On fast rejections

At Clarkesworld, we try to respond to submissions in under 48 hours. Sometimes life gets in the way and that can slide to a week, but we always make an effort to catch up and return to normal. We’ve made this response time a goal and have been committed to it for a very long time.

Every now and then, an author decides to take affront at a quick response. It happens often enough, that I’ve sometimes sat on stories just to get them over the 24 hour mark, which seems to decrease, but not eliminate, the outrage factor. Rather than repeat myself with those authors, I’m just going to start pointing people to this post.

Things you need to know

We actually read every submission. Seriously, why would we waste our time handling this many submissions if we had no intention of reading them? Suggesting otherwise is insulting.A good or great story can still be rejected. Most well-known editors have rejected at least one story that has gone on to win awards and usually, they have no regrets about that. The story simply wasn’t right for their project or they weren’t the right editor for that story. It eventually landed in the right market with the right editor, found it’s audience, and was celebrated for it. We like to see that.Don’t be misled. Magazines that have slower response times don’t necessarily spend more time reading your story than we did. The difference in response times is almost entirely related to the amount of time your story sits in a pile, unread. If a publication averages 30 days, it means they can keep up with the daily volume and could have a 48-hour response time, if it was one of their priorities.To us, getting back to you quickly is a sign of respect. The sooner we reject this one, the sooner you can send it to the next market. It also resets the clock on when you can send us your next one. Every story is a clean-slate, so rejecting one or ten or hundred doesn’t mean we’ve given up on you. While a few authors sell quickly, others have submitted over fifty before landing an acceptance here. Everyone’s journey is different.We did warn you. Our average response time is listed in our guidelines and on the submission confirmation screen.