Multiple submissions of shorts

Isabelle said:

Sorry if this has been asked before!

I'm making my first short story submission to a small lit magazine today, inspired by write 1 sub 1...

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w00t! Way to go, Isabelle!

Just wondering, do you submit your shorts to more than one magazine at a time or is that bad practice?

Thanks

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Always check the submission guidelines of a magazine for things like this. Some mags accept simultaneous subs (the same story subbed to multiple venues at once) and some don't. If it's not explicitly stated that the venue accepts sim subs, then it's best to assume they don't.

If you sim sub to a venue that doesn't accept sim subs, then yep, that's considered bad practice. But if the places do accept sim subs, then it's all good (on thing to keep in mind is that if one market accepts the story, you'll need to withdraw it from the other venues).

Hope that helps!
Izz

Isabelle said:

Great, thank you! I think I'll stick to one at a time for now then

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I wouldn't say to totally give up on simultaneous subs as a general rule, since markets usually have a very long waiting period and you might be waiting for months before learning whether your story has been accepted. If you can find two that allow simultaneous submissions, then it's okay.

That's simultaneous submissions. I've always believed it's a bad idea, unless you're trying to build a large stack of rejections. Sim subbing gives you no chance to change a story before you submit it to the next market after one rejects it.

Really good stories do not need to be sim subbed, and bad stories stand no chance of getting better when you sim sub.

Too many writers worry about time. The notion that you should sim sub because it takes a long time for some magazines to report just doesn't hold up. Simply put, a slow acceptance is a heck of a lot better than twenty fast or slow rejections. Better that it takes three years to sell a story than to receive twenty rejections for that story in six months.The way you beat the time factor is by writing and submitting more short stories. Do this, and it won't be very long before you're hearing back from one magazine or another on a regular basis.

And when a story is rejected, you have teh chance to make change according to any feedback you receive before sending it out to teh next market. If your stories are any good, anywhere near pubishable quality, you will receive feedback from editors.

I sent a novel excerpt off to a fine literary journal. Ten months later I received a note stating that they're not considering excerpts at this time (despite the fact that their website still claims they do). Ten months to find out they didn't even read it. And in this day of online submission managers, some mags simply put 'declined' in the comments section rather than send a rejection. Not much opportunity for feedback. If sim subs are an option, why not use it?

augusto said:

I sent a novel excerpt off to a fine literary journal. Ten months later I received a note stating that they're not considering excerpts at this time (despite the fact that their website still claims they do). Ten months to find out they didn't even read it. And in this day of online submission managers, some mags simply put 'declined' in the comments section rather than send a rejection. Not much opportunity for feedback. If sim subs are an option, why not use it?

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Because sooner or later, if you have a good story, sim subs can bite you in the rear. Imagine what happens if you get an acceptance from X journal and then find yourself down the road explaining to Y journal - maybe bigger, better, etc....just why you can no longer let them publish the story.

Yeah.

Isabelle said:

Sorry if this has been asked before!

I'm making my first short story submission to a small lit magazine today, inspired by write 1 sub 1...

Just wondering, do you submit your shorts to more than one magazine at a time or is that bad practice?

Thanks

Click to expand...

Congrats! It's exciting (and nervewracking) to have things out on sub. It is called simultaneous submissions. Multiple submissions is when you submit multiple pieces to one magazine.

Here's my two cents for what it's worth (I just started submitting myself). I'd suggest sim subbing, but only to a few markets at a time, if the wait times are long. You might decide to rewrite if it's routinely rejected by the first batch.

augusto said:

I sent a novel excerpt off to a fine literary journal. Ten months later I received a note stating that they're not considering excerpts at this time (despite the fact that their website still claims they do). Ten months to find out they didn't even read it. And in this day of online submission managers, some mags simply put 'declined' in the comments section rather than send a rejection. Not much opportunity for feedback. If sim subs are an option, why not use it?

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What were you doing with the novel, and with writing more and more short stories, during the ten months the excerpt was at the magazine?

And all you're getting are standard forms on a regular basis, or just a "decline", that is telling feedback. Online or not, if an editor thinks your stories, or your ability as a writer, shows promise, you will get some sort of feedback far more often than not.

Jamesaritchie said:

And all you're getting are standard forms on a regular basis, or just a "decline", that is telling feedback. Online or not, if an editor thinks your stories, or your ability as a writer, shows promise, you will get some sort of feedback far more often than not.

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Exactly.

johnnysannie said:

Because sooner or later, if you have a good story, sim subs can bite you in the rear. Imagine what happens if you get an acceptance from X journal and then find yourself down the road explaining to Y journal - maybe bigger, better, etc....just why you can no longer let them publish the story.

Yeah.

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The magazines I've encountered encourage sim subs, always saying let us know if accepted elsewhere. Why would they have such a policy if it was a problem?

Jamesaritchie said:

What were you doing with the novel, and with writing more and more short stories, during the ten months the excerpt was at the magazine?

And all you're getting are standard forms on a regular basis, or just a "decline", that is telling feedback. Online or not, if an editor thinks your stories, or your ability as a writer, shows promise, you will get some sort of feedback far more often than not.

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My lack of success aside, I'm just saying that a lot of time can be wasted waiting on one publication. And no, I don't waste my time just waiting; I spend it writing and accumulating more rejections.

augusto said:

The magazines I've encountered encourage sim subs, always saying let us know if accepted elsewhere. Why would they have such a policy if it was a problem?

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It depends on what level you're submitting and where. If the pub says "sim subs" then they may be more lenient although if they really like a story and you tell them, whoops, sorry it's going to be elsewhere, human nature is such that they may not like that much.

For pubs that say NO sim subs, they will be unhappy and they will remember.

I write shorts for mainly good paying markets and anthos these days and I would not want to hack off my editors by pulling a story they wanted because it's elsewhere.

Maybe the markets you submit to don't care - but mine do.

Your reputation as a writer is very important in this information rich world in which we live.

johnnysannie said:

For pubs that say NO sim subs, they will be unhappy and they will remember.

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Of course. The OP referred to "a small lit magazine" and that's the market I'm speaking of. Small, non-paying publications tend to encourage sub sims since their tiny staffs can take months to respond (if at all).

I really think it depends on where you're subbing. I won't sim-sub to spec fiction magazines, even when allowed, because they tend to be timelier. Lit fic is so slow and competitive and finicky, I sim-sub those - as recommened by well-published short fiction teacher. Just use tiers to ensure you'd be equally willing to be accepted by any publication sim-subbed to rather than sim-subbing all willy-nilly.