Black Holes

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ClaudiaP

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Is there already a thread here about short story markets that are black holes? I paged through several pages and didn't see anything promising, but maybe there's something buried in the mists of time. Anyway, I'd be interested in a discussion of literary journals taking longer than 6 mos to respond, esp if there's been no response to a follow-up query. I'll start. Meridian, 14 months and counting, with queries at 6, 9, and 12 months unanswered. Their website says query after 5 mos, and they do have a new ad in the last issue of AWP, so I'm thinking they're alive....
 

Greer

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I know Gettysburg Review is notorious for taking forever. I've known people who have simply never received responses from Quarterly West, despite repeated queries. Also Puerto del Sol sometimes take more than a year.

Meridian is a fairly good journal, definitely still around. Not sure why they wouldn't respond to queries. Remember, though, a lot of journals have skeleton crews over the summer so it can take longer.

I think a discussion of non-genre lit. journals, the writing of literary short fiction, submission process, etc. might be interesting.
 

pixiejuice

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My longest story submission so far (and that isn't very far at all) has been seven months, which was Zoetrope. They quote four months, if I remember right, so it wasn't too much over.

I submitted an essay once for an anthology, a little over a year ago, and never heard anything. I didn't query though. And I actually hope it did get lost, or rejected, or whatever, because it kind of sucked :gone:
 

ClaudiaP

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I seem to go over 6 months on about 30%. Places currently not responding to queries include Crescent Review (going on a year), Nidus (for poetry), New Delta Review. I'm waiting on a few others, too, but at least they've let me know they were still considering. Some turned out never to have received the work, or turned out to have already sent notification that I never received (and once there was an acceptance letter that I never got... luckily they sent a follow up). So that's why I query. No sense waiting and wondering for too long only to find out they never saw the piece.

Re Meridian, I sent them my story in March 2004. My last query was in March 2005, and I cc'd several eds and the faculty advisor... not a word. I think I've revised that story several times since then, it having been 14 mos. So if they wanted to publish it, I doubt I even have an electronic copy of the version I sent. But anyway it bugs me. I always want closure.

It seems there are more problems with never hearing back from venues now that there's so much email correspondence and email submissions. I messed up with StoryQuarterly...logged onto their site and created and account the day before they opened the transom. Made a notation in my spreadsheet. Then forgot to go back the next day and upload the story. So thought I was waiting all this time, when I'd never actually sent it in. And Gargoyle sent an email rejection that probably got eaten by my spam filter. So maybe that's what happened with Meridian, too.

I sent a story a LOOOONNNNG time ago to New Stone Circle; am guessing they're defunct, but how hard would it be to drop my self-addressed stamped postcard in the mail telling me so? (The address looked like the editor's home; it's what you get when do a white pages search on her, too.)
 

ClaudiaP

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Just to update this, my follow up query to Crescent Review, which used to be a reasonably prestigious literary rag, came back returned to sender, PO box closed, no forwarding address. So I'm guessing they're dead.
 

Greer

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Somebody else said the same thing about Crescent Review -- it would be nice of them to put up some kind of message on their website...
 

AprilBoo

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Wow! Some of the turnaround times on that list are ridiculous.

I've had an anothology submission out since February - that's about the longest I've experienced yet, without at least getting a confirmation of receipt. I've had one our for a little over a year that I haven't gotten an up or down on but I know they received it. One thing I try to pay really close attention to if I'm submitting to a university-affiliated journal is the reading times listed. If they say they read from August to November, then that office is empty December 1, and chances are the same people won't be inhabiting it again since grad students make up the majority of the staff at those journals. You really are sending to a black hole then.
 

ClaudiaP

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Yeah, I watch the submission windows, too. I have my spreadsheet set up according to the dates when the windows open, then I just go down the list, recheck everyone's website to make sure their dates and guidelines haven't changed, and send in whatever seems most appropriate. Nidus just sent out a notice saying they'd been having email and server problems and had replied to many, but their replies hadn't gone through. I'm assuming mine was among them. Meridian is still a big question mark. Crescent Review now has an "under construction" icon on their website, which makes me think they might be in the process of resurrection. We'll see. Berkeley Fiction Review's had something of mine since Sept, but they do say on their site that they might take as long as a year, so I'll wait till Sept before querying. Sigh.
 
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