Comments on: Poll Dancing #5

By: Lee Battersby

Lee Battersby — Thu, 17 May 2007 14:45:00 +0000

Wow: I’ve just read that linked entry for the first time sicne I wrote it, and I can’t believe how circumspect I was in not mentioning Brian Townsell’s name…. ahem.

I had this discussion once with a group of friends, and Sean Williams mentioned that he’d not received a response to a story he sent Cemetary Dance five years previously. And, of course, there was the standard joke about Century being the only magazine named after its response times.

Best I’ve managed for a short story so far is two years, but then, I’ve always assumed a rejection and started sending the story elsewhere long before that.

By: Heather

Heather — Thu, 17 May 2007 14:42:00 +0000

Dastardly agents! How dare they make mistakes! It’s a conspiracy.

By: MelodyO

MelodyO — Thu, 17 May 2007 05:27:00 +0000

I find you get quicker responses if you hide in the bushes outside their house and query them in person as they’re searching for their house keys.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 17 May 2007 02:52:00 +0000

I just got a rejection on a query I submitted a year and a half ago. The agent got my name right but the title wrong. Did I mention that a client of this agent recommended me?

By: Heather

Heather — Wed, 16 May 2007 21:00:00 +0000

I can say that I’ve honestly never been rejected by any agent I’ve queried.

Of course, I haven’t actually queried any…

By: Paul Riddell

Paul Riddell — Wed, 16 May 2007 19:28:00 +0000

Just out of curiosity, discovering via Wikipedia that the magazine is “on hiatus”, reading about the bankruptcy proceedings in the Wall Street Journal, getting a signed suicide note a day after the editor shoots himself, or getting calls from the Virginia State Police because the publisher is wanted for fraud all qualify as a response, right? I just want to check to make sure.

By: Laura Kramarsky

Laura Kramarsky — Wed, 16 May 2007 14:40:00 +0000

I had dinner with a friend last night who was ecstatic because she’d just had a short story accepted…she sent it in to the magazine 14 months ago.

By: Sean Lindsay

Sean Lindsay — Wed, 16 May 2007 14:14:00 +0000

Bernita, that's nothing (well, from your POV I'm sure it's great). I'm more interested in the stories of waiting almost a year to follow-up, only to hear that the agent quit six months before.

Paul, as always, you are a category unto yourself. The 'Other' poll option is at your disposal.

By: Paul Riddell

Paul Riddell — Wed, 16 May 2007 13:33:00 +0000

Are we talking about responses to unsolicited submissions, or ones where the goddamn editor asked first? After two separate dealings in the last two years, where the persons in question insisted upon my working for them and then sitting on the manuscripts for two years or more (complete with wild and shameless lies about release dates), you think I was working for Science Fiction Eye all over again.

By: Bernita

Bernita — Wed, 16 May 2007 12:47:00 +0000

I just got a request for a partial from a query I sent in mid-January…