You Ask, We Answer: Simsubs and AWOL editors
Karen asked two questions:
“How can I conquer my fear of sending simultaneous submissions? I have absorbed so many of those ominous ‘exclusive consideration’ warnings from editors over the years, I find myself paralyzed each week on Query Submission Day. I’ve managed to send one query to as many as three pubs at a time, but with the odds as they are, I’d rather be sending to eight or even more simultaneously. How can I quell that gnawing anxiety that comes from imagining two editors saying, ‘I want it!’ — clearly my fantasy life is well and thriving — and then having one of them write me off as unprofessional when I have to confess my ‘crime’?”
“How prevalent would you say non-responsive editors are these days? I’d estimate, from recent experience, that 30 percent or even more are MIA. I’m especially frustrated because I follow their guidelines exactly, including the seemingly direct, friendly ones in mediabistro’s ‘How to Pitch…’ series, making sure I target the appropriate editor, and still there are non-responders, even after the suggested follow-up. Are certain pubs notorious for their non-response? If so, how can they be identified (and avoided)? With email spam filters so stringent these days, do you think that putting links to clips or a website in pitches might flag them as messages for the trash bin? Any suggestions?”
As for your first question: I have a precise mathematical formula to help me determine when to send out queries to whom, and in which order. It looks something like this: editor x query ÷ (day of the week + how much Starbucks the editor has ingested that morning). Okay, that’s a lie.
Your decision should depend on your relationship with the magazine and the chances that two magazines will accept your article at once.
If you have a relationship with the editor at one of your target markets — say you’ve e-mailed her before, or you know her through a friend — I’d send the query to her first. If you have tons of clips and are used to getting your queries accepted, I would also send it to one editor at a time to lessen the chances of two editors wanting your story at once.
But if you’re like me when you were starting out, and you have just a few (or no) clips and you don’t have a relationship with any of the editors on your list, feel free to send it to some or all of your target markets at once. Editors frown on this — but at the same time, they can take anywhere from one to four months (or more) to get back to you — and you just don’t have the time to let every editor sit on your query for several months.
If this scares you, try sending the query to several non-competing markets at the same time. This might mean regional parenting magazines whose areas don’t overlap, for example, or Martha Stewart Living and Guns & Ammo.
And don’t forget: If two magazines do accept your query at once, you simply (1) do the happy dance, and (2) choose which one gets the bounty of your wonderfulness. The one time this happened to me, the editor who was a tad too late didn’t diss me as unprofessional; she just said, “Darn, I’m too late! Sorry it took me so long to get back to you. Please send me more ideas.” And I did end up working for that editor in the future.
As for your question about response rates, I’d say a 30% AWOL rate is about right. It was that way when I started ten years ago, and it’s still that way now that I’ve written for more than 120 magazines and have a clip file that threatens to take over my office. The best way to counteract that is to get so many ideas and queries out there that you’re not sitting by the phone like a jilted prom date, obsessing over the one editor who didn’t call. Also, don’t forget to follow up on your queries; I just heard back from an editor who was replying to a query I sent in April 2006. It seems my query got lost in her e-mail system!
Have a question for the Renegade Writers? Send it to questions [at] therenegadewriter [dot] com. [lf]
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Mar 26, 2007 You Ask, We Answer
Another way to work around this is with parallel submissions. Do some serious research, then pull three or four different article ideas from it. This lets you hit up multiple editors simultaneously, without the stress of sim subs.
I hate, hate, hate the AWOL editors! I know they’re busy, I get it, but when I look at my Excel spreadsheet and see the few that never respond…sigh.
Thanks as always, Linda and Diana, for the great responses, and for Brian’s and Rachel’s input. If anyone else out there has done the sim sub thing, I’d love to hear your encouragement — something like “I sent out 20 at once and was not smote down by the gods of publishing.” I just need cheering on. At least you’ve convinced me that my query for “Killer Centerpieces: Shotgun Shell Sculpture for Your Holiday Table” does, in fact, have two potential markets.
Re: MIA editors, even after followup, I’m both relieved and sorry to hear that it happens to the best. Lately I find myself knocking on my monitor screen, yelling, “Hello? HelLO?!! Are you really out there???” and it’s making my cat nervous.