Subs

So, it seems more and more apparent that yet another market I submitted a story to has faded into oblivion. I've lost count of how many times this has happend in the past few years. This time, it's Flashing Swords, one of the last few venues for sword and sorcery fantasy. The editors had declared that it was turning to an annual market, as opposed to quarterly, and opened to subs. That was about 8 months ago, and there has been radio silence since. Nobody has heard back about their submissions. And the editors have not responded to repeated queries. Translation: dead.

So I recently submitted the story to an anthology that's accepting over at Pulp Empire. We'll see what happens. What really pisses me off is the silent treatment. Look, if you're publication is having trouble, fine, it's a horrible economy to be running any kind of magazine. But just tell the writers who are out there twisting in the wind. We shouldn't have to figure out on our own that you've gone belly up.

In other news, the author/writing that has been holding onto stories for her Wolfsongs II anthology has made another reference on her blog to the fact that she is actually going through the submissions. So her earlier post was not, in fact, a one time thing, which gives me hope that the story I sent in about 3 years ago may actually see print. Yes, these are the things that keep me going.

However, this brings up a tricky question. A couple months ago, I was thinking about my Wolfsong story and decided to have another look at it since I hadn't read the thing in several years. I cleaned up a lot of grammar and sentence flow, and I think it reads much smoother now. So what do I do with it? Do I send it back to the editor and just say, excuse me, thought you might like this one a tad better? Do I wait to see if it's accepted and then offer it up? What's the ettiquette here?