Should I Submit to Another?

I think you need to wait for a response. Most of the pubs I've looked at don't accept simultaneous submissions.

If you don't hear after a reasonable time, you can write to them and withdraw your submission before sending it somewhere else.

Though I'm not an expert by any means, it seems that if the magazine DIDN'T accept simultaneous submissions, it would be stated somewhere.

Since it's not explicitly stated, maybe you can send the same story to other places.

kirstin_mccormack said:

Though I'm not an expert by any means, it seems that if the magazine DIDN'T accept simultaneous submissions, it would be stated somewhere.

Since it's not explicitly stated, maybe you can send the same story to other places.

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It works just the opposite at many magazines. If simultaneous submissions are fine, they say so.

It's a pain when the magazine doesn't say.

Then again, I believe simultaneous submissions are a lousy idea. They really don't speed up anythng except how fast you collect rejection slips. Much better to just be patient and work on other stories while waiting.

Here I go again!

I say this every time the sim sub question comes up.

Don't sim sub in the USA.

If you've got a story you're proud of then send it out to markets in the UK, Oz, Canada, if your US market isn't asking for North American rights, European English markets and radio stations like the Canada's CBC, the UK's regional BBC stations, NZ's National Radio - Radio New Zealand which all take stories to read on air. Send it out any where you think it will fit the market then get on with another story.

Jamesaritchie said:

They really don't speed up anythng except how fast you collect rejection slips...

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Ha! I never thought of it that way.

pdr said:

I say this every time the sim sub question comes up.

Don't sim sub in the USA.

If you've got a story you're proud of then send it out to markets in the UK, Oz, Canada, if your US market isn't asking for North American rights, European English markets and radio stations like the Canada's CBC, the UK's regional BBC stations, NZ's National Radio - Radio New Zealand which all take stories to read on air. Send it out any where you think it will fit the market then get on with another story.

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So you're suggesting it's okay to sim sub outside the US? I live in Canada, so do you mean it would be acceptable to sim sub an SS to an American market and if it's accepted (in my dreams!) in both markets, that's somehow okay? Forgive my confusion.

Simsub

CaroGirl said:

So you're suggesting it's okay to sim sub outside the US? I live in Canada, so do you mean it would be acceptable to sim sub an SS to an American market and if it's accepted (in my dreams!) in both markets, that's somehow okay? Forgive my confusion.

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American markets usually buy First North American Serial Rights, or something similar, so it's fine to submit work to any markets these rights do not cover.

For instance, I can submit a short story to, say, Asimov's, and also submit it to any foriegn SF magazine at the same time because teh rights bought do not conflict. Asimov's only buys the right to publish the story in North America, not world rights. So if I find an SF market in the UK, or in France, etc., that I think will also like the story, I can submit it there at the same time.

It would be more productive to spend your time writing something new. Looks like you have two months. How much more can you write during that time?

If the original market rejects what you sent to them, you can both send them the new thing you've meanwhile written while at the same time sending the rejected story to a new market more likely to buy it.

Think about this: would you rather wait for five markets that take simultaneous submissions to report back to you on one story, or would you rather have five different stories at those markets?

After all, if one market buys the same story the other four are considering, you can still only make one sale out of it. But if you have five stories at five markets and one market buys one of those stories, you still have four more markets that might buy the other stories. This means opening your mail is going to be a whole lot more interesting and, should each sell, a whole lot more profitable.

Yes!

Caro, James R has pretty much answered for me. Thank you, JR.

Providing you don't sell world rights first off you can sell the 1st print rights to several countries and your story earns its keep. It's not hard to find markets in the UK and Oz, a little harder in NZ, SA or Europe, and I often find a Canadian market too after a US one.
When you've sold the print rights you look for a good online paying market as well as radio, tape, and all these fancy tech markets for ipods I am learning about. You can even find anthologies and online zines which will accept your reprint rights. A good story shouldn't be published just once and then put to bed. Get it out to readers around the world.

It would be more productive to spend your time writing something new.
No. Marketing is not done at the expense of writing. You should be finding markets and filing them away in some sort of useful, accessible system in your computer every week. But that should only take four hours a week. You are still writing Uncle Jim style - BOS/BIC - two hours (or whatever you allocate) every day and that's your new short story writing time.

Ah, well. That's what I get for brevity. Yes to foreign markets as well as domestic, as long as the rights don't overlap. Print rights, for instance, seem largely separate in, say, the U.S. and the U.K., but electronic ones I've sold have often been something like "first world electronic English language rights," which then limits options for those rights a touch, at least in my preferred language (and if I'm being paid for Japanes language rights, then I can quickly develop a preference for that, too...)

Quite right about marketing, though. If you want to sell, you have to do all those things necessary thereto. Unfortunately, I think a lot of people tend to concentrate too much on "How many places can I send this one story to all at once?" as opposed to producing new material. Could be wrong. Wouldn't be the first time.