Submit story just before deadline?

April 20, 2009 9:10 AM

I would like to submit a short story to literary journals whose reading period ends April 30. Obviously, they will receive the story just before deadline. Am I wasting my time and opportunity doing this? Should I wait until the submission period reopens, usually September or October?
posted by uans to writing & language (9 comments total)

As long as it's before the deadline, it should be considered fairly. If it doesn't get selected, are there any rules against submitting it again, in the new submission period?
posted by hermitosis at 9:12 AM on April 20

following hermitosis, would you be negatively judged if you submitted a second time, assuming it's allowed?
posted by billtron at 9:17 AM on April 20

You aren't wasting your time at all. Many journals don't even start serious reading of submissions until the reading period ends--during the announced reading period, the interns sort the manuscripts and maybe make a pass through for the obviously not-ready-for-prime-time ones (the ones with poor mechanics {grammar, syntax, etc.}, the ones which aren't appropriate for the magazine {20,000-word space operas for a lit-fic venue with a 5,000-word limit, etc.}, the ones that are obviously crazy wish-fulfillment, and so on).
posted by Sidhedevil at 9:33 AM on April 20

I know that many of these journals don't permit more than two submissions during any calendar year. I guess I would worry that in re-submitting a story the name of the story might be recognized and just off-handedly dismissed--"oh, that thing again"
posted by uans at 9:39 AM on April 20

I would like to submit a short story to literary journals whose reading period ends April 30.

Make sure that the journals are okay with your simultaneously submitting to them if you're only sending out one story.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 10:13 AM on April 20

I guess I would worry that in re-submitting a story the name of the story might be recognized

Not a chance, unless this is a very new journal. Most well-established journals and mags get thousands of submissions each reading period.
posted by Sidhedevil at 10:17 AM on April 20

Not a chance, unless this is a very new journal. Most well-established journals and mags get thousands of submissions each reading period.

I actually mentioned this question to my MFA cohorts tonight. They read slush for subtropics, and while we do get tons of submissions, someone actually recalled that she read the same (previously rejected poems) twice after someone resubmitted them, and she remembered them from the first time. So it is possible, though probably unlikely, that you could get "caught", so to speak.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 8:53 PM on April 20

I do wonder about this. There is only one fiction editor listed for Salamander, for example. I never thought that she and she alone did all the reading, but I wonder how many people would be working for her, shovelling out all that slush?
posted by uans at 5:10 PM on April 21

At the risk of a derail, it really depends. At our magazine, our poetry editor reads only what the five or so grad students have sifted out for her. But Kevin Prufer at Pleiades recently visited my school, and informed us that their two poetry editors read everything, without the help of grad student slaves. And supposedly Poetry's one poetry editor reads everything as well. So yeah, to bring this back on the rails: I wouldn't double submit your story to the same market if it's been ignored/rejected once. There are plenty of fiction markets out there--it shouldn't be hard to just find another.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 5:30 PM on April 21