How to Follow Up on Short Story Submissions
By Roselyn James, published Sep 07, 2007
Published Content: 50 Total Views: 52,258 Favorited By: 17 CPs
If you've waited the maximum amount of time stated in the publication's guidelines and still haven't received an acceptance or rejection, it's time to send a status query.
Wait Time
The first thing you need to do is double check the magazine's website. If they have fallen behind on their reading, some magazines will revise their guidelines or post an announcement on their site.
If the website has not been updated and the guidelines state that the publication's response time is under a month, give them an extra week. If the response time is over a month, give them at least two extra weeks. Then send your query.
The Status Query
Keep your letter simple. Address it to the appropriate editor. State the title of your story and the date you submitted it. Then ask about the status. That's it. The letter shouldn't be any longer than three or four sentences.
The Response
Most editors will respond with an acceptance or rejection within a couple weeks. If it's an acceptance, congratulations! Now write a new story. If it's a rejection, submit the story to another magazine.
Sometimes an editor will ask you to resubmit. If he gives special instructions, follow them. Otherwise, follow the guidelines the way you did the first time you submitted your story.
Once in a while a publication is unresponsive. That could mean one of three things: they didn't receive your submission or query, they're no longer publishing the magazine, or your story and query letter have gotten lost in the slush pile. When this happens, you have no way to know the reason. You have to decide whether you want to send another status query, resubmit your story, or send a withdrawal and move on to the next magazine on your list.
You may also like...
- Alice Munro's Runaway Short Story Collection is a Runaway Hit
- How to Sell a Short Story to a Science Fiction Magazine
- Short Story Writing - General Tips
- How to Submit Your Fiction and Poetry to Literary Magazines
- Writing for the Magazine Industry: What You Need to Know
- Coffee Anyone, a Short Fiction Story
- Ten Tips on How to Generate Article Ideas
- How to Write a Killer Short Story
- Short Story or Novel: How to Decide
- An Essay on Tim O'Brien's Short Story "The Things They Carried"
Takeaways
- Double check the submission guidelines
- Give the magazine some extra time in case they have fallen behind
- Keep your status query short and simple
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