Do you guys do it? I sort of look at it like, "c'mon man, you know I'm going to do it, that's cute of you to say, but this beast is getting whored out." Maybe that's just me.
I understand editors get bombarded daily by writers begging for their stuff to be published and that if they waste the time to read yours and then find out it's already out there, it kind of pisses them off, but c'mon!
Thoughts?
A lot of places take simultaneous submissions anyway, so I don't ruin into that problem often. A few bigger publications don't though. If the mag has a quicker turn around time than the other places I have our or to, then I'll ”accidentally” submit it.
I've only just started submitting my stories, and I'm taking the Richard suggested approach of Pro, Semi-Pro, Token et al. So right now, I've had a few polite rejection slips from pro 'zines with 0.whatever to 1% acceptance rates. And I honestly do get frustrated when I have to wait a month, or two, or three and can't whore a story out to several places at once.
From what I can tell, most speculative fiction magazines don't allow simultaneous submissions. So it's going to be a slow few years for me making my way down from the top. I noticed Grey Matter Press allows them, which was a pleasant surprise.
I follow whatever guidelines they bother to articulate.
Unless they explicity, and strongly, state otherwise (on their website), I just simsub everything. Also, even if they do post it to their sub guidlines, if something's been under consideration for a long while (based on the duotrope averages), I start subbing it elsewhere.
As stated above me, I bombard, and if I get in somewhere, I right away drop the others an email letting them know and thanking them for their consideration. I've got my first round story out to something like eight places, including one contest.
@Dino- sounds about right. I don't want to burn bridges, so if I get something picked up, I'll withdraw.
I only submit at places with a no simultaneous policy if it's a short turn-around and I think my story would be an absolute perfect fit. That way, I can get my answer quickly, and move on if it doesn't get accepted. I wouldn't bother doing a submission to a journal with a 60+ day turn-around time if they don't acccept simulatenous submissions.
I assume markets that say No SS don't mean it anyway, they just want less slush emails, submissions or otherwise. Like Courtney I test out my stories with just 2 or 3 submissions to high-tier markets with fast turn-arounds, after that I'll do like 8 at a time, ignoring the No SS warnings. I think that's more conservative than most people I know submit, but I'm also more conservative with what stories of mine I like or ones that I should revise or kill. But yeah, I think your way of thinking Matt is the general concensus. Unless like the rare occasion you write a story for a specific publication.
I recently went through a bit of a debacle due to submitting simultaneously (see my thread on publishing woes).
Lesson learned: start with the upper-tier publications, and if all of them reject it, aim lower and send out another round. But never mix lower and higher-ties pubs in the same wave of submissions.
Hey all -- this was a useful thread. What would make it more useful is if we could collect a list of all the mags that accept Simulsubs... Can anyone please let us know which ones off the top of your head you know accept? I am just starting out and would rather not wait months on one pony.
Thanks
If you go to Duotrope, you can search specifically for publications that accept simultaneous submissions and it will give you an entire list. Anything we would put together here would be outdated pretty quickly.
Tobin--
The reason there wasn't a list in response to the other post is because a list of all magazines that accept simultaneous submissions would take pages, and no one has anything comprehensive "off the top of their head", take the advice of checking out Duotrope (it's cheap, try for a month for $5) and run the search function. Not only will you be able to find the mags that accept SS, you'll be able to narrow it down to mags that are more likely to want what you're writing.
