Yesterday I withdrew a story from a market because we were starting to near the one year mark, and the couple of queries I’d made all got the usual “It’s in the queue, we’re swamped, just a little longer” reply. I don’t mind waiting a little longer, but I do mind when it gets used to keep you going for months.
So that’s cool, and no hard feelings over them having sat on it a while. I end up withdrawing a story for similar reasons once every couple of years. But here’s the reply I got regarding the withdrawal:
Thanks for the note. Your story is officially withdrawn from our reading queue. One thing you might want to consider in the future is that pro markets take a lot of time. So I’d tailor a story for a certain market and then move on while you wait. That’s what Bradbury and Matheson and all those guys do. Some pro markets such as Cemetery Dance take up to two years. So that’s why I say. But the credit one receives when they break pro is worth everything. I hope this helps you future endeavors. You can send along something else in the future when we reopen for subs in [identifying information redacted]. Just make sure it’s a different story as I don’t accept stories that have previously been withdrawn.
Some pro markets do take up to two years, but it’s darn few of them. Most of the professional magazines are professional; they get stuff back to you fast. Even without e-submissions, Gordon Van Gelder manages to wade through swamps of rejections and still return them in a timely manner. Sure, Tor.com is slow, but given that they pay five times as much as most, I’m willing to give them five times as much time in which to reply. Asimov’s, Analog, Lightspeed, Clarkesworld, Fantasy Magazine, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and Strange Horizons all pay professional rates and yet manage what is apparently a highly unprofessional rapid reply rate.
We got 550-600 subs a month towards the end of my tenure with Fantasy, and I would have felt terrible making people wait over a month, let alone more. And I’m going to say, this particular rejection is a great argument for form rejections, because the patronizing tone here really put me off, plus this is TERRIBLE advice for a new writer. Write what you want to write, not what you think a magazine wants to see.
I dunno. Maybe the editor is working off a different definition of professional than I use.
I’ve written two stories so far this week, but I think this is the one that will be the next 
7 Responses
Couldn’t agree more. I cannot think of a single pro market for short fiction that feels it is OK to hang on to a submission for a year, let alone two. A good number of the so-called semi-pro (based on smaller payment, not necessarily quality) are just as speedy in their editorial decisions. My last sale to one of those markets, a highly respected UK magazine, had a 30-day response time from the editor. The layout spread and payment arrived within another thirty days. We’ve all had a few incidents where a story languished for a very long time, but they’re the exception, thankfully. (I personally strongly dislike it when an editor or publisher holds a story for eight months or longer and then sends a form rejection — if they held the story that long through a cut or two I think they owe the author some concise feedback.) And yes, writers should always write the stories that inspire them, and not attempt to imitate stories they read in F&SF or Clarkesworld in hope of making an easier sale. Good luck with that strategy.
Hee hee. Sound like a very new editor, rather unsure of his/herself. They’ll learn.
Oddly enough I got a very similar note recently, and the wording was only slightly different. I decided to give the editor another couple of months, but perhaps I made the wrong decision. Many thanks for posting this. If the 1-year mark rolls around without an answer, I’ll withdraw the story.
This editor doesn’t seem to be very abreast of the field, either, given (a) you’re hardly a newcomer and (b) as you mentioned, several highly respected pro markets have very timely turnaround, including the big 3. An editor so unaware of today’s oft-published authors and his competition would turn me off permanently.
Naw, I can’t fault anyone for not knowing who I am, there’s plenty of short story writers out there and I have only been publishing for a few years.
But they -should- know better than a) equate long reply time with professionalism and b) to assume a submitter has never made a pro sale. The latter is just plain condescending (imo).
Well, I’m pretty new to the field — just started submitting professionally in December — but I’ve done my reading, and I have an idea who the established names are in the field. Okay, you’re not Bradbury or Matheson, but if I ran a magazine, I think I’d be keeping up with what was being published elsewhere. Seems like good business sense to me, knowing one’s market. Heck, just a visit to this website’s “Fiction” page would have told the editor you’ve published in many of the leading magazines over the past five years, and hardly need advice on “breaking into” the field.
I agree wholeheartedly on both your points.
I appreciate and enjoy your story/comments. And I believe you are instinctually a “professional”.