I'm wondering if anyone here has any advice on how best to go about asking a company that you have submitted a story to, if they received it or not, and what is going on with it. My short story, Across the Hall, was sent out to two places 90 days ago. One has declined already and the other said not to contact them regarding it before 90 days had past. Now that it has, I was wondering if anyone knew the best way to handle such a request? I have sort of given up hope that they are interested since they haven't responded in so long, but I don't want to step on any toes by submitting it somewhere else when I told them that I was only submitting it to one other market.

be polite and completely factual and business like. you don't want to sound snippy, even if by accident. If it's through the post, make sure you provide a SASE for response.

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Matt:

If you have an email address, put Submission Query: "Story Title" in the subject. In the body of the mail say something along the lines of:

Dear (Name),

As per your guidelines, I'm inquiring about the story I submitted to you on (date).

Thanks,
Matty-Matt

If you don't get a response in a timely manner and wish to submit elsewhere, send a second polite email telling the editor you are withdrawing your story.

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http://www.markjustice.blogspot.com

Thanks for the help guys. I definately don't want to come off bad as I'm sure it just got overlooked or forgotten about so I appreciate the help.

Sent out the E-mail today, so hopefully I'll hear something soon. Thanks again for the help, guys.