Short Fiction Market Response Times (10/94)

This information is collected, tabulated, and provided by:

Greg Costikyan
304 1/2 Eighth Street
Jersey City, NJ
07302
costik@ritz.mordor.com

Major Markets

Market               Median Response  range (80%      Data
                     Time (days)      within range)   Points
------------------------------------------------------------
Aboriginal           71                46-111         20
Analog               39                25-60          28
Asimov's             64                30-92          54
Crank!               13                8-22           49
F & SF               65                25-92          76
Full Spectrum        187               115-285        18
Galaxy               86                41-143         47
Omni                 31                22-47          18
Pulphouse            37                14-121         59
Realms of Fantasy    55                23-77          47
SF Age               10                6-14           58
Tomorrow             8                 5-14           17
Worlds of Fantasy &
  Horror             24                11-43          25

Other Markets

Market               Median Response  range (80%      Data
                     Time (days)      within range)   Points
------------------------------------------------------------
"100 Little" Anths.  18                9-29           18
Alternate Hilarities 1                 1-8            23
Cemetery Dance       46                13-88          34
Century              56                40-69          21
Datlow Antho.        18                10-29          12
Dragon               25                10-49          15
Expanse              82                50-136         18
Harsh Mistress       20                13-45          14
Iguana Informer      15                6-23           12
Non-Stop             32                10-70          12
Offworld             150               56-234         14
Silver Web           17                15-60          17
Sirius Visions       47                30-60          19
Space & Time         51                18-229         23
Tales of the Unant.  14                7-36           12
Yolen Anth.          26                9-47           22

Thanks To

L. Csernica, Don D'Ammassa, Tim Esaias, Kurt Giambastiani, Ted Kriner, Lisa Purvis, Robert Rogoff, John Rosenman, Chuck Rothman, D. William Shunn, John Sparhawk, Cynthia Ward, Kate Wentworth and many others.

Time Periods

For major markets, the data in this survey comes from responses received between April 94 and October 94 inclusive. For minor markets, we use data up to a year old (from October 93 to October 94, inclusive).

Explanation of Entries

We report the median response time rather than the average, since we think this is a better measure of the response time you're likely to encounter if you submit to one of these markets. 80% of the response times in our data base for a particular market fall in the range indicated; 10% of response times are shorter, and 10% longer. "Data points" is the number of data received for that market in this survey; the larger the number, the more accurate the results.

Realms of Fantasy is the new fantasy magazine published by the same people who produce SF Age; Worlds of Fantasy & Horror is the new name for what used to be Weird Tales. "100 Little Anths" includes reponse times for 100 VICIOUS LITTLE VAMPIRE STORIES and 100 WICKED LITTLE WITCH STORIES, anthologies for Barnes & Noble. "Datlow Anth" includes response times for anthologies edited by Datlow alone, and for the YEAR'S BEST FANTASY AND HORROR anthology co-edited with Windling. Yolen Anth. includes both anthologies edited personally by Jane Yolen, and those to be published by Jane Yolen Books (but edited by others).

We do not have sufficient data to include response times for Amazing, Marion Zimmer Bradley's, or Playboy.

Analog's time improves from 53 days last survey to 39 in this one. F&SF improves a tad from 76 to 64; Galaxy turns nebulous, going from 29 last time to 86 this. Pulphouse improves from 63 to 37 with a shift in editors. SF Age holds at a remarkable 10 days. Formerly Weird Tales returns to our list with a much-improved 24 days. Alternate Hilarities's median time of 1 day deserves comment; many of its submissions and responses are via e-mail.