What's the deal with Threepenny Review?

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michaeloppen

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We all wait months or perhaps forever for a magazine to accept or reject a story. That's the way it is... But something odd is going on at Threepenny Review. I submitted a story on June 4. It e-mailed the usual form rejection on June 6. That was quick, I thought. I sent another story on June 8. The rejection arrived on the 10th. That's even odder, I thought. A story I sent on the 16th came back on the 18th. Now I'm really puzzled. I'm following their guidelines; I submit through their online site; they accept submission till the end of June. If I wrote the editors and received assurance that someone had read my story, I wouldn't feel better. Is anyone else having this quick turnaround?
 

Polenth

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According to their page on the Grinder, they seem to be a fast responder: http://thegrinder.diabolicalplots.com/Market.aspx?mid=177

Don't read anything into it, other than they reply quickly. It doesn't mean the story hasn't been read. Just that they're good at keeping their submission queue down to a manageable level. The market who takes a month to reply doesn't give your story any more time. They just have a backlog of submissions, so it takes them a month to look at it.
 

Abderian

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I looked up their response time on Duotrope. Two to four days is standard, nothing to worry about.
 

dantefrizzoli

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It normally takes a while, it should be normal- since many submissions are sent in but maybe there is a contact or support email or number where you can communicate with them if needed.
 

Jamesaritchie

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They practice reading stories as fast as they come in. It's really this simple. If they ever get so many submissions that this is impossible, response times will increase. F&SF has always had a very fast response time, compared to other magazines, and it's for the same reason.

Rejections, of course, are usually a lot faster than acceptances because most rejections are instantaneous, and many acceptances require a lot of thought, sometimes time to see what else comes in, and often more than one opinion.
 
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