For some years, Greg Costikyan has been compiling a bi-annual survey
of short fiction market response times. Essentially, a bunch of people
forward, either via street or e-mail, their data on how long SF&F
magazines and anthologists take to respond to short story submissions;
and, twice a year, he compiles the results, reporting median times,
range, and number of data points. The results are published in the
SFWA Bulletin and The Report, a small
writers' magazine. I also post them on GEnie and in
rec.arts.sf.written. And now they are archived here.
"Many short story writers seem to find the data useful; at least it gives them some idea how long they can expect to wait when they submit a story to a particular market."
This information is collected, tabulated, and provided by:
Greg Costikyan
304 1/2 Eighth Street
Jersey City, NJ
07302
costik@ritz.mordor.com
"I depend on data from others to compile these response times. If you'd like to help, copy your own records and send them off to me at 304 1/2 Eighth Street, Jersey City, NJ 07302, post them on the SFRT on GEnie, Cat 30, Top 6, or e-mail to costik@ritz.mordor.com. It's most helpful if you list by magazine, indicating length in days between each submission and response, and month of response -- but I'll take data in whatever form is most convenient for you. Please note any sales, unless you'd rather not."
For major markets, the data in the survey comes from responses received between April and October inclusive. For minor markets, we use data up to a year old (e.g. from October 93 to October 94, inclusive).
Back up to Writing Resources, or the Speculative Fiction Clearing House
Last updated 10-Oct-94 by John Leavitt (jrrl@cmu.edu)