The Hardest Part

It's Coming Today...

This week Roland Goity, editor of LITnIMAGE, received an 1186 day form rejection from the Notre Dame Review. 1186 days is over three years. A quick look at my own submission history reveals that I’ve only had a handful of publications take longer than a year and a half to reject or accept me and that’s out of hundreds of submissions.

I asked Roland about the wait and he said he wondered, “Is my story still alive? Are the editors at ND feeding it, letting it rest? Or are they torturing it, letting it endure a slow painful death?” Most people probably know the feeling. The waiting. Fortunately Roland’s story was actually published a couple years ago by Watchword Press.

Roland’s journal, LITnIMAGE, responds much faster, normally within two weeks. He says he generally only submits to journals that respond within 90 days.

I don’t keep tabs on how long a journal takes to respond, but I’m a fan of simultaneous submissions and I usually send a story to 10-15 journals at time, which has me withdrawing submissions more often than not.

In Roland’s case the lag in response time was extreme, but how long before you assume a journal isn’t going to respond? How long before you check that little box on Duotrope that says, “Lost/Never Responded?” And how did the Notre Dame Review keep up with Roland’s SASE for over three years?

– Brandi Wells