simultaneous submission came about because of this habit of publisher of taking forever to respond to submissions. Digress: I remember in the mid-to-late 80s that the debate over the “ethics” of simultaneous submissions raged quite vociferously with the writers basically winning the practice became standard for most markets so long as the writer immediately informed the market when the story was sold somewhere else and the writer would then withdraw it from consideration.
Second, and back to the point: for writers like me, who don’t do that, then that story is out of circulation for that time period and unavailable for submissions. I estimate that I lost 3-4 chances with other markets in that 5.25 month window that it was out to that 1 market.
So they Accepted It Right–I Mean They Did Take All That Time to Decide
Nope.
A simple form reject of 1 paragraph. Yup, you read that right as well. It took this market 5.25 months to respond to a sub 20 page story with a “canned” copy and pasted paragraph that 1) Thanked me for the submission, 2) Said they could not use it at this time.
Will I be submitting to this market in the future. Unfortunately, no. They have joined my list of publishers that I will no longer send submissions to in the future. While not particularly large (sub 10 at the moment), it is a list made up of 1) a market who gives feedback, but does so in a condescending way that once remarked upon my education rather than my story, 2) a market that responds quickly–too quickly in fact, usually a day and under, I think the longest time out for a story was a glacial 2 days–and NEVER once has responded with ANYTHING positive about any of the stories that I sent, and 3) 4-5 markets that have submission times approaching or over the 180 day mark. One that I used to LOVE submitting to is on that list as the last time I checked it had an incredible 495 day response period. Yup, and as you and I both know 360 = 1 year and 360
Had this market gave substantial and substantive feedback, then I might have felt the long wait justified, but having lost multiple chances at publication for the story only to receive no feedback whatsoever makes me feel like I was robbed and that I made a “scummy” choice in submitting my story to them.
Newscasters love ending their stories with cliches, so I will do so as well: “Once bitten, twice shy.”
Sidney
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The Independent (Sci-Fi Short-Story)–
3rd Draft of 3 Drafts
Revising Section 1 (of 3)
Deadline = February 29, 2020Project Arizona (Fantasy Short Story–Weird West))
Finished: Story Outline
Next: Character SketchI, Mage (Fantasy Short Story)
Mythic Mag. Deadline = July 31, 2020Ship of Shadows Graphic Novel
Finished: Script, Issue #1
Next: Script, Issue #2Ship of Shadows: Screenplay
Finished: Script Outline (Rough Draft)
Next: Script Outline (1st Draft)
