Multiply this number times four, and you might understand what we face when we go through submissions each quarter. It is only natural that we fall behind sometimes. However, there are some writers who do not seem to understand this dilemma, and we have gotten some rude, and sometimes borderline psycho responses to the fact that we may take a while to get through our slush pile.
Important things to remember if you are a writer submitting to a magazine:
- Always follow the guidelines, remember they are there for a reason. Sometimes writers seem to think that we just decided on random rules all willy-nilly because we got a bug up our asses. No, all of the rules have a purpose behind them to help streamline the reading process
- Never call an editor a name because they reject your manuscript...this is a no-no that will not help to endear you to the writing community.
- Do not write and inquire about your work once a week for the duration of the reading period. You might inquire once after 90 days has passed, but the sad truth is that there are just two of us doing all of the heavy lifting...and since both of us work other jobs it might take us awhile to make it through the slush pile.
- Be glad if you get personal comments back about your work. Sometimes we comment because a piece almost made it into the final selection, but we felt that it was not for us. If we comment on it, we liked it. NEVER respond to our comments with emails like "what the hell do you know? My stuff is awesome." This will not help you to succeed in writing. Criticism is an important thing that a writer must learn to deal with, so do not respond to our criticism with a temper tantrum. Trust me, there will be others who will say much harsher things than us.
