Submitting to The New Yorker

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Julie Worth

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Now that my fiction submission has gone substantially over 90 days, is it smart or terribly stupid to inquire after it? (I see from one website that submissions lately have been rejected in as few as 3 days, and as many as 130, with an average of 83.)

And if I do send an inquiry and don’t get a response, how long should I wait before sending another inquiry?
 

alleycat

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This is just an opinion and nothing more . . . I would say to wait a while longer.

And if you do get a piece accepted, you'll get a big congratulations from me.
 

RJLeahy

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I sent a submission on 12/15/06, and just recieved the rejection today.
 

Julie Worth

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I still haven't heard anything, so maybe that's good.

I've read that, if you make it past the gauntlet of interns, six fiction editors read the top contenders and fight over them in meetings. (A lovely picture: my story, covered with post-it notes, speckled with editorial blood.)
 

Jamesaritchie

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I still haven't heard anything, so maybe that's good.

I've read that, if you make it past the gauntlet of interns, six fiction editors read the top contenders and fight over them in meetings. (A lovely picture: my story, covered with post-it notes, speckled with editorial blood.)

Never heard that before. Last I knew, The New Yorker had only one actual fiction editor.
 

Rolling Thunder

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I never heard back from them and Spookywriter said the same thing about his submissions in a thread some where.
 

Julie Worth

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Never heard that before. Last I knew, The New Yorker had only one actual fiction editor.


When asked how stories get chosen, Deborah Treisman said, “There are six people in the fiction department . . . stories come in . . . and they get read and whatever we’re taking seriously gets circulated to all of the editors and we have a meeting once a week where we sit around and argue. Everyone writes a short opinion of the story and those get attached to the manuscript as it makes its way around. And sometimes it happens that all six of us think a story is great—that’s maybe one in 10 of the stories that get to this level. . .”
 

Rich

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I stopped submitting there about two years ago when they went to email. I sent maybe five pieces in and never got a response. Has anything changed there?
 

Julie Worth

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Don't contact them. One good thing about the New Yorker...they always respond. Just wait. That's not an unreasonable time frame anyway.

They always do, huh? Now at 5 months with no acknowledgement that they even received it, and two follow-up queries unanswered, I said to hell with it and submitted the story to the Paris Review.
 

maestrowork

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They take a long time -- they are frigging New Yorker -- so wait. They will respond one way or another.

Good luck with the Paris Review, then.
 

popmuze

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Best moment of my career so far, a full page rejection letter from Dan Menaker and Roger Angell of the New Yorker extolling my "energy, wit and wistfulness, a combination that made (the story) a great pleasure to read....your skill as a writer is so evident in the work you have sent us that we would like to encourage you to send us more...."


Of course, that was from 1976 and I've published 12 books since then. But nothing in the New Yorker...yet.
 

Jamesaritchie

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When asked how stories get chosen, Deborah Treisman said, “There are six people in the fiction department . . . stories come in . . . and they get read and whatever we’re taking seriously gets circulated to all of the editors and we have a meeting once a week where we sit around and argue. Everyone writes a short opinion of the story and those get attached to the manuscript as it makes its way around. And sometimes it happens that all six of us think a story is great—that’s maybe one in 10 of the stories that get to this level. . .”

Arrggg, I hate this. One assistant I understand, but six editors are far too many. I assume Deborah Treisman, as head fiction editor, still makes the final decision?
 

Julie Worth

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Arrggg, I hate this. One assistant I understand, but six editors are far too many. I assume Deborah Treisman, as head fiction editor, still makes the final decision?

No idea. However, she's been quoted as saying, "Someone who’s submitting themselves directly to the fiction editor probably isn’t all that savvy about publishing and probably not about writing either."

That doesn't bode well!
 

Penguin Queen

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I've read that, if you make it past the gauntlet of interns, six fiction editors read the top contenders and fight over them in meetings. (A lovely picture: my story, covered with post-it notes, speckled with editorial blood.)

I know this has now been overtaken by events, but what a picture! :tongue

Somebody should paint that, with a pile of editorial bodies indistictly visible in the middle distance, a mile or so along the gleaming table.
 

Jamesaritchie

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No idea. However, she's been quoted as saying, "Someone who’s submitting themselves directly to the fiction editor probably isn’t all that savvy about publishing and probably not about writing either."

That doesn't bode well!

I believe she said this about writers who don't submit through an agent. I was in on quite a bit of discussion about this when she first took the job. For a time, she said she wouldn't buy anything that came in through the slush system, but there was enough uproar about this that she changed her mind.
 

lostlore

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Julie, did you address it to Treisman?

I'd keep waiting, btw. Good luck.
 

Julie Worth

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Julie, did you address it to Treisman?

No. According to their website they only accept submissions by email, and that's to a generic address, though I suspect there's a back door where regulars and agents can bypass all those interns.
 
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maestrowork

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I believe she said this about writers who don't submit through an agent. I was in on quite a bit of discussion about this when she first took the job.

Ugh, but there's nothing in their guidelines about "agented submissions" only. If they don't want unagented submissions, then they should say so and save everyone time and money.
 

lostlore

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Julie, in my experience they do read & reply to that generic email address. Good luck!
 

Will Lavender

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I sent a short piece to their "Shouts & Murmurs" department in the summer of '05 and still haven't heard anything.

Nearly two years. I'm throwin' in the towel. :)
 

Jamesaritchie

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Agents

Ugh, but there's nothing in their guidelines about "agented submissions" only. If they don't want unagented submissions, then they should say so and save everyone time and money.

I know. This was something Deborah Treisman said when she first took the job. I've since heard she changed her mind because of the uproar, and has bought some stories from the slush. I heard it from a good source, so I assume it's true.

I haven't taken the time to look up all the writers who have sold stories to The New Yorker since
Treisman took over, but I think it's safe to say she does buy the occasional story from slush.

But like any high end magazine, the best writers in the world, pretty much all of whom have agents, are trying to get into The New Yorker. It is, I've heard, possible to get in through the slush, but writers with agents are, naturally, going to get first crack.
 

Susan Lanigan

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No idea. However, she's been quoted as saying, "Someone who’s submitting themselves directly to the fiction editor probably isn’t all that savvy about publishing and probably not about writing either."

? I'm not familiar with the submission rules for the New Yorker, but why in hell's blazes would you term yourself "Fiction Editor" if you don't directly deal with submissions? Who the hell else are writers going to submit to - the Coffee Machine Operator?
 

Julie Worth

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? I'm not familiar with the submission rules for the New Yorker, but why in hell's blazes would you term yourself "Fiction Editor" if you don't directly deal with submissions? Who the hell else are writers going to submit to - the Coffee Machine Operator?


The operative word is "directly." This apparently means you're not likely to get in without going through an agent.
 
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