posted
I submitted a story to Asimov's a while ago. I was checking yesterday, and as far as I can see, it's been just over 8 weeks.
Their site says they average 5 weeks for a response. I did include a SASE. I didn't think to put in a postcard (they say that you can put in a postcard, and they'll drop that in the mail as soon as your submission arrives).
So. Do I assume that it got lost somewhere and resubmit? Do I wait another couple of weeks? What's standard for these things?
Posts: 12266 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Hmm.... the Black Hole gives them an average of two months...
My rule is give a magazine 90 days to respond, unless they have specific query criteria (like Strange Horizons). Then wait an extra two weeks, just in case. After that, query by email or letter. Don't resub.
You might want to check out the Black Hole, or www.ralan.com for market information.
Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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posted
Cool! Thanks, Scott. I didn't even know about that site. That's very helpful.
Hopefully, I won't have to requery. They say on their site that they don't keep records, and that requerying is pointless. <sigh>
Posts: 12266 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
Boy, Asimov's doesn't make it easy to find their submission page any longer, do they? There's no link to the page from their main site, that I could find; I had to google for it...
Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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quote: I didn't even know about that site. That's very helpful.
Both Ralan.com and the Black Hole are extremely useful. It also is a good idea to browse the forums for the major 3 mags (Asimov's, Analog, F&SF)-- sometimes you get good market tips there.
Ralan is probably the more valuable one because it lists pro markets that aren't necessarily as popular as the big 3.
Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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Of course, now I have to get to the writing. I have a story I've been working on which looks like it's going to be a novel. But there's going to be some unpleasantness that I'm really not looking forward to having to write. I hate that.
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posted
Asimov's can take a loooong time. I usually wait 3 months before querying. A friend of mine waited six, queried, was told her submission was lost, submitted elsewhere, and then got the Asimov's "we want to buy the story" letter a few months later.
Posts: 700 | Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
I submitted a story to IGMS seven months ago, and they haven't decided if they want it yet.
On the plus side, they've been very good about letting me know that they haven't decided if they want it.
Posts: 1068 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
So, I got my rejection from Asimov's on Friday. Oh, well. Now I need to figure out where to try next. Would anyone be willing to read it and suggest a likely place to submit it? It's SF, but only mildly, and the two main characters are both women and are a couple, but it's not about that.
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posted
Any magazine that says they respond sooner than two months should have their claim be taken with a grain of salt.
In my entire life, I have only had one manuscript that ellicited a response of any kind in less than a month (with two months being typical), and that one incredibly was an acceptance that came with a nice check in about a week (virtually by return mail!). That was a non-fiction tutorial article on programing for the Atari, inwhich I presented my discovery of an original and very useful means to use the Atari's string handling capability to effect nearly instantaneous rewriting of the whole character set and keyboard layout (in my example I converted the keyboard to the Dvorak layout). Apparently this really appealed to the editors of Compute! Here is a link to the index that lists my article "Block PEEK and POKE for the Atari": http://www.atarimagazines.com/compute/index/index.php?author=Ronald+R.+Lambert
But all my science fiction manuscripts ellicit a response after about two months or more. I have sold only three, to Analog. They were published back in 1979, when Ben Bova was editor. No luck since then.
[ July 02, 2006, 01:24 PM: Message edited by: Ron Lambert ]
Posts: 3742 | Registered: Dec 2001
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posted
F&SF replies instantly, by mail. It's very disheartening .
Seriously, I sent a story to them on Thursday afternoon, had the rejection letter in hand the following Monday. I hypothesize that they open the manuscripts with one hand, glance at them, and have the form rejection letters ready to stuff into the SASE. Or maybe they have a time machine?
The rejection letter is now defiantly on my fridge.
Posts: 628 | Registered: Nov 1999
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posted
John Joseph Anderson, F&SF's slush reader (and IMS columnist), is enormously effective. Believe it or not, the form letters he sends out may NOT be form letters; somewhere on the web, there's an interpretation of the differences in his responses.
I ALWAYS send to F&SF first because of the low cost for submission. Postage aside, it's nice to have a response back in a week or so, if unlucky.
Which I've been, thus far. Alas.
Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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posted
Oh, and I always send there first, as well, with unfortunately identical results. So far. Alas indeed.
Posts: 628 | Registered: Nov 1999
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I should have been more clear: the cost I'm talking about here is the weight of worry caused by not getting a response for months on end. F&SF is a cheap market because they get back to you very quickly. Additionally, even though they use form letters, you can tell what round your story made (and ostensibly, its quality). If the rejection letter is signed by John Joseph Anderson, it got cut in the slush pile; if it is signed by Gordon Van Gelder, it survived the slush pile and made it to the Man Himself. Both letters may have the same content, but one supposedly marks a story as being 'better.'
(This is my rejectomancy talking-- I don't know details for sure)
Contrast to Asimov's, where the wait time is 2-4 months, and all letters are signed by Sheila Williams, the main editor. I think. Anyway, all my rejection letters are from her...
[ July 04, 2006, 08:51 AM: Message edited by: Scott R ]
Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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posted
Oh, by the way: here is a link to JJA's rejectomancy particulars.
Posted below for your convenience.
quote:The conventional wisdom is that JJA rejections translate as follows:
'didn't grab' = he didn't get beyond 2-3 pages 'didn't hold my interest' = he didn't finish the story 'didn't quite work for me' = he finished it, but didn't think it good enough to pass on to GVG.
I would assume that 'there's some nice writing here' means that there was some nice writing there, whatever the other flaws in the story.
posted
Well, I submitted it to F&SF. And here's a bummer. I found a link to a reprint anthology that would have been perfect for the story that got published last November. It's called Best New Paranormal Romance, and they're going to be doing it annually. But the deadline for stories that were first published in 2005 was back in May. If Haworth had dragged their feet just 5 more weeks, I'd have been able to submit my story for the 2006 collection. Wah.
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