A few weeks later I found Hatrack and posted the story on F&F. I got some feedback and started re-working the story a little.
Then the unthinkable happened...The original version of the story was accepted for publication! I sent the editor the updated intro (as that was all I had finished) and it was published about five days later.
The end of March marks the end of time that the story is available on-line and I've found a couple of possible markets that accept submissions for re-prints.
I would really like to clean things up a little before sending it to these markets, but I'm not sure if that is appropriate.
Anyone know what the protocol is?
I'd start with this: How different is the new version of the story? Are we looking at a spruced-up version of the old one? Or, perhaps, did you leave the old one in the dust to create this new story based roughly on the same ideas but different enough that it takes on a life of its own?
If it's a spruced up version of the old one then I would say in my cover letter something like: "I am submitting a slightly modified version of a story that was published in xyz magazine for your consideration."
As for whether it's appropriate in this case, I'd take Christine's advice and ask.
Since I got the more or less original story accepted, I stopped putting my effort into revising and started a new project. Now that I'm thinking of submitting it as a re-print, there are some changes I would like to make just to tweak things a bit.
I've already e-mailed the magazine to find if they even consider re-prints and I received an encouraging response, so I think I'll go ahead and make the minor changes and send it off.
Thanks again.
Josh Leone