two questions

I have no idea on the second question, not being a short-story writer. And unfortunately there's no possible way to predict on the second - response times in my personal experience on partials ranged between three days and, on one memorable occasion, nine months! Just don't hold your breath, that's all.

If they didn't ask for exclusivity and give you a timeframe, your guess is as good as mine. It can be a few days, a few weeks, or a few months to get a reply.

It should take no more than a couple of months for short stories. Again, check with the submission guidelines -- they should give you an idea how long it takes for a response. My experience has been about 6 weeks, give and take.

rich said:

Glitter Train is reasonably quick and has an online setup that is beautifully writer friendly. It's a question of which lit.

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*cough* Glimmer Train. http://glimmertrain.com/

I once received a No Thanks more than three years after my query. The letter didn't name the ms. I'd queried about, and I had to look it up, it had been so long.

Expect anything, anything at all.

Maryn, who should take her own advice on that

cinammon stix said:

Hi everybody,

I have two questions. I recently had a request for a partial to be sent through email. In your experience how long has it taken to get a response from a partial?

Also, for those of you who have submitted short stories to literary journals, do you find that acceptances come rapidly, as is the case with most novel queries, in the first week or two?

Thanks so much.

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Getting a response for a partial can take six days or six months, depending on who the agent or editor is, how swamped they are, whether they get sick, take a vacation, or break a leg.

As for acceptances in literary journals, my experience is that it usually takes a lot longer to get an acceptance than a rejection. Most rejections happen quickly, in the first two or three pages of reading. Better stories are often set aside to be read a second or third time, and may be passed around for more than one opinion. Such a story may also be held until the editor can be certain she has a slot of the right length for that a given story.

The old Writer's Digest rule is to look at the guidleines, and double the response time. Rejections usually get back to you within the response time you find in the guidelines, but acceptances can, and often do, take a lot longer.

I've always followed this general rule. It saves stress.