How Long Do You Wait?

Though having a somewhat “career” in writing (as he pleaded for recognition) I am still, like many of you, a denizen of the open submission process. Just one of many occupants of the slush pile. And maybe it’s just me, but I’m starting to notice a few disturbing traits in the submission process. I understand that it could be I’ve just been producing garbage the last year or so - always a distinct possibility. But the submitting process has seemed to be particularly desert-like lately. Not so much in the number of rejections, but specifically in the condition of SILENCE. Here’s my impressions, as of late, of the process.

QUERY

I do fiction, not non-fiction. If I’ve learned one thing in all this it is never send a fiction “query” to a publisher. Stick to direct submissions via email, their website, Submittable, or their private submission device. Queries are bullshit unless it is face to face. An email doesn’t even have to be opened, and with what seems to be the deteriorating attitudes of many publishers these days it is easy for them to just ignore you. I haven’t sent a “query” in years. It’s like the garbage can of the slush pile.Non-fiction, of course, is a different animal. That process mostly operates on queries.

EMAIL SUBMISSIONS

And I’m starting to get the feeling that using email for submissions is becoming much the same. It is one thing when a publisher says “we will contact you if we are interested.” I can live with that. They are straight-up telling you what to expect, and are ten steps better than the publishers who don’t say that up front that you never hear from at all. At least the ones who tell you how it works are professionals. The rest, to me, are posers, no matter how long they’ve been publishing their shitty magazine. Since July 30 of 2025 I have sent many submissions out for various projects. 18 submissions via email alone. Of these emails only 1 venue, Roadside Press, has had the professionalism to take the time to respond. It was a rejection, but it was an ANSWER, out of consideration for the writer. At my age and at this point of my “career” rejection doesn’t bother me anywhere near like it did in the 80s and 90s. And I don’t want to make this screed seem like a typical rejected writer’s entitled moan. I appreciate Roadside Press’ respect for the process.

ONLINE FORMS

When publishers have a device for submissions on their website one would not be stretching a point to assume that there’d be more chances for actual communication compared to email. In my unscientific survey, looking back at my list of submissions (I keep tabs on every one so as not to duplicate submissions and keep a running tab on dates and responses, if any), I’ve found that out of 6 publishers with online forms, there were no replies at all since June of last year. For the purposes of this article I went back and checked those sites again - none of them were honest enough to say “we will only contact you if we are interested” up front. Everybody just leaves you hanging.

SUBMITTABLE

Submittable, so far still a free service for writers - but I’ve been watching, seems to impose more accountability to the process. For those unfamiliar, Submittable will show you all your submissions, their targeted publisher, the date it was submitted, as well as the status. And item marked “Received” hit its target. Any item marked “In-Progress” means the publisher has at least opened the submission (that’s not a guarantee it has been read, but is at least a confirmation that they know you’re alive). Pieces marked “Declined” are, obviously rejected. There is also the possibility of you withdrawing the submission yourself.

I currently have 8 submissions there, the oldest from August 11, 2025 up to the latest, which I placed on April 29.

At the seven month mark I withdrew my submission from August of last year because in all that time it had never been so much as opened. It sat there with a “Received” mark. At seven months I withdrew it and left a stern little note about how ridiculous it was that nobody has even opened it yet. To my surprise the next day I saw that the publisher moved it from the Withdrawn list back to the submission list and listed it as “In-Progress.” That was, in and of itself, kind of impressive, but is certainly no guarantee of acceptance. However, it has now been “In-Progress” for a month and a half. So… yeah.

Of the eight pieces I have listed at Submittable six are “In-Progress” and two are still unopened. The oldest sitting there is from November of last year. Six months. Even with the overlay of accountability monitoring there is what seems unreasonable delay.

400 SUBMISSIONS EVERY ISSUE

I do have a right to complain because, as people who have been at this Stack for a while know, I ran Thrice Fiction Magazine for years as reader and editor. We published three issues a year and received over 400 submissions for each issue. I read all the incoming and made the final calls on what got through my lines. One handed. So this crap about “we have a small staff so please give us time” is a lot of bullshit as far as I’m concerned. And in any case this record gives me the credit to call out the lazy, wasteful, time-eating, no consideration, writers-are-peons mentality I’ve found from time to time among the editor class.

I’ve had the experience of having something accepted only to get another acceptance two weeks later by a publication that hadn’t answered my email for almost a year. When I told them it was accepted elsewhere they got all huffy about how I was supposed to tell them that. They got a blazing fastball right under their chin in response. This was some time ago now, but I figured if you can’t tell me what it is in almost a year, up yours too. They went out of business after three issues anyway so… Nyah.

BUT HOW LONG DO YOU WAIT?

But how long should we wait without word? What are we supposed to do with publications that don’t even deign to give an acknowledgement that they received something? Having been among their numbers I know for a fact that most editors don’t actually really know what they want, no matter what high toned erudite descriptions of “what we like” they put in their guidelines. Most editors just want something that breathes. But there is also a class of that type that, as George Carlin said about other people in positions of power, “don’t give a shit about you.”

In any case I will wait seven months. Especially if I broke down and paid for the honor of waiting on their lazy asses, which I try not to do, but have, from time to time.

What’s your timeframe? How long do you wait?