Every writer, beginner and pro alike likes to see their work in print but simultaneous submissions, as a rule, is not the way to go about achieving that objective. Simultaneous submissions can also be defined as multiple submissions. It doesn’t matter whether you are sending the completed article or story out on speculation or whether you are querying an editor about an idea for an article or story that you would like to write, it’s not a good idea to submit the article to more than one editor at a time or to query more than one editor at a time with the same idea for a story or an article.
Some editors don’t mind receiving a simultaneous submission as long as the writer tells them that the article or story is a simultaneous submission. Many, if not most editors, don’t want to receive simultaneous submissions and will stop working with writers who are caught sending them a multiple submission. Most print publications buy either First Rights or Exclusive Rights to an article or story because they want their publication to be the only source for that story or article and how would you as a writer grant them that right if two or more editors bought your piece at the same time.
Study the writer’s guidelines for a given publication. Guidelines can be found online at the publications web site, they can be found in The Writer’s Market Handbook, they can be found in magazines like Writer’s Digest, and they can be requested by email or snail mail from the editor. Many guidelines will state that multiple submissions aren’t acceptable but if there isn’t any such statement don’t automatically assume that they are ok. Read further to see what rights the publication is looking to buy. If they buy First Rights or Exclusive Rights, then it’s safe to assume that simultaneous submissions isn’t a good idea.
Publishing online is even trickier where simultaneous submissions are concerned. Multiple submissions actually violates the site’s Terms of Use that writers have to agree to before they can publish on that site. Publishing the same article on multiple sites can get you a lot of exposure but it could also get you blackballed from many sites if caught and you will get caught sooner or later. When writing for online sites like Factoidz, Daily Article, Article Content, etc. it’s a good idea to print out their Terms of Use and keep them in a loose-leaf notebook so you can refer to them often.
When you think about it, these rules make a great deal of sense. Every editor, whether the editor of a print publication of an electronic publication, they want to present information that their readers can use and information that their readers can find no where’s else in print or on the web.
