Going Through Withdrawl

So, a few months ago (three, to be precise) I submitted a short story to an online publication, and I was very excited to receive a response.  This story was honestly one of the best pieces I've ever written (in my not so humble opinion).  While I wasn't confident, I was hopeful that it would be accepted.

Unfortunately the time it took them to reply just seemed to stretch out longer and longer.  Two weeks went by, and I reminded myself that submissions can take a while to get back to you.  Four weeks went by and I started to wonder if they had even managed to get my submission, or if I had typed it in wrong.  Six weeks went by and while I didn't forget about the submission, I started doubting that I would ever get a response.

Then they started putting up posts about how behind they were in their publishing efforts.  The first issue was put up about two weeks late, and the second was a month past when it was supposed to be out.

I can understand that they were having problems.  They didn't expand on what the problems were, but it didn't seem like it was making their lives any easier, so I sympathized.

Unfortunately their problems didn't seem to go a way.  Every issue brought about new challenges that they could never quite overcome, and in the end they decided that they were going to take a couple of months off and after which they were going to change from putting out an issue every month to every other month.

Finally they gave us permission to withdraw our submissions, as up until this point they had a no multi submissions rule, so my story was stuck waiting for something from them.

Anyway, the point of this story is that I ended up withdrawing my submission.  This wasn't a decision I came to lightly, but after 95 days of waiting for a reply, I decided that it was time to try to bring this story to another publishing company.

I think I'm going to look for an anthology for it.  First, though, it's going through my critique group to make sure it's as good as I think it is.

It's back to the  submitting drawing board for me, but I'm still hopeful.  It's a great story, and I would love to see it published.  Can't wait to see if I get to one day see it in print.

Are you planning on submitting anything?  What stage is your writing in?