Sometimes it is necessary to withdraw a submission from a publisher. This can be because the story was accepted as a greater collection of work at another publisher or for ‘creative differences’ (which can include a wide variety of things). Having said that, today I formally withdrew my novelette ‘All In the Line of Duty’ from Suspense Magazine. This 13k word story was in their possession since September 2009 and after repeated promises by the editor to find an issue (the last promise was the March issue, which is now out and it wasn’t included) to place it in, I had to take matters into my own hands and withdraw the accepted submission.
For those of you that might be in the same position, you have to carefully weigh the pros and cons of such an action. As for my case, there’s something even bigger in the works for the novelette…and a few more of my short stories.
Good Luck and Stay Tuned!
Ty Schwamberger 