![[Black hole in NGC4261]](http://www.critters.org/blackholes/ngc4261.gif)
While many Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror magazine and book publishers respond to submissions in a timely manner, many don't; and sometimes their response times are at odds with those stated in their guidelines. Which is to say, when writers submit a manuscript to an editor, they often feel like they've launched it toward a black hole.
These pages are an attempt to locate verifiable response time data as well as "horror stories" for markets that have kept (or are keeping) manuscripts far longer than one might consider reasonable. (Credit the idea to Sharon Lee, former President of SFWA.)
Authors are encouraged to drop by to get a handle on how long to expect a manuscript will be at a given market (and, perhaps, get a sense of when to query). There is also some hope that this public knowledge will encourage editors to speed up their responsiveness, or at least alter their guidelines to match their reality.
Authors are also asked -- nay, begged -- to report their own response times. This helps everyone. (Note that only paying markets are tracked.)
Remember, you may have to reload this page if you've already looked at it. (Last update: Sat May 17 20:20:34 MDT 2008; data range from 1/1/2006 to present.)
Click name of market for raw data specific to that market.
Please report problems to Andrew Burt (current VP of SFWA).
[* nnn] = Maximum time listed as "still waiting"; waiting times are not used in computing averages.
If you have a response time to report, click here.
If you'd like to see the raw data, click here.
If you want to read about magazine markets that may have vanished, go here.
Speculations is an excellent source of market information and includes min/avg/max response times.
If you want to read nice things about editors and publishers, go here.
If you're looking for a workshop/critique group so you can nudge some of your rejections toward acceptances, Check out Critters.