8 months. I had given up on ever hearing back. But I have queried editors after a couple of months and found that they just forgot to write back.
No response after six hundred days on a submission including a follow-up? I'd have stuck a fork in this one a year ago and submitted something else if I was determined to catch the editors' attention. However much you'd love to publish that submission in this journal, signs are not good, especially with duotrope listing zero acceptances. Heck, rather than make yourself crazy, retitle and resubmit the story like they've never seen it before. Editors change. The one who originally read your piece may've done the digital version of spilling coffee on it, and the ones that followed may have no idea it ever existed. Some of my submissions never garnered responses, so I suppose my longest submission out has been decades. This includes a proposal to a magazine that had published at least one of my articles. I was irritated that the editor didn't even respond with a "no thanks," but decided the hell with it and with him. Generally if I haven't heard a word in eight months, I mark the submission as "no response" on my list and move on. I'm not impervious to the disappointment of rejection or being ignored, but I've learned that allowing myself to become awash in the same destroys my peace of mind and affects my creative output, and my submission rate. Writing is a highly competitive and subjective business. Having our product rejected or ignored is not a reflection on us as people or even as writers. Life is too short to spend it anxiously anticipating the response of a single potential buyer, however lucrative or prestigious the possibility.
I've waited so long that I don't want to turn back now. They told me my story was with the editor so I know it passed a round a two to get there. And I can see that it's still "in-progress." I really don't see the point in withdrawing it and starting the process again. I mean any day I could get a form rejection in my email and it will all be over, anyway. I would query again before withdrawing it. But does that seem weird to query again? I'm not sure, really, what to say if I query again. I'm trying just to ignore or forget about this submission, but it's a little hard to do that. What would I say if I query again that was different than last time? And what response would they give me that was different than last time?
@deadrats, I'm so sorry you've been waiting 600 days. I consider that inappropriate. A highfalutin journal is allowed to take its time building issues, but at this point, it's just pretty disrespectful on the editors' part. I don't care if this is the Paris Review. Either they can find a way to thematically incorporate your work, or they can't. Maybe I would feel differently if they'd been more active in communicating, but after the better part of two years, you should not be left in a blind limbo and wondering whether or not to query. For one thing, if they legitimately want to hold the piece for a future issue, they should be worried that you'll yank it any day now because it's been accepted elsewhere. (I do hope this is a simultaneous submission. If it's not, time to make it one.) In this scenario, I wouldn't be worried if it's "weird" to query again. It's not so much a question as a nudge for them to make an editorial decision. I'm not saying it will necessarily speed anything up, but personally, I would want to keep the lines of communication open at this point.
However much you'd love to publish that submission in this journal, signs are not good, especially with duotrope listing zero acceptances. I'd actually disagree with this, in part. I can't afford duotrope, so I can only look at Submission Grinder (which tends to be better for spec markets vs. litfic), but I once tried to make a list of every publication I'd conceivably want to publish in that didn't have zero acceptances listed on SG. Let's just say the number was not a lot. Unfortunately, at a certain level of literary publishing, these are just what the stats look like. That said, 600 days is abnormal for any market anywhere, and I stand by the statement that it's disrespectful to you as a writer. Even at the topmost journals, most acceptance decisions are made in under a year.
I very wish you the best of luck and hope to read a happy post announcing acceptance before too much more time passes. Politely asking, "What is the status of my submission?" is not weird, even if it is the second such inquiry. You won't know what response they'll give unless you try. One must add grains of salt where appropriate. Though I've found duotrope reliable enough overall, I use it as a springboard to further research on markets that interest me. Duotrope depends on user feedback for information re: acceptances, and users may be squirrely. However, other publications show considerable feedback on acceptances and nonacceptances, so one might regard no acceptances for a well-known publication worth taking into consideration.
There has been a little communication. I queried a few months back and got an update that it was with the editor and I should hear something "soon." That's why I was asking you guys what you thought about sending a second query. This submission is not with Granta, but Granta did take 600 days to respond to me once. That was a few years back and they've been rejecting me a lot sooner than that these days. But something like this has happened to me before. (FYI: Granta ultimately rejected that submission.) I totally agree that waiting over 600 days seems ridiculous. But I know my submission is not lost and there's something about it that makes them want to hold onto it. But I do wish I had a better sense of what was going on. Their submission window is closed right now. So, I guess there's no point in really pushing for an answer right now. I guess I'm trying to decide between sending a second query or waiting until their submission window reopens in the fall and doing it then if I still haven't heard anything. The truth is I'm not sure either one will do much more than just let me know they have my story and it's not lost. I'm trying to think of what I could say that might give me a little more insight to their process and where I am in it. Any ideas on how to do that?
I love Duotrope and have been using it since it was pretty new. It's got pretty much ALL the submissions I have ever made. Their stats are great, and that's one of my favorite features. However, their stats only show data for the last 12 months from users active within the last 30 days. It also doesn't display the outliers unless you click that box to do so (which I usually don't). But if any acceptances were outliers, they wouldn't jest show up. I do know the data on Duotrope is always changing. And I don't believe this publication has always had a zero acceptance rate in the past when I've checked it, but I can't really remember. However, four of the places that have bought stories from me currently list a zero acceptance rate, and I know, for a fact, that those places accept stories from the slush. I don't know. Thanks to you and everyone on this thread for listening to me vent about this submission. I think I started venting here when the submission was at 500 days or maybe a year. To everyone here -- Thanks for listening, and thanks for the support. This is like a rejection support group. I love what was created here. You guys get it!
Duotrope is $50 a year or $5 a month. I also think they have some sort of free trial. I couldn't function without it. Submission Grinder just doesn't have the same amount of user (especially litfic) so the data just isn't as useful to me. They also don't have the same amount of publications. And I find quo trope a lot more friendly so I decided to stick with them even when they started charging for a subscription, It's true, but you will see that number go up every now and then, but probably go back down as well. I think I have a few submission at or around that one-year mark. But with those I can see recent responses around the same time as my submission. And the summer is slow, so slow...
True that. I logged an acceptance from a journal that was sitting at 0%, and Duotrope flagged my entry as an outlier. It wasn't a response that took an inordinately long time either. I remember feeling a little offended. It was like Duotrope didn't believe I'd been accepted. This year, that journal has an acceptance rate of 0.87% but I believe I've seen it as high as 5% at times. The rates fluctuate because of the small sample sizes, but I've never seen a highly competitive journal get above a 10% acceptance rate, even with outliers included.
This year I've been so busy trying to finish my novel that I haven't been as worried about my short story submissions. It's a better state of mind that I hope to continue once I start querying agents. One thing I've learned is that if I begin to have hope for a submission because it has been out for a long time, the almost inevitable rejection feels more crushing when it arrives. That's not to say I don't still check Duotrope often. It's so easy to click on the bookmarked page, and I find it interesting to see which journals have sent responses. I am just dismissive of any signs of hope springing up in my heart, since they are only setting me up for disappointment that might become a distraction.
I believe Deadrats originally turned me onto Duotrope, and I am so grateful. I paid the monthly charge for most of a year, then dropped it when I quit submitting work for a number of irrelevant reasons. In the spring I signed up for the year-long version when I began a serious push to find an agent for my novel. I sent out eighteen queries on May 13, this agent responded with a request for a full manuscipt on May 14, called me several times over the next week, and we signed a contract on May 26. I'd not have found someone with this guy's chops this fast without Duotrope saving me hours of research by narrowing the field down. I sound like an infomercial. New writing sideline?
Duotrope certainly sounds helpful. I really am squeezed right now, I'm afraid. This year my free money has gone to contest entry fees and maintaining a Wordpress website for my erotic self-pub work (which I consider fully separate from "real" writing). If I live up to my promise to "never enter another contest," then I might redirect that saved money to Duotrope next year. Meanwhile, a 131-day form rejection from Granta. I was just waiting for this one, since it seems like they went on vacation right before getting to the "latter half of March" stack my submission was in. So, now at 19/50 for 2023.
28 day personal rejection from Figwort, saying nice things but feels like that's their form, so to speak. Also rejection from Great Ape, but more a notification of the magazine's demise. Brings me to 42, I think. In answer to posts above, I've a few on Duotrope also in yellow and red. One submission I've mentioned before and still no answer after 494 days. I've not queried, have sent the same piece elsewhere and will keep trying with it. It's something I very much want to publish. Maybe I should query? I'd kind of miss it if it was gone so I'll think about it some more. Things are seriously moving slowly for the past couple months and it's frustrating but, to be honest, it's only emotionally impactful when the responses arrive (mostly rejections, just 2 stories published this year and one of them was accepted in late Dec 2022). I submit to places that pay for stories but acceptances are from non-paying journals. I've liked other pieces in those publications so am happy to share the space and, if it was about money, I'd be better served driving a taxi at weekends. I still don't submit to places that charge fees.
Ray Bradbury said, "Write a short story every week. It's not possible to write 52 bad stories in a row." Just thinking about giving myself a different challenge for next year. And this one might need its own thread when the time comes, but I just wanted to see if you guys had some interest. It's so much more fun when others are joining in. Could you write a story every week for an entire year? Anyone want to give it a try with me in 2024? It sounds like quite a challenge, but I bet good things will come of it. Just putting it out there as a thought right now. But do you think it's true? I mean all that practice has got to produce some gems, right? I want to go for it, though, personally, it's a strange bit of writing advice. Just write and keep writing. What do you imagine the real benefit of this challenge is? How much do you think something like this can improve our short stories? If I set me mind to it, I can have a piece written, revised, and polished within a week. But I imagine this gets harder for a bit to commit to do that every week. Or maybe it gets easier when you find your groove. I love the idea of writing better stories than I might have done without trying something like this. It probably gets easier, no? Anyway, it's just an idea right now, but I would love to hear what you guys think. I believe Ray Bradbury's writing advice is pretty solid and really good in general. Any takers for the you-can't-write-52-bad-stories-in-a-row challenge?
I'm more likely to keep up with that than 100 rejections (or submissions). Ray makes the challenge sound like, "Nyah, nyah, you can't write 52 bad stories in a row," and I'm trying not to respond, "Oh, yeah? Hold my beer."
Count me in! I write about two or three poems a week on average, but Carly Berg says she writes two flash fictions (she defines this as up to 1,000 words) a week! My friend who writes both poems and short stories says a poem is like a song, but a short story is like a symphony.
Ray Bradbury is one of the reasons I don't write when I have nothing to say. If I'm blocked, I'll try to get unblocked, but I won't just write for hours everyday no matter how bad it is. That's at the crux of almost every piece of advice I've heard from him, "just write!" and having read several of his collections, I honestly believe he couldn't tell the difference between a good one and a bad one. Some of his stories are genius, and some of his collections are good, but others contain a lot of filler. It's just my opinion, and I've only read a few of his 50+ collections. Maybe there are people out there who think he did no wrong, and that's fine too, but I really wish he'd spent some time agonizing over a few more like Fahrenheit 451 and Something Wicked This Way Comes instead of just writing whatever came to mind everyday, good or bad. Those are two of my favorite books.
I like the idea, but it's a big commitment to take on and I don't know how much time I'll have to devote to writing next year. My improv team should be practicing more often and (hopefully) performing, and I've been taking singing lessons, the occasional dance class, and just enjoying a more active life; plus, I tend to bounce back and forth between writing stories and poems (and maybe a song here and there). So, I'm intrigued, but (to paraphrase Carly Rae Jepsen) call me a maybe. Trying for a new story a month might be more reasonable for me, but we'll see where I'm at come the new year.
I'm the opposite of prolific, so maybe that's why I don't really get the concept of writing a story a week. Do you just write a rough draft and then set it aside? I guess that might generate some raw material. But once a story catches your attention, wouldn't you want to devote your time to making it the best it can be? I spend dozens of hours revising each story, and I have a full-time job. I'm genuinely curious how people envision writing a story a week. It sounds impossible to me.
That’s interesting to consider. I know one poet who has self-published thousands of poems, but most aren’t very good. Some of the poems I write end up being clunkers. I have beta readers look at them; sometimes I scrap the poem before handing it to them because it’s that bad, or they tell me is isn’t very good and I see they’re right. But sometimes, one line will spark a much better idea, or I end up revising the poem later into something better, or I decide I still like it after a few months. One of my poems that I had published ended up being a flop. However, one of the few comments I had gave me an idea for a much more successful poem. If I hadn’t submitted the flop, I wouldn’t have the good one.
I'm a big fan of free writing: simply pouring out words as they come without stopping to think, much less edit. Stories in a story a week challenge needn't be brilliant: How I Endured the Shame of Forgetting My Lines in a Tenth Grade Production of Auntie Mame is good enough. (Though now that I think of it, with a few embellishments that might make a good YA short story.) The stories also needn't be polished. They merely need to be written. It's good practice to produce regularly and fast. Permission to abandon work might be empowering for someone who feels compelled to polish every essay he or she produces. My plan is to write a the story as it comes to mind, then set it aside unless it interests me enough to invest more time in it. Some stories recapture my attention weeks or even years later.
I was thinking write and revise in the same week, and have it ready for submission. I'm not sure I would get there with every story, but I wanted to try. Maybe it was a stupid idea.
