eimarra | Falling through the cracks?

I'm in no hurry to court rejection, but I have to wonder whether I should follow up on a submission. I submitted a story via e-mail to Jim Baen's Universe just about the same time they were switching to the new submission system--beginning of May. The link to their new system didn't work, and I noted that in my e-mail. I received a response that said:

We'll be handling your current submission by e-mail, but we'd like to ask you to send future submissions through the above address. This will allow you to track the current status of your submission online: when you think you may not have received an e-mail from us, you can just click a link that we'll send you to check.

Responses on story submissions are currently taking two to ten days. If you have not received a response within four weeks, feel free to inquire.

So it's been almost six weeks. Should I inquire? As I said, I don't want to court rejection, but I do want to know that the submission didn't get lost as they changed over their system.

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I'm not sure how to interpret that except to say it looks like it was not outright rejected, and is even now pile-mates with Kiyoshi's younger, more impetuous self.

In which case you're probably halfway through your wait, but I'd email as suggested to confirm.

I'd inquire. I don't think it's courting rejection; that's just writerly paranoia there. You'll probably get back one of several answers:

1. Oops, we lost it, please send again

2. Yes, we got it, and it's being considered.

3. Yes, we got it, and we're just that far behind.

4. We already sent you a rejection. Didn't you get it?

At least those are the ones I've had so for. Except for number two.

Yes, it's writerly paranoia. Just thinking of Mar's recent incidents of following up, and it being case 1 -- followed by a quick "No, thank you."

*sigh*

Okay, I'll send them an e-mail Monday.

Well, yes, but in her case all that meant was they looked at it quickly after she resubmitted. I took it as a courtesy that they looked at it right away after keeping her waiting for so long.

Hi Erin,

One of Universe's slush readers here.

Please do enquire. If you submitted to the submissions address six weeks ago, you should have received a reject, a rewrite request, or a "we passed your story up to our editor" by now. (The oldest story currently in the system that's waiting for a decision from us -- as opposed to a decision from the editor -- is from May 24th.)

The response you quote is an auto-response that the system sends for each incoming mail, so at least your mail got to our servers, but it was probably lost after that. Perhaps it got stuck in a spam filter. Or perhaps the computer gremlins ate it. I honestly have no idea.

Feel free to attach your story to the inquiry, then we'll enter it into the system if we can't track it down :-)

All the best,
- Benja Fallenstein

Hi, Benja.

Thank you so much for your feedback. I'll follow your advice. :-)

Best,
Erin

Good! ;-)

Just wanted to let you know that even though as of today we're closed for submissions (see the note here (http://baensuniverse.com/submit.cgi) -- we've bought stories for a whole year already and it's a little to early to plan year two), we're of course going to handle your submission now, if you want us to, since you clearly submitted before we closed. Just go ahead and send it. (Be advised that if we forward it to our editor, it will just sit in the pile for a couple of months until we lift our buying freeze, though. Sorry.)

All the best,
- Benja

We had serious email problems on or around the time our servers were crashed by a massive denial of service attack.

Please simply mail paula goodlett and she'll be happy to check for you.

Rick Boatright
head geek
Baen's universe

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By all means inquire