Okay. You finish your first SF short story. It's great, exciting, wonderful. You address the envelope to "Dear Mr. Editor," put the story in the mail (with a SASE, right?), and wait anxiously for a response. Weeks pass. Perhaps a couple of months. How long does this guy take to read the story and buy it? Is he on an extended vacation? After an eternity, your story finally returns, with a form rejection letter. Maybe a cryptic little note is scribbled in the margins of the slip.

Welcome to the world of short story markets and submissions. One of the most frequent questions beginners have, when they realize that response times at the major SF magazines are generally eight weeks or longer, is: "Can I submit my story to more than one magazine at a time?" This is known as the "simultaneous submission," and is the literary equivalent of the form fundraising letter, or "spamming" on the Internet.

The answer is generally: "NO, DON'T SIMULTANEOUSLY SUBMIT."

And why not?

The answer is simple. What would you do if you simultaneously submitted a story to two different magazines, and one of the editors actually wanted to buy the piece? You would then have to withdraw the piece from the other magazine. And what if that other editor wrote back and said, "I would also like to buy this story. Would you reconsider?"

What are you going to do then, start a bidding war? That would be the most certain way to nip your fledgling career in the bud.

When magazine editors say they don't want simultaneous submissions, they mean what they say. It's frustrating to complete a story, mail it out, then wait many weeks for a response. What's the solution? Write more than one story. Have several stories circulating around the magazines. That way, no single story and its response time is apt to become a problem.

Some SF magazines have extremely long response times. CENTURY magazine is a good example, with waits of between six and eight months as the norm for most writers. Other magazines, such as SF AGE and TOMORROW, have very short response times, usually no longer than a couple of weeks.

Each editor has his own approach to over-the-transom submissions. Some seem to let stories pile up; while other magazines employ first readers. If your story is passed on by the first reader, it automatically lengthens response time. Still other editors will open the mail daily, and read and decide upon each piece on that very day, or very shortly thereafter. It's all a matter of individual choice.

I've heard some writers say, "I'll never submit to so-and-so. He takes so long to respond." That's another good way to curtail your new career. If you admire a magazine and feel that your story is a good match for the market, then by all means, send the story to the editor, regardless of the response time. After all, is a quick "no" better than a slow "yes?"

Another area of confusion is "multiple submissions." "Multiple submissions" is not equivalent to "simultaneous submissions." If you make a simultaneous submission, it means you've submitted the same story to at least two different magazines at the same time. If you make a multiple submission, it means that you've sent more than one story to the same magazine at the same time. Many editors like to see just one story from one author at a time. Some editors, like Gardner Dozois, specifically discourage multiple submissions, while others, like Kristine Rusch, encourage them. This is a case where knowing your markets and doing research is important.

Keep in mind that the most popular commercial SF magazines receive about 1,000 submissions a month, which translates to 50 stories a day, each and every working day of the month.

And what should you do when those rejection letters come? Keep in mind that Steve Perry received 300 rejections in his first year of writing. He is now a successful novelist. Steve reported that Andre Norton received 70 rejections before she sold her first short story. The average number of first-time author rejections? About 50. One famous story is that "Carrie" was rejected 25 times for first-time novelist Stephen King.

Keep writing, write to the best of your ability, and develop a good, solid portfolio of writing if you hanker to be an SF short story writer. Also, keep in mind that no one ever got rich writing short stories in any genre. As long as you are consistent, persistent, and treat editors and the magazines in which you wish to publish with the same courtesy and respect with which you would like to be treated, that magical contract will one day arrive. Everyone says that first sale is a moment you'll never forget. I hope it happens to each and every one of you.

Copyright © 1995 by Amy Sterling Casil. All Rights Reserved.