Jeez, 274 days? That's one reason why I've been holding off on subbing to AHMM.
Yeah, 274 is rough - especially if your end result was a rejection. There are some markets I just won't sub to because of their response times.
Ditto. AHMM is a huge exception for me because it's one of only a very, very small number of viable pro/semi-pro mystery/crime markets.
Even then, you're basically only getting to submit 5 stories to them every 4 years.
All of this has combined to make me very unlikely to write mystery/crime stories at this point since the process basically goes like this:
1) Send it to EQMM and get a rejection in 2-6 weeks.
2) Decide if you want for it to be this year's submission to AHMM. If yes, wait for that opportunity to come open. If not, submit it to the handful of viable semi-pros and/or self-publish it.
Bleah.
For some kinds of crime stories you have a chance at getting published in some of the more broad-reaching literary markets. Recent years' Best Mystery Short Stories have included works from Cincinnati Review and several other similar venues. But something like a straight PI story or something more thriller-ish (like "Levels of Trust") doesn't seem to have any chance at those markets.
Anyway, pardon the mini-rant. I just love crime short stories and hate the fact that there's no market for them.