Tuesday, May 15, 2012

No Sim-Subbing

First, a note:  The dam is probably broken on my acceptances as I just signed a contract for one poem (though it may not be promising) and found out the Twitter-zine 7x20 is going to put up two of my pieces next month.  I will keep you guys updated!  *I only need 12 more rejections for the year.
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I can't believe some magazines still demand no simultaneous submissions.  It may not be the easiest thing to keep track of when someone withdraws his/her submission, but does leave the editor with less to read.
Many magazines with the "no sim-sub rule" have horrid turn-around times.  A writer is often left waiting for months while the odds of the piece being accepted are slim.  This, I believe, has to be extremely frustrating for short-fiction writers as they don't have fifty or more stories to send to different places.
Writers tend to sim-sub anyway as a piece being accepted multiple places is even more rare than the first acceptance. When authors withdraw submissions from places that don't allow sim-subbing, the editors tend to send nasty correspondence or a rejection letter months later.  Do they really need to reject someone who withdrew his/her stuff?  Shouldn't they be happy for the person?  Surely editors remember what it is like to be just a mere, mortal writer.  And, these people can take the time to chew someone out but not write a personal comment on somebody's submission because they're just "too busy".  Yeah, OK...
I understand these places want first crack at something brilliant but, remember, they also know over 95% of what is sent to to them isn't even going to get by the first slush reader.  With those odds, it doesn't seem practical to hold up the process.

These are just my thoughts.  On Thursday, I will post what I think should be done if a magazine DEMANDS no sim-subs. 
When you submit, do you follow the no sim-subbing rule?  What do you think about magazines/publishers that demand exclusivity (if not in a book contract)? 

2 comments:

  1. I don't write short stories, so I've never had to deal with this. But I don't understand why you can't sub anywhere you want. I say DO IT :)

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    1. Most writers ignore the rule because it severely slows down their submitting process. Editors that don't allow simultaneous submissions don't even care about great art finding a place if it isn't in THEIR magazine. How messed up is that? They're supposed to promote writing.

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