Living the Fictional Dream

It is so hard sometimes to know when it’s appropriate to query an editor. I’ve been around long enough to know the basics — when you submit a story, you can query if you haven’t heard anything in the amount of time specified in the submission guidelines. And, if there is no time frame in the submission guidelines, the best rule of thumb I’ve heard is to query after three months. Of course, those last few days ticking down to the expiration of the time limit can be excruciating!

What’s really killer is when you query after whatever timetable you think is appropriate and don’t hear anything back. It’s even worse when it’s a market that you really wanted to be involved with.

When I don’t hear anything after a few weeks to a month, I usually query one more time, but at that point I usually go ahead and start submitting the piece elsewhere. To me, if the non-repsonsive market still wants my work, they can always let me know, and if someone else accepts it in the interim, the first market was just too slow. I do always send a final email officially removing the story from their reading queue.

Though, sometimes, I don’t know how markets go through their emails, because I’ve officially withdrawn the rights to a story (in just this type of circumstance — I’d received no response on queries and someone else accepted it) and received a rejection (no mention of any of the other emails) on the story weeks later.

But, there are other query circumstances that boggle my mind. For instance, what if an ezine isn’t launched on schedule and you never hear from the editor about when it will actually be released, if ever? I’ve had markets fold after accepting my story before — it’s not a good feeling being in limbo. But how long do you give the market before withdrawing your story?

It’s probably a personal judgment call at that point. To me, as long as the editor is responding to emails, I’m OK with delay. It’s when there’s no response and no news that I’m tempted to start marketing that story again. And, of course, at this stage of the game, you’ve got to read your contract before you start marketing a story again. A lot of contracts do have clauses in them about how long the market has to publish before rights revert.

It’s probably also smart, in the above type of situation, not to bombard the editor with queries every day that it’s late. I always try to reign myself in and only query about a fourth of the times that I have the urge, if not less. I know my story isn’t utmost on any editor’s mind, even though it’s my primary concern. But waiting can be so hard!

So, queries can be a tricky business. We must walk that fine line between being professional and still standing up for our own rights.