December submissions?

[Robinne Weiss]

Is there any point in submitting anything to anyone in December? My husband brought this up the other day, as he's an editor for a scientific journal, and is absolutely swamped in submissions every December--everyone trying to get things off their desk before the holiday. The result is that those submissions don't get the same sort of consideration that submissions at other times of year get, and are more likely to be rejected.

I also note as I'm looking at magazines for a short story I've finally polished, that many close submissions for the month of December.

Anyone have experience with December submissions? @AgentPete --any thoughts? Is it better to submit now, or wait until the new year?

 

[Nicole Wilson]

I have seen agents say that December is as good as any time to submit, just expect a longer response time. I don't have personal experience with it, but I guess I will soon. I've got a few I need to submit this weekend.

 

[Stephen Drake]

When you submit, it takes a while for the person to get to your submission. It could take a month or more, depending on how busy that particular person is. I'd say submit all you want to. If they are busy, they'll get to it when they get to it. If they aren't busy, then it could be the thing that keeps them from being bored. What have you got to loose?

 

[Alistair Roberts]

What Stephen said, makes sense and you'll be in the post Xmas, first off the ranks shelf lol

 

[Robinne Weiss]

What Stephen said, makes sense and you'll be in the post Xmas, first off the ranks shelf lol

Either that, or my submission will have wine and Christmas pudding spilled on it at the annual holiday party

 

[Paul Whybrow]

It depends how the agency or publisher works, and even how much physical and hard drive space they have to play with. I read a chilling posting on one literary agent's blog, where she told of her time as an unpaid intern in her early days in publishing. She was instructed by her boss to physically clear the office of piles of manuscripts to create floor space for the Christmas office party. These weren't shredded (too much work),but dumped in the paper recycling—ending up who knows where? Any email queries older than two months were erased.

I don't know how common this practice is, but it shows how our submissions can be seen as obstacles to be eliminated, rather than golden opportunities for literary acclaim and income generation.

 

[Alistair Roberts]

Yikes!

 

[Emurelda]

Well that's a rude awakening! lol being cleared out for the new year. *sigh*

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Yeah, that's exactly what I fear. Some higher-up telling the lackeys they have to finish going through the submissions on their desk before the holiday, and so the lackeys just whip out a ream of rejection letters without looking at the submissions. That's basically what happens at the journal my husband edits--they have a policy that they'll respond within X amount of time, and the board insists that they stick to it, so when a slug of submissions come in, they don't even send them all out for review, because they know there's no time to do it, and reviewers will refuse to do it at this time of year (all peer reviews are done on a volunteer basis), because they're also trying to get papers submitted to other journals before they leave for vacation...

 

[Stephen Drake]

Yeah, that's exactly what I fear. Some higher-up telling the lackeys they have to finish going through the submissions on their desk before the holiday, and so the lackeys just whip out a ream of rejection letters without looking at the submissions. That's basically what happens at the journal my husband edits--they have a policy that they'll respond within X amount of time, and the board insists that they stick to it, so when a slug of submissions come in, they don't even send them all out for review, because they know there's no time to do it, and reviewers will refuse to do it at this time of year (all peer reviews are done on a volunteer basis), because they're also trying to get papers submitted to other journals before they leave for vacation...

You always have this sort in any business and the reverse is also present. My point was, it takes us little time, comparatively, to do a submission so why not do it anyway? I mean, what are we really out? A little time is all. And who knows, we might get lucky.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

I can't help thinking that by the end of a long year assessing queries for their worth, any agent is going to be jaded. They might be full of enthusiasm and energy come the new year.