Wednesday 1 May 2019

Magazine acknowledgements and responses.

With the following magazines you should get an automatic acknowledgement for your submission –

The Weekly News
My Weekly (market closed to new writers and don't forget to use the new address as I just did!)
that's life! (in Australia).

These (I believe) will acknowledge receipt manually, usually within a few days –

Love Sunday
YOU (but they're currently closed to submissions)

These I don't sub to, as they take all rights, so don't know whether they send acknowledgements – if you do, please say in the comments and I'll update this post.

Woman's Weekly

These magazines don't usually acknowledge submissions –

Allas
Yours
Your Cat
The People's Friend
In The Moment
Spirit and Destiny (sometimes acknowledge)
Prima
Woman's World
Ireland's Own

These will reply, often after several months, with either an acceptance or rejection  –

The People's Friend
Take a Break / Fiction Feast (market closed to new writers)
Love Sunday
Spirit and Destiny
YOU (but they're currently closed to submissions)
Woman's Weekly 

These don't send rejections, so you'll only be contacted if your story is accepted.

Allas (they do sometimes send rejections, but not always)
Prima
In The Moment (they do sometimes send rejections, but not always)
Woman's World
Irelands Own (they do sometimes send rejections, but not always)
The Weekly News (they state that if you've not heard within three months, you're free to submit elsewhere).
that's life! (they state that if you've not heard within six months, you're free to submit elsewhere).

If you have anything to add, or your experience has been different, please say so in the comments and I'll update this post.

btw, I never refer to myself as 'womagwriter' so if you see that name in use anywhere, it isn't me. I didn't invent the term or name this blog – that was Kathleen McGurl, but I don't think she uses it herself now.

17 comments:

Lindsay said...

I did submit a story to In the Moment but never received confirmation or a rejection. Assume the latter. I may try them with another story and if I get a confirmation may re-submoit the first.

Keith Havers said...

I've just had a response to some stories I sent to The People's Friend in December so they're a few months behind. But they do sometimes have a binge read so they can catch up.

New Girl on the Block said...

Thanks so much for doing this, Patsy - it's really useful to have a list where we can see at a glance what the different magazines do.

I've had acceptances from Yours, Your Cat and Spirit and Destiny - but no acknowledgement of receipt from any of them.

Yours took 5 months to reply, Your Cat only a couple of weeks, and Spirit and Destiny 3 months (after a gentle reminder).

Anonymous said...

I, like Lindsey, also submitted to In The Moment but never received confirmation or rejection. Maybe I'll try them with another story, too. I know you had some luck with that particular mag, Patsy - well done! I've had a few acceptances off Allas, a few rejections, and a number of stories with no response.

Good wishes

Kate Hogan

Patsy said...

@ Lindsay and Kate – I'll update the list to show In The Moment don't always respond.

@ Keith – Thanks for the info. Peply times do seem variable with TPF, but they do always reply and try to explain their reasons if it's a rejection.

@ New Girl – Thanks for that. I'll update the list.

carrie said...

Useful info, thanks Patsy. Yours have sent me a rejection after many months - weirdly even tho I've emailed the story, I get a hard copy thru the post that has been printed out. I haven't subbed to them for months now.
Woman's World normally send one automatic response that they have received your story, but thereafter they don't. I think one can send to other places after four months but I'll try and check. Think they take all rights but, again, not 100% certain, as their guidelines indicated only North American rights for 6 months. I believe that may have changed.

Anonymous said...

It seems that Woman's Weekly have started using single quotes for both speech and thoughts. They tried this when the old fiction team were still in residence and it was as popular as dog poop on Christmas cake with their writers. The eds fought those in power to change it back to double for speech and single for thoughts. I doubt anybody will fight for anything this time. Readers will be confused. I know I am by this terrible decision.

ShootMeNow.

Anonymous said...

Update - Apparently they're also using italics for thoughts in the WWFS June issue. So they have two different formats now in the same magazine. I wonder if they've even noticed?

ShootMeNow.

Anonymous said...

Whatever happened to the beautiful magazine that was once Woman's Weekly Fiction Special - the lovely stories that touched on the literary at times; the wonderful artwork that was a joy to behold - especially if it was created around one of our own stories. So sad.

wannabe a writer said...

What a great blog post. Thanks for the info.

Elizabeth McGinty said...

Thanks Patsy, great info. Can I also remind people (me :-0) to ensure they put the correct postage on subs. I had a foul up recently, lesson learned!!

Patsy said...

@ Carrie – Thanks. I'm not sure about WW USA rights requirements either. I'll try to check.

@ ShootMeNow – TAB like single quotes for speech that doesn't seem to have caused a problem. Mixing up the formatting will though! They need to pick a method and stick to it.

@ Anonymous – I haven't seen it lately. Has it changed a lot?

@ Wannabe – thanks

@ Elizabeth – good point. It's probably best to take them to the post office and have them weighed and checked for size if we can. Editors are unlikely to want to go to the sorting office and pay excess charges!

Lizzie Ann said...

Thanks for this, it's really useful to have an updated list of who we can send work to if we have never published before.

Anonymous said...

What about submission letters to The People’s Friend? How do you write those? Can you send it by email as well?

Patsy said...

@ Lizzie Ann – glad to be of use!

@ Anonymous – Good question about what to put in a covering letter – I'll do a new post on that. As for submissions to The People's Friend, these must be sent by post.

Sallyh said...

Hi I got the fastest rejection ever from Woman's Weekly, posted in London on Friday morning, response email received the following Monday morning. Not sure if anyone actually even read it lol. At least I don't have to hang around for months until I can revise it and submit it somewhere else.

Patsy said...

@ SallyH – Although obviously not what you wanted, a quick rejection is much better than a slow one. I expect they did read it – I imagine editors have to decide very quickly these days.