Fantastic Stories is back

Thanks!

They're very fast with returns, as well. Of my three submissions there so far, I got two back in under 3 days each, and am still waiting for the last one at around 40 days (which supposedly means it's gone to the second round).

They're very fast with returns, as well. Of my three submissions there so far, I got two back in under 3 days each, and am still waiting for the last one at around 40 days (which supposedly means it's gone to the second round).

Yeah, I'm at 26 days. Duotrope says the average is 4.4 days, which is a great turnaround.

Good luck on the story you're still waiting for.

They're very fast with returns, as well. Of my three submissions there so far, I got two back in under 3 days each, and am still waiting for the last one at around 40 days (which supposedly means it's gone to the second round).

Yeah, I'm at 26 days. Duotrope says the average is 4.4 days, which is a great turnaround.

Good luck on the story you're still waiting for.

You too! Anything past five days seems to mean it's been passed up past the slush.

Well, I sent my first story to them. A WotF reject from a couple of quarters ago. I almost changed my mind when I saw how long it was--I had forgotten--since they say the longer the story the better it has to be. I have enough problems with shorter stories being written well enough, but with their fast turn around time I decided to go for it.

But I didn't see anything about cover letters or I just plain missed it three times. Do you guys send them too? Most want them but some give the option these days.

Well, I sent my first story to them. A WotF reject from a couple of quarters ago. I almost changed my mind when I saw how long it was--I had forgotten--since they say the longer the story the better it has to be. I have enough problems with shorter stories being written well enough, but with their fast turn around time I decided to go for it.

But I didn't see anything about cover letters or I just plain missed it three times. Do you guys send them too? Most want them but some give the option these days.

Just checked. I sent a cover letter, but I don't think it matters that much. A lot of places don't even read the cover letter until after they've read the story.

S C Baker - your submission must be over the max waiting time by now (6 weeks). Might be worth shooting them a query.

I'm just a squeak over 6 weeks, but am content to wait until I see the next batch of longer-than-5-days rejections go out on Duotrope. (I don't seen anything in the 10+ range for the past month, which suggests to me that there's an editorial hold-up somewhere.)

I sent a cover letter, but I always do unless the market explicitly says not to. Like TR, I don't think most markets really care these days.

Mind you, here's my standard cover letter in its entirety:

Dear [Magazine Name],

Please find attached my [wordcount]-word story, "[story title]."

My fiction has been published in [three most recent publications]. (Sometimes I leave this out altogether.)

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

[name]

You might have already gotten your responses, but the Submission Grinder is reporting 39-48 day responses. So, they might be reading the second round--I too am waiting for a 30+ day submission.

You might have already gotten your responses, but the Submission Grinder is reporting 39-48 day responses. So, they might be reading the second round--I too am waiting for a 30+ day submission.

Still no response here, but can see 52, 49 and 38 day rejections in Duotrope.

Must be getting close.

Based on my unscientific analysis (stalking their Grinder page), they seem to do second round rejections about every two weeks. If you're over 10 days or so and didn't hear back yesterday, it will probably be a couple weeks.

Also they changed their query time from 6 weeks to 8.

Based on my unscientific analysis (stalking their Grinder page), they seem to do second round rejections about every two weeks. If you're over 10 days or so and didn't hear back yesterday, it will probably be a couple weeks.

Also they changed their query time from 6 weeks to 8.

I was hoping that since this set of long responses took a bit longer, they would clean out the backlog, but I guess not. It's good to know that they extended the upper end of their response time, though.

I got my 45-day rejection on Tuesday. It was essentially a form rejection, but one that confirmed I passed the first reader. Ah well!

I got my 45-day rejection on Tuesday. It was essentially a form rejection, but one that confirmed I passed the first reader. Ah well!

Oh, Stewart! So sorry to hear that. They seem to be a pretty tough market. Don't see a lot of acceptances. I've got nothing but straight rejects so far, but I ain't givin' up!

I got my 45-day rejection on Tuesday. It was essentially a form rejection, but one that confirmed I passed the first reader. Ah well!

Bad luck mate. My rejection must be coming soon, I guess. At 33 days now.

They've got a 0% acceptance rate on Duotrope, so not an easy market to crack.

Keep expecting to hear about mine any day. I usually get the first rejects so mine won't take long.

I will be sending more stories--I got all types, except for hard SF and cyberpunk.

But as a side issue. I was thinking today that I wished I had a story to send to F&SF. But I thought I do...the one I just sent to Asimov's. And Q4's tale whenever it comes back.

They've got a 0% acceptance rate on Duotrope, so not an easy market to crack.

The acceptance rate is 0.31% on the Submission Grinder (I saw one acceptance logged there in September).

They seem to have stopped responding to longer submissions again for the moment, so perhaps we will have to wait until the next second round clean out.

I guess I spoke too soon--I just got a 35-day, it's-good-but-not-what-I'm-looking-for rejection

34 Day rejection. "...quite good, but not what I'm looking for."

34 Day rejection. "...quite good, but not what I'm looking for."

Those are the worst. I responded by submitting another story

Mine came tonight too. Three days.

At least they said try again. FlashFiction didn't even say that. Of course I'm not sure if they ever do.

But tomorrow I need to decide on the next story to Fantastic.

34 Day rejection. "...quite good, but not what I'm looking for."

Those are the worst. I responded by submitting another story

Always the best response.

Five days. Also a 'Try again.' This was an old story reworked and it maybe can't be salvaged. Hard to know when all you get is a form rejection.

I'm at 14 days now...so it's looking like I might have finally gotten past the form rejection barrier.

Still haven't decided what story to send in next--too worked up on NaNo, but if I have a good week maybe I will take a a bit of time to send in another story to Fantastic and IGMS and one or two others. I can now send my last WotF reject to F&SF too. I sent it to IGMs, but they only took half as long as usual for me. So are they getting faster or do they know my writing by now and know what to expect?

43 days, and just got my first personal reject from these guys. Please do try me with your next, the editor said.

Hmmm. They seemed to have changed a couple of things since I last submitted--or I wasn't paying attention.

They have no max for a word count but they only pay for 3,000 words? Or did they lower their max to 3,000 words?

BY the way: I didn't notice if anyone else has said this but their first issue is free.

http://www.fantasticstoriesoftheimagination.com/store/products/fantastic-stories-of-the-imagination-august-2014-219/