Murky Depths

[kizilkaan]

I just wondered what experiences  people have had with MURKY DEPTHS ?

They seem to be hard working and ambitious but I have heard rumours that they are slow to respond, do not give constructive feedback and tend to be a bit mercurial .

Anyone  out there who has submitted material to them ? and how was it?

[Lucifal]

I'm interested to hear responses to this too.

We can't be perfect all the time. Queries sometimes get lost amongst the wealth of mails we receive - we know they shouldn't, but occasionally they do. We try to give constructive feedback, or at least a reason why we have rejected a story, but it's not our intention to upset anyone so sometimes it's best not to say too much.

And I also wonder why you were wondering. Have we failed to respond to a query? No one should fear a rejection and you might just hit the happy, quick-responding phase of our Mercurialism.

[Richmond Clements]

I'm interested to hear responses to this too.

We can't be perfect all the time. Queries sometimes get lost amongst the wealth of mails we receive - we know they shouldn't, but occasionally they do. We try to give constructive feedback, or at least a reason why we have rejected a story, but it's not our intention to upset anyone so sometimes it's best not to say too much.

And I also wonder why you were wondering. Have we failed to respond to a query? No one should fear a rejection and you might just hit the happy, quick-responding phase of our Mercurialism.

How long, in general, would someone expect wait for a response?
It is, after all, terribly bad for to mail a follow up query!

[Lucifal]

Maybe an average of five submissions a day doesn't sound much but they can soon mount up, hence our current hiatus from submissions to catch up on our back log. Our guidelines suggest querying after six weeks. In an ideal world we'd respond to everyone within a day or two - a quarter of rejections are dealt with that quickly.

I seem to remember chasing up an interview . . . so we're not alone . . .

Scripts often get turned around quicker.

[Bolt-01]

Out of curiosity, Lucifal- do you let folk submitting know that you have received their submission or do they have to wait till you've read it?

I know that for FQP, Zarjaz & Dogbreath I make sure that every submission is replied to in order to letfolk know that the submission is received. It might take us months to get back with feedback but I have a record of every 'open' submission and when it was received.

Just curious as to how other folk work it.

[Lucifal]

Everyone gets an automated response to say we have received their submission, but not a personal one.

[kizilkaan]

It was mentioned to me in a  conversation that somebody had been waiting for over a year to a response to a submission .After emailing you guys  a few times and still not receiving a reply he gave up .

[Lucifal]

I can understand your concern. I won't claim it couldn't happen. Without knowing who the query relates to I can't give a specific answer. Happy to look into it, though it sounds like it's too late in this instance.

[Richmond Clements]

It was mentioned to me in a  conversation that somebody had been waiting for over a year to a response to a submission .After emailing you guys  a few times and still not receiving a reply he gave up .

To be fair- these things happen in even the biggest publishing houses.

I seem to remember chasing up an interview . . . so we're not alone . . .

Haha! Touche!