Middling It

I got an e-mail today from a magazine that I subbed a romance story to. The magazine is moving to an e-mail submission system, which is good since it was only snail mail before and took forever. But the really good news is that the fiction editor is going to pass my story along to the editor in chief. I don't usually write romance, but I really love this story and the fiction editor said she does as well, so that makes me hopeful.

I got a passing it on to the senior editor email recently, so I guess I'm middling it for that story.

This isn't quite middling it the way y'all have defined it so far, but I do feel very in the middle of things. My November W1S1 is out at three betas who all promised it back to me by the beginning of this week and still haven't replied. It's not a huge deal at all, and I really appreciate their time and effort, but I love this story and I really want to do the final draft and send it out, like, yesterday. I'm just impatient and want feedback.

A middling-it kind of question: What is the protocol for responding to notification of a story being passed on to the editor for a second read? Is a response expected?

I hate figuring these sorts of things out. It feels woefully impolite to ignore, but it seems that nine times out of ten writers are told to not clog things up with superfluous emails.

I think you can just wait for a decision. The only time I've responded to a short list email from a publication has been when I was asked a direct question. Otherwise, you're really just stuffing their inbox.

Steve Coate said:

I think you can just wait for a decision. The only time I've responded to a short list email from a publication has been when I was asked a direct question. Otherwise, you're really just stuffing their inbox.

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In my experience, this. I never respond to anything other than a direct question or an acceptance, and even then I keep it short and professional.

Thanks for the confirmation, everyone!

I didn't respond, but the politeness fairy has been nagging at me all week. Someone sends a nice email and wishes you good luck...it feels like not thanking someone who stops to hold a door open for you.

Honestly, I'd respond and thank them if you're feeling uncomfortable. Personally I've done that before in some cases. I don;t think its a huge faux pas either way.

Alex, thanks for weighing in too. It's actually the only passing it on email I've ever gotten. For some reason no one likes to notify me. Perhaps it's because they know I won't send them thank yous.

Everything out has been out for a long time. The nice email came from Abyss and Apex. I've a few non-spec stories out for the first time, which feels kind of interesting and strange, and things out to places I haven't tried before, and had one story at Clarkesworld for almost a month, so it's all kind of fun. For now. Until all the rejection finally comes.

PD -- congrats on all the consideration going on! Fingers crossed for you!

@SmallThing

Yeah Neil is extremely busy with real-life stuff right now, so anything that's under serious consideration at Clarkesworld is being held a bit longer than usual. This means your story got passed along to the man himself, so yay for you!

And the advance to the senior editor email came from A&A? That's interesting, I didn't think they sent those notifications (though its standard at Apex and some other places). My story's been there since November 1 and no word so far, though Duotrope is showing them rejecting much younger subs.

jgold knows more about A&A as I believe she had been published by them more than once. Maybe she'll chime in about their practices.

alexshvartsman said:

@SmallThing

And the advance to the senior editor email came from A&A? That's interesting, I didn't think they sent those notifications (though its standard at Apex and some other places). My story's been there since November 1 and no word so far, though Duotrope is showing them rejecting much younger subs.

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I was surprised to get the email too, though mostly because I never get them from places that are known for sending them. I think my story was somewhere around 85 days out at the time, so I wonder if there are multiple levels of reading, along the lines of preliminary screen -- first read -- send to senior editor? Which would explain the faster initial rejections.

The mysteries of slush...

SmallThing said:

I was surprised to get the email too, though mostly because I never get them from places that are known for sending them. I think my story was somewhere around 85 days out at the time, so I wonder if there are multiple levels of reading, along the lines of preliminary screen -- first read -- send to senior editor? Which would explain the faster initial rejections.

The mysteries of slush...

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It took 85 days before it got past the slush pile and before the senior editor ever saw it? Ouch!

In the Cat Valente days at Apex, you could get through the slush in under a month and then disappear into the black hole that is a pile of sent-up stories on Cat's desk. But sitting in slush for 85 days? Scary stuff.

My submission to A&A was with the flash editor (who usually rejected within a day or two), so it might be slightly different. At the end of the August 2010 submission window, she submitted her top ten picks to the senior editor. I got an email informing me that mine was one of them. Then I received another email from WD in November letting me know that they were trying to fit the story in an issue in late 2011 and they'd be in touch soon. I got the acceptance in March, and the story was published last month.

And I watched duotrope like a crazy person throughout it all.

This seems like the perfect place for me at the moment. I seem to have hit that point where I'm getting lots of "middle" type responses. All of these from the last month...

A very kind "almost" from a pro market that I would have been thrilled to sell to. (After anxiously watching Duotrope for about a month.)
A small personal positive note along with an otherwise-form reject from another pro market that I would have been thrilled to sell to.
A "you made it to the last round but not beyond it" from a new pro-rate market.

Part of me wishes I had just blown off NaNoWriMo and kept working on new short stories. The other part of me is pleased with myself for keeping a commitment to myself to actually do NaNo this year instead of just talking about it.

I've already decided, though, that 12/1-15 will be all short stories for me. I'll come back to the NaNo project for either the end of draft one or the start of draft two after that.

One question for those who have subbed Bull Spec recently. I subbed a story there about 35 days ago and have heard nothing beyond the acknowledgment note. Duotrope reports seven rejects of things subbed since then. (But also *158* outstanding items...) Some people here have reported "passed on to next level" emails. I assume I should just wait and not query yet, yes?

mhaynes said:

One question for those who have subbed Bull Spec recently. I subbed a story there about 35 days ago and have heard nothing beyond the acknowledgment note. Duotrope reports seven rejects of things subbed since then. (But also *158* outstanding items...) Some people here have reported "passed on to next level" emails. I assume I should just wait and not query yet, yes?

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Mhaynes, I'm in the same boat. My sub's older than yours and I've heard nothing. The autoresponder suggests they send responses when they pass something on, so I've more or less decided that mine wasn't, and that they will be sending out a large group of rejections at some point.

Jgold, thanks for sharing your A&A experience. Patience does seem to be key here.

I got an email from Bull Spec after about 30 days saying I hadn't attached the story and could I send it along. I had attached it, but I sent it and about two days later got an email saying it was being passed further up the chain. That was about two weeks ago.

SmallThing said:

Mhaynes, I'm in the same boat. My sub's older than yours and I've heard nothing. The autoresponder suggests they send responses when they pass something on, so I've more or less decided that mine wasn't, and that they will be sending out a large group of rejections at some point.

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Ah, well, that makes a certain amount of sense I suppose. OK, I'll just let it sit for a while. No huge rush on getting it back.

Thanks!

Good luck Deadlight!

I'm over average sub time at three places by a lot, and then just subbed to two places. I just want to hear back. I have no patience. I'm at almost three months at b@rge journl, so hopefully I'll get something from them this month.

Two "middling it" updates for me today. First, a rewrite request from "One Buck Horror" was waiting for me this morning. They read the story when it was in top 10 of Cafe Doom horror competition and although it didn't win, they see enough potential in it to want to read it again, should I choose to do the rewrites. Obviously, I will be doing the rewrites right away.

Second, I finally heard back from Washington Pastime after 25 days, and it appears they had misplaced my story. They promised to review it soon. No big deal, but it does support my policy of querying as soon as the market allows: this is the third time in the last several months that I one of my submissions had gone missing.

alexshvartsman said:

Two "middling it" updates for me today. First, a rewrite request from "One Buck Horror" was waiting for me this morning. They read the story when it was in top 10 of Cafe Doom horror competition and although it didn't win, they see enough potential in it to want to read it again, should I choose to do the rewrites. Obviously, I will be doing the rewrites right away.

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Good luck with the rewrite, Alex!

I spose i'm falling into the "middling" category right now too, waiting on 2 responses and just got a "passed onto the next round" message on a separate one a day ago (to which i wish i'd have read this thread earlier cause i was flipping over whether to reply with a thank you back or not lol)