I just wanted to share an anecdote about a market I submitted to. I won’t name names because I think (and hope) that they’re trying to address their problems now. But I submitted a story to this market back in June of 2009. Months went by without hearing back from them, and I queried them three times, using whatever emails I could find (since the main email address wasn’t producing a response). Eventually I withdrew the story after more than a year had passed. I know, I know – that’s too long. But I didn’t have many other markets that I was going to send it to and I thought it was a good fit.
Last week I heard, finally, from the editor saying that I should have received a response last year.
The actual rejection arrived this morning. As if it had just been written. Final elapsed time was 585 days.
I understand that editors are busy and that sometimes things are a little crazy these days, but it boggles my mind a bit.
Color me equally boggled. There are a couple of markets out there behaving this way, and I’m watching a lot of up-and-comers write them off as potential markets. “Professionalism” I think is exactly the right word for what writers and editors should expect from each other. Another one would be “respect.” My own list of preferred markets has shrunk recently because of things like this.