Who takes simultaneous submissions?
Yet another author just sent us an annoyed note about how awful we are for not taking simultaneous submissions. In the note, the author claimed that we're one of the very few magazines that still adheres to that antiquated approach.
I knew that wasn't true, but I thought it might be interesting to check up on the current state of the field in this regard. And I was actually a little surprised by what I found.
The unsurprising part is that, of the SFWA-qualifying short fiction venues, most that make a statement on the issue continue to explicitly disallow simsubs, including the following:
- Analog
- Apex
- Asimov's
- Clarkesworld
- Dark Wisdom
- Dragon
- Fantasy Magazine
- Flash Fiction Online
- F&SF
- Realms of Fantasy
- Strange Horizons
The surprising part, to me, is that there are venues do explicitly allow simsubs—though even these allow them only if the author marks them as simsubs (which most simsubbing authors, in my experience, don't):
- Beneath Ceaseless Skies
- Chizine
- Pedestal
The other venues on the SFWA list either don't explicitly say whether they take simsubs or not, or don't have submission guidelines anywhere I can easily find them.
However, it's traditionally been true that the default in the sf short-fiction world is to not allow simsubs unless the guidelines explicitly state that they're allowed. So I would assume that all the venues that don't explicitly allow them won't consider them.
So although I was wrong in thinking that no professional sf magazines take simsubs, I was right that there aren't many that explicitly allow them.
PS: Before you post a comment telling me that we should start taking simsubs, please read the abovelinked explanation of why we don't.
