Query response

BlueBadger · Feb 14, 2006

I asked this question casually in another thread on another part of the board, but then I decided I might get a more complete answer in this forum since you've all been there.

I was wondering how long the average response time is for a query sent via e-mail? Does it usually vary from magazine to magazine? I asked AKC Family Dog for their writer's guidelines, and I got an enthusiastic response pretty quickly. So I sent the actual query yesterday and am just wondering what the average response time usually is for this sort of thing.

(I also mentioned that I'm fairly new to query letters, since the people I write for regularily have me interact directly with my editor.

Thanks a lot for the help!

Fern · Feb 14, 2006

Bluebadger, I haven't submitted to that particular publication so can't say for them, but response time varies.

The quickest I've gotten a resonse is about 15 minutes (and on a Saturday at that!) ; I've gotten lots within a day or two or a couple weeks and then just last week I received a rejection for one that I had emailed approximately 5 months ago. I've also had an acceptance after about 7 or 8 months. . .I know this one tends to be slow, so I just forgot about it after emailing. It took them that long to get back to me, but it was an acceptance. I would say for the most part email responses are fairly quick.

I always make it a point to check the guidelines because many times they will tell you if you don't hear by a certain length of time to consider it rejected. Seems like the ones I've noticed say about 8 weeks.

GHF65 · Feb 15, 2006

I have to agree with Fern that it depends on the publication. I've gotten overnight responses on rare occasions, but more recently a publication that contacted me for submissions after reading something of mine online took almost a month to reply when I sent what they asked for. They did buy all of the articles and asked for more, so I'm not disappointed, but I was verging on sending those pieces elsewhere when I finally got their response.

Just hang on. Go write something else and don't get hung up on the one unresponsive publisher.

BlueBadger · Feb 15, 2006

Go write something else and don't get hung up on the one unresponsive publisher.

Which leads me to my next question, haha...

I know that in terms of fiction, a lot of magazines don't want simultaneous submissions. Does the same thing apply to non-fiction queries, or can I query a few similarly-themed magazines on the same topic?

And if more than one magazine responds to say that they're interested in an article on said topic, is it acceptable to write about the same subject for both magazines? Considering, of course, that the two articles would be different except for the topic at hand ("different" in terms of word choices, sentence structure, tone, etc).

Thanks a lot for the info! This board has been a tremendous help to me so far.

Fern · Feb 15, 2006

There was a good thread a while back on simultaneous submissions. . .some wouldn't do it any other way, others don't do it at all. Try putting "simultaneous submissions" in the search feature for these forums. . .it may have been originally posted in freelance. If you can't find it let me know and I'll see if I can search it out for you.

Query response

BlueBadger

Knows notebooks can kill.

Fern

practical experience, FTW

GHF65

practical experience, FTW

BlueBadger

Knows notebooks can kill.

Fern

practical experience, FTW