Last Updated on July 6, 2023 by Nathaniel Tower
Sending off your writing to be considered by one of your favorite publications can be both exciting and nerve wracking. On the one hand, you are proud of your work and couldn’t imagine a better home for it.
On the other, there’s the intense fear of rejection. Having that dream publication tell you your story isn’t good enough can be a crushing blow to your writing self-esteem.
But as bad as rejection is, there’s something that’s even worse:
Silence.
When months and months go by and you still haven’t heard the fate of your writing, it’s enough to make you want to throw your typewriter (or whatever you use to write these days) out the window.
So what do you do with all the anxiety that builds up while you’re waiting to hear back from a publisher? Let’s explore ways to cope with an in progress submission and talk about when you can confidently accept that you’ve been rejected.
What to do when you’re waiting to hear back about the status of your submission
After you’ve submitted your work, the first thing you should always do is make sure you’ve logged your submission. Whether you submitted via email, postal letter, or electronic submissions manager such as Submittable, it’s important to keep track of where and when you sent your work.
Using a good system for tracking your submissions will help you keep your sanity and prevent you from some common pitfalls of less organized writers, which might include:
- Sending the same work to the same publication more than once
- Sending out the same piece to too many venues, including some that don’t accept simultaneous submission
- Submitting to the same publication too frequently
- Submitting work that keeps getting rejected and clearly isn’t ready for publication
Additionally, by using a simple submission tracker like this free Excel template, you can keep track of your submission stats such as acceptance rate and typical wait times. This data can help you fine tune your submissions process and understand when a piece is likely to be accepted or rejected.
Finally, you can use this data to remind yourself when to follow up with a publisher who hasn’t responded to your submission.
If it’s been a really long time (which is a relative term, of course), you might want to reach back out to the publisher to inquire about the status of your submission. This isn’t always appropriate, so you need to make sure you are following both the unwritten and the written rules.
With a simple calculation, you can see exactly how long your story has been in progress, and you can compare that to the publication’s standard response rates on Duotrope or Submission Grinder. Never query a publisher before your submission has been out for consideration for at least a few weeks outside of their typical response range.
As a side note, every writer should either have a Duotrope or Submission Grinder account. This will give you great insight into the acceptance rates and response times of almost any magazine. Additionally, this gives you an opportunity to report your stats, which helps other writers understand where they stand. Finally, these websites can really help you sell your stories.
Let’s take a look at what response time might look like on Submission Grinder:
If you submitted to the magazine above, you would typically expect to hear back within 40 days (and much faster if your story is getting rejected). But one person appears to have waited 254 days to get a response.
So when should you ask about your submission status?
I generally recommend waiting at least 3-4 months before inquiring about your status. However, that can quickly change based on what the publisher actually says. In some cases, a publication will provide clear guidance regarding when it’s acceptable to ask about the status of your submission. For example, a publication might say not to query about your status until at least 30 days after you submit. Other publications might say not to query them ever. I’ve even seen some examples where publications tell you to assume a non-response is a rejection.
But don’t be too eager about this either. If the publication says to wait 30 days, you shouldn’t hit them up on the 31st day to demand an answer. Instead, give them a few extra days and then make sure you are courteous and patient in your response. It’s a good idea to reference when you sent the piece, what the title is, and how you are reaching out per their policy regarding query time.
Of course, it’s not always necessary to ask about the status of your story. Sometimes, the signs are all there and you just need to accept that it’s time to move on.
Signs you’ve been silently rejected
We wish it didn’t happen, but it unfortunately does quite frequently. Our writing gets rejected without anyone ever telling us.
I call it the silent rejection.
It’s happened to every writer, and nearly every publication has done it at some point (although it’s often by accident).
Here are a few signs that you’re never going to hear back from that publisher:
- They have a high no-response rate on Duotrope or Submission Grinder
- You’ve been waiting well beyond their average response rate times (ex. If their average time is 60 days and it’s been 120 days, you probably aren’t going to get a response)
- You’ve been waiting for longer than the maximum response timeline on Duotrope or Submission Grinder (keep in mind that these are self-reported, and people aren’t always honest – when I managed Bartleby Snopes Literary Magazine, we occasionally had people report 300+ days for response time even though we always responded within 30 days)
- The publication is marked as closed or on hiatus
- The publication doesn’t have any recent activity on their website or any social platforms
- The publication has a 0% acceptance rate
- The publication clearly indicates on its website that a non-response is the same as a rejection
On the flipside, here are some instances where a long delay in a response is not a guaranteed rejection:
- The publication is seasonal or has specific windows for responding to submissions
- The publication has an inconsistent response time and a very wide range (for example, if a publication typically sends rejections in 7 days and acceptances in 250 days)
- The publication averages a much longer response time for acceptances
Regarding that last point, an acceptance does not automatically become more likely as more time elapses. If you look at Duotrope statistics regarding response rates, you’ll often see that acceptances take less time than rejections.
What to do when you’ve received a silent rejection
Once you’ve figured out the publication is never going to respond to you, it’s best to update your submission tracker spreadsheet to indicate a non-response. You can also report the non-response to Duotrope or Submission Grinder. You don’t necessarily have to withdraw it formally, but it’s easy enough to do through Submittable if that’s where you sent the piece in the first place.
If you sent your work via email or post mail, that takes a little more work on your part. For an email submission, a simple withdrawal request email will suffice. Resist the urge to be snarky. Just reply all to your original submission email and let them know you’ve decided to withdraw the piece from consideration.
While you have no obligation to withdraw your writing, it’s usually best at least to make an effort. Here are a couple scenarios that might play out based on your decision to withdraw or not:
- The publication might realize they never responded and provide some feedback, encourage you to submit again, or even send you an acceptance. While that may seem far-fetched, I’ve seen it happen before. A publication accepted a story of mine after I withdrew it for a non-response. They indicated they had lost my submission but really enjoyed it. Was it a pity acceptance? I don’t think so, but the story was published either way.
2. If you don’t withdraw, the publication might eventually send you an acceptance. In some cases, you may have already gotten an acceptance elsewhere. Now you look like the jerk for not withdrawing a story that was accepted elsewhere. That publication will probably not want to see more work from you in the future.
Of course, the most likely scenario whether you withdraw or not is that you just won’t hear back from them at all. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do your part.
Final thoughts on non-responses
In a perfect world, every publication would respond to every submission with personalized feedback. And they would do it very quickly.
But the world’s not perfect. A lot of publications don’t pay their editors much (if anything). Maybe publications don’t have the resources to respond to every submission. Some publications aren’t organized enough to keep track of everything. And a few publications are just poorly managed and don’t really care about the writers.
When you don’t get a response to your submission, don’t panic. Instead, look at the stats and measure the likelihood of getting a response. Feel free to query if their guidelines allow it. And remember to withdraw it if you feel like it’s been lost for good.
By following these simple steps, you’ll come to terms with your silent rejection and feel a little better about yourself as a writer.
What are your thoughts on silent rejections? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments.
