When I first started learning how to submit fiction, I recall these terms confusing me. For a while I naively thought they were the same thing.

Understanding the difference can save you from annoying an editor or getting your story rejected before it’s even read.

Simultaneous Submissions

A simultaneous submission means sending the same story to more than one market at the same time.

Example: You send your short story The Last Robot at the Party to:

• Magazine A
• Magazine B
• Magazine C

All three markets are considering the same story simultaneously.

This is common and fairly handy because response times can be long for some markets (I just checked Analog on the Submission Grinder and they are averaging 90 days for a rejection and 140 Days for an acceptance).

However, not every market allows this.

Many submission guidelines will say something like:

“Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but please notify us immediately if the story is accepted elsewhere.”

If a magazine does not allow simultaneous submissions, it means they expect you to wait for their response before sending the story anywhere else.

Some editors dislike simultaneous submissions because if they spend time reading and deciding on a story, only to find it has already been accepted somewhere else, their effort was wasted. You don’t want to be remembered as the person causing them this kind of grief.

I actually do not submit simultaneously just to make my submission record keeping easier. I tend to have a lot of stories out at one time.

Multiple Submissions

A multiple submission means sending more than one story to the same market at the same time.

Example: You submit three different stories to the same magazine:

• The Last Robot at the Party
• My Neighbor’s Wife’s Time Machine
• How Not to Build a Dragon

That’s a multiple submission.

Some markets allow this. But many, if not most, restrict writers to one story under consideration at a time.

A typical guideline might read: “Wait until you receive a response before sending another.”

Editors often prefer this because it keeps their submission queue manageable. In my experience, I think it is also a tool for keeping overzealous writers at bay, particularly if they are turning out bad fiction in short order.

The lesson here is to always follow the submission guidelines.

Editors include those policies for a reason. Ignoring them signals that the writer may also ignore other instructions and be someone who is hard to work with, which is certainly not the impression you want to make.

Simultaneous = same story, different markets.

Multiple = different stories, same market.

Maintaining that distinction will help you look like a Pro to editors.

-James