Well, that's annoying

[marydell]

I'm quite sure that there was not a big red sign on Weird Tales' submission guidelines page back in mid-January when I subbed a story to them. But a month later they have bounced my story submission with "sorry, we're closed to unsolicited subs until March 31 - feel free to submit again after that deadline" and I see there is a big red sign in place now.

So when a mag temporarily closes to unsolicited subs, they kick back all of the unread slush they've been sitting on? I guess I can see how that would happen, given that closing to subs is probably a sign of being too busy to read the slush. But it's annoying to have had my only decent story out of circulation for a whole month for no reason.

Comments

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

It depends. Some mags keep reading everything they've had submitted up to the point they close. Frankly I think that's a much classier option.

[marydell.livejournal.com]

That would be nice, so I could collect a proper rejection and move along to the next market! This sort of thing throws of my rejection-collecting rhythm.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

For some reason I first read 'unread slush' as 'undead slush' and wondered if you'd submitted a vampire story.

[marydell.livejournal.com]

I really should write a vampire story, or a zombie story, or a vampire zombie story, since those are a la mode.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

You want to write a story involve a vampire, a zombie, and ice cream?

[marydell.livejournal.com]

Only if I get to use the phrase "I scream" in the title.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

If you can make it take place in a laundromat and work in the phrase "Ice rink" as well.

[ashnistrike.livejournal.com]

Maybe it didn't arrive until after the window closed? That would be an awfully long delivery time, though. I haven't had this particular issue with them myself, although they did lose one of my submissions entirely during the last editorial transition.

[marydell.livejournal.com]

That would be an awfully long delivery time, though.

Particularly for email :)

I myself am horribly slow about reading things (in fact I have owed one friend a critique for over a month, *cough cough*), so I'm sympathetic to the editor/slush reader, despite my annoyance at the lack of progress.

I'm kind of wondering if I should just wait until the end of March and re-sub, because the story seems like it might fit WT better than various other venues. But if I do that, based on this experience, there's no guarantee it will actually be eval'd the second time either.

If I had more stories in hand this sort of thing would be less of a problem, but I'm even worse about writing things than I am about reading things...argh.

[ashnistrike.livejournal.com]

Right, I forgot that they had on-line submissions. I'd send it somewhere else--this isn't exactly never-darken-their-doorstep-again behavior, but it's not the sort that encourages mooning around waiting for the market to open back up, either.