Fastest Acceptance

I'm not certain if this qualifies because it involves queries of a non-fiction book. But I sent out nine book queries to agents for considertion to represent. Within exactly 30 hours of the (email) queries, I received four positive responses to send the partial manuscript in for evaluation. I was rather dumbfounded, having never experienced this flood of "yes" soliciatations. Two were negative and three others were no-shows. Amazing. It tells me that there was something very right with my sales pitch.

Triceratops

well i don't have much expierence with rejections and being accepted but what I do know is that when i got my first rejection, it came like three days after submitting. I found out about my first (and only so far) acceptance two weeks after submitting. I just think it depends on the magazine or whatever on how fast you get a rejection or an acceptance letter.

Acceptance

Lel513 said:

I've heard many stories of fast rejections, but what about acceptances? What was the fastest acceptance you ever got? Also, does it usually take longer for a magazine to send you an acceptance rather than a rejection?

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Generally, I've found it does take longer to receive an acceptance because the story will often have to be read by more than one editor. But I have received some very fast acceptances. The fastest was about four hours, and the second fastest was about nine hours.

My fastest acceptance was three days (via email). But that's rare. As James said, with acceptances, it has to make the rounds before you get the acceptance. Rejections usually (not always) come from a first reader, so you can get one within hours--or minutes, even.

I haven't done very much writing and submitting in the last three years or so. I've started writing regularly again this last month.

But my point is that there are probably a lot more people now who submit through email rather than regular mail. It'll still be great to get an acceptance through email, but just think of the fun they'll be missing when they go to the mail box and find that their 9 x 12 SASE is back and it's obvious from its lack of thickness that the story isn't in there, just an acceptance letter.

I recently broke a land speed record for the short story process when my story "Life with Riley" was accepted in "Bleed my Heart Romantic", a short story anthology that will be coming out this year.

I queried the editor and asked her if there were still openings in her anthology, and if there was anything she wasn't seeing that she wanted to see printed in her book. She promptly told me something along the lines of too much porn and erotica, and not enough disturbing horror (this anthology's theme is love gone wrong).

I sat down abd decided within about ten minutes of reading her email that I would like to try a story about an impossible love affair. I came up with the idea that since people with multiple personality disorders have distinctive personalities inside their minds (each with a different facet for a different type of situation), It might be a neat idea to have two of these personalities fall in love with each other.

Of course, to make things even more chaotic, a picked a "rage" personality type and a "passive" personality type, to mimick a recognizable male/female pattern (even though they were both female).

I wrote the story (about 2500 words) in just over an hour. Then, still euphoric from a really great writing session (I'm sure you all get that feeling when you're writing something you think is great) I did a quick spell check, gave it the once over, and was sending it off to the editor before I even realised what I was doing.

I have to say that normally I am a religious 3rd or 4th draft man. I ALWAYS go back and double check things, clean stuff up, nip and tuck...and I have a formula for doing it that works well for me (eg. first pass spelling and grammar, second pass reinforcing the theme, etc...)

So I spent All day thinking I'd made this huge mistake by sending off unfinished copy, and cursing myself for being careless.

The next morning, I checked my email...and there it was. not only a glowing acceptance, but a bit of gushing about the story itself.

The whole process took about 12 hours or so, I believe, a definite record for myself.

B.

Two of my essays were accepted (via email) almost immediately. I got my column gig within 2 weeks. On the other hand, I'm still waiting for some agents to reject me (based on queries sent to them a year ago).

9x12

RGame said:

I haven't done very much writing and submitting in the last three years or so. I've started writing regularly again this last month.

But my point is that there are probably a lot more people now who submit through email rather than regular mail. It'll still be great to get an acceptance through email, but just think of the fun they'll be missing when they go to the mail box and find that their 9 x 12 SASE is back and it's obvious from its lack of thickness that the story isn't in there, just an acceptance letter.

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Actually, if the story is accepted, odds are high that you'll never see your 9x12 SASE again. Acceptance letters almost always come in a standard business size envelope. In fifteen years, I've never received an acceptance letter in my SASE, and on only one occasion have I received my 9x12s back.

Eeelery Queen was moving from one building to another, and in the process the editor, Janet Hutchings, found several of my 9x12s stuck in a file cabinet, and she returned them to me.

All the rest are still out there in editor land.

Most of my acceptances came back in my SASEs, but then again, these weren't acceptances from 5 or 10 cents a word magazines, but small-press magazines that pay a penny or two a word.

SASE

RGame said:

Most of my acceptances came back in my SASEs, but then again, these weren't acceptances from 5 or 10 cents a word magazines, but small-press magazines that pay a penny or two a word.

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That's interesting. I've never received an acceptance in my own SASE, even from magazines that paid a quarter of a cent per word.

Only a Year?

maestrowork said:

Two of my essays were accepted (via email) almost immediately. I got my column gig within 2 weeks. On the other hand, I'm still waiting for some agents to reject me (based on queries sent to them a year ago).

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I got a rejection from a query sent slightly less than four years previously. Of course, the postal rates had changed in that time, so I had to pay a few cents to find out that they were both uninterested and incompetent.

A cheap lesson, come to think of it.

Maryn

I too have noticed that only rejections come in my SASE... all my acceptances have been in their own envelope or via email.

The quickest acceptance I have received was by e-mail the afternoon of submitting. Normally though it's been about 3 days by e-mail and up to two weeks by mail.

Joanne

A few hours, via e-mail in its early days.



Ahhhhhhhhhhh................

My fastest acceptance came within 10 minutes of e-mailing. Others usually come within a week or two of acceptance, if I've built a relationship with that particular editor.

I received one acceptance in my own SASE when I used to snail-mail.

Tucked Inside was the contract!

Hi, everyone!

I have just registered on this forum and this is my first post here. If you want to know more about me, click on any of the links in my signature below.

Receiving acceptance in your own sae is indeed a rare occurrence. I received only one such acceptance and it was from HP Lovecraft's Magazine of Horror. I gleefully signed the contract and mailed it off. And it has been a year and I have not seen hide nor hair of my story.

Best.

Ahmed

HI, LEL & all

The quickest response time for me with acceptances was when I sent two poems to a press and almost by return email they accepted them. Supposedly they pay, but I don't know how much yet... I've been disappointed before with promises of pay from an ezine, so who knows. Much good luck!

Warm regards, Susie