Been quiet around here, I know, but that's because I've been extremely busy, what with this deadline for the anthology fast approaching. I've wanted to post a lot of stuff but just haven't found the time, so here I am at 4:30 in the morning wanting to share with you two things. First, I created a Twitter page strictly for Hint Fiction, because I know those interested in Hint Fiction might not want to follow me and hear my continuous babbling. When there's news to share about the anthology or whatever else, I will share it in both places, but at least with the Hint Fiction account it will be just Hint Fiction and nothing else. If you'd like to follow, please do so: @Hint_Fiction.
Second, I'm sure most people reading this blog are familiar with Duotrope. And if you're a writer and you're not familiar with Duotrope, fix that error immediately. Anyway, there's a lot of great stuff about the website, but the best is the "What's New" page, which lists new markets as well as recent response times. It's always interesting to see the wide variety of RTs reported, from 0 days to over 300 days (though note that it's not an exact science, as many writers don't even use the service). And in case you haven't heard yet, a 909 day rejection was just recently reported.
Yes, you heard that right -- 909 days.
That pretty much comes to two and a half years.
And the best part? The publication -- Dark Discoveries Magazine (be sure to check out their beautiful website) -- states on their submission guidelines "no simultaneous submissions."
My thoughts on simultaneous submissions are simple -- life's too short not to simultaneously submit. And if a magazine states in their guidelines that they don't want simultaneous submissions, then they should have reasonable response times -- somewhere between 30 and 60 days, I think, though the shorter the better.
I don't even know where the whole "no simultaneous submissions" thing first came from. It basically means the magazine wants exclusivity on your work. Which is another way of saying that they want to slack off and read your story whenever they damn well please, and there's nothing you can do about it but wait two years to hear back.
Personally, it's a big turn off for me when I see the response times of magazines being over a year. Even 100 days seems excessive.
Or am I being too fussy?
Let me ask you -- how long is too long?