simultaneous submissions (1 Viewer)

[jordan]

i'm curious... how long is it proper to wait before submitting an already-submitted poem to another journal? i understand why publishers outlaw simultaneous submissions, but some places i've sent work have taken ages to send me rejection letters (if the letters ever come).

other words- how long until a rejection should just be assumed and poems should be resubmitted elsewhere?

 

[bospress.net]

If it is not posted, then 3 months is fair. It would be nice if people (me included) could get to these faster, but many, including me, do not. If you have waited a while and know the editor, it would not hurt to ask.

I had someone send me three submissions and then a couple weeks later send me a real shitty "are you even gonna reply" e-mail to me when I did not reply in his time allotment. I'll still give them a read, but the old me would have given it about 10 minutes and then rejected them all.

If you ask and they do not reply after a week of two, it may be worth looking elsewhere.

Bill

 

[hoochmonkey9]

I always consider the magazine I'm sending to. If it is a large, well known publication that pays, they generally take longer as they are usually flooded with submissions. I once waited 18 months to find out that a poem was accepted. 18 months!

Smaller mags are quicker (usually 3 months if it is a mailed submission, less than a month if it is emailed).

I'm also of the school that the longer a magazine takes to respond, the better your chances of it being accepted, as it has to go through all the editorial stages to get through the final cut, which of course takes longer.

But, if you think you've waited long enough, it never hurts to drop them a friendly email.

I usually wait, but sometimes I'm too patient. I just don't want to take a chance and piss off any editors. Pissed off editors have a special "file" for your stuff. heh.

 

[mjp]

When I started sending poems out (jesus, almost 20 years ago), I ignored "no simultaneous submissions" rules.

Sorry publishers.

A few times the same poems ended up in more than one place, and you know what? The world did not stop turning, no one cursed me out of banned me - I doubt they were even aware of it.

That being said, I wouldn't do that now, for a lot of reasons.

 

[bospress.net]

The biggest reason that I say "no simultaneous submissions" is that it gives me the moral high ground to send insulting, nasty e-mails to people who write one (usually really, really bad Jesus poem) and then send it to 5,000 small press mags. The frustrating thing is that they do not take the time (or care) to read my submission guidelines, they they not only want me to read this "poem" but to reply. Again, they do not care what I'm interested in publishing.

These poems usually come from India & China. It seems that they got ahold of a stash of e-mails from small press publications and spam the hell out of us with these.

I usually ignore them and just delete them (when they are clear spam submissions) but sometimes, when I've had a bad day at work, I answer them....

By the way, they NEVER reply to me. Not a "Fuck You", nothing. It seems that the only goal is to see their name in print....

I only have three submission guidelines and some of these folks break all three in one shot...

Bill

 

[Hosh]

I've always felt that there's NO REASON to simultaneously submit. Just write more poems. It's easy to avoid double-subbing something if you just send new stuff out. If you make a consistent practice of writing, if you really target the mags you're a best fit for (as opposed to firing blindly at every magazine you can find), & as long as you aren't sending out 10 subs a week, you'll usually have a decent pool of work available to you. Rejects will come back as new stuff stacks up & you'll be able to send more out. Just keep pushing yourself as a writer...don't write a few you like & insist on placing them before you write some more...you'll drive yourself mad waiting. Just write man...just write. The rest will take care of itself. Good luck!

 

[vodka]

we accept simultaneous submissions but truthfully, i'm starting to think it's more hassle than it's worth. you never really think about this shit until you're the person actually processing them and then all the sudden it makes all the sense in the world. i know how it is to be on the other end, though - so we'll probably keep doing it this way just because i prefer to lean a touch toward convenience of the writer.

i would be upset though to find a piece had been published in another journal at the same time as ours. just bad form.

 

[bospress.net]

Jenifer;
Just wait until you have something sent to you, you accept it only to be told that someone else wanted it and they only agreed to publish it if they were the only one. It has never happened to me, but I want to avoid the possibility of having to do battle or make an enemy when I tell that person that not only am I not going to beg for the poem, but that I am not interested in reading more subs from them.

It also keeps you from getting e-mails from the poet mills (think puppy mills) that they run in India and China.

Bill

p.s. Just got notice from another press that a lady out of India has been submitting work that people have accepted for publication. The problem is that she may not be the author and there could be a lawsuit from the poet that actually wrote the poems. Imagine getting caught up in that one.....

 

[vodka]

Bill, that has actually happened to our fiction editor dru, already. he's handled it pretty well - i guess cause he's kept a couple of back ups.

however, if i were to accept something and then that turned into an issue with someone else accepting it i would get angry indeed.

i'm so bad at being angry, though.

 

[poptop]

another approach

Sometimes it's easier on the soul to send a letter of inquiry to find out if submissions are being accepted in the first place rather than sending them in willy-nilly unless you're already established with the publisher. This can be particularly true with magazine submissions. In other words, don't waste your time without getting the lay of the land and being forced to sit around waiting for a reply that may never come. It's not always the publisher's fault when they are inundated with unsolicited materials. Good luck anyway to those who have already submitted their poems or manuscripts.

 

[vodka]

usually a publication will let you know when they are accepting submissions on their guidelines page.

you can also use duotrope for that.