We happy few who specialize in short stories obsess about the length of time our little masterpieces sit waiting for verdicts by editors. We tend to read the results like tea leaves. And so on the Short Mystery Fiction Society list you get messages like I just received a rejection after 49 days from Cozy Ax Murder Quarterly. That is 3.74 days longer than typical from CAMQ but keep in mind there was a headwind and Mercury was in retrograde...
I have been playing with spreadsheets lately (more on that next time) and I thought this might interest you. The chart below shows how long my stories had been waiting at magazines and anthologies on the first day of each month from December 2024 to January 2026. The blue line is the longest number of days any story was waiting for an editorial decision. The brown line is the average (mean) number of days. And the gray line represents the median (for those who haven't taken math in a long time, that means half the stories have been waiting longer, and half shorter).
(I wrote this on December 26. The next day a story was rejected and I had to revise the chart. Natch.)
The number of stories ranges from 10 to 17 depending on the month.
Now, back to my tea leaves...
Wow, some take almost 2 years to get back to you? That's insane.
ReplyDeleteTrue, but I never claimed to be sane.
DeleteI had one editor agree to buy the story, never sent contract, no money, no communication. After two years, I wrote to withdraw story. Normal?
DeleteWow, that peak! Though, now I want a line for the shortest ...
ReplyDeleteThings have sure changed in 20 years. I'm also finding that the time between send and reply is almost the same as the time between when I submit a full book to my publisher, and when it hits the shelves! (15 months)
ReplyDeleteInteresting comparison.
DeleteI use a piece of software (for Mac) called Story Tracker to keep submissions straight. If a story is bought, rejected, etc., the software logs the dates and calculates how many days I've waited for a response. It also builds a record of how much a particular story has earned over time with reprints or other licenses. It's handy but I'm sure that there are countless others. The developer who created this is himself a writer. I like it because I have zero ability to create anything beyond the simplest of spreadsheets.
ReplyDeleteI feel like the next piece of new software I have to learn is the one that will break my brain.
DeleteTHIS! THIS is ME!
DeleteYou just haven't bought the right $767 course to teach you how to use your $45 software.
DeleteI currently have 14 submissions out, going back to June 14, 2025. Seven (more than usual for a month) went out in December, all of them after being rejected elsewhere. I have received several responses in the last two or three months that came more quickly than I expected, which is encouraging. Alas, most of them were rejections, including one I received this morning.
ReplyDeleteI submit to 15 or 20 markets fairly often, but only two or three of them are open all year. That is becoming more of a factor than it used to be. Some are only open for a week or two every few months, so I have to plan my submissions more carefully. And, of course, not every story is appropriate for every market. Sigh.
Technically, I have a 15th submission still out from December, 2023, but that's at the Strand, which only counts for John Floyd. :-)
Waiting to hear back from editors is one of the main reasons so many writers drink.
ReplyDeleteI put the submission on my spreadsheet and forget about it. Start writing something new or go back to edit something in my files. Waiting will definitely make you drunk or crazy.
Delete