Multiple Submission
Quick answer: Multiple submission means sending several pieces to one market at once, often confused with simultaneous submission. Learn both terms and the etiquette they carry.
Multiple submission means sending more than one piece of work to the same market at the same time: three flash fictions in one envelope, two stories in one portal upload. In other words, it is many manuscripts, one destination. Writers constantly confuse it with simultaneous submission, which is the reverse arrangement, one manuscript sent to many destinations, and the confusion matters because a venue may allow one and forbid the other.
Both terms live in submission guidelines, the fine print every magazine, anthology and contest publishes. Learning to read that fine print accurately is a basic professional skill, and these two near-identical phrases are its classic trap.
The two terms, untangled
Multiple submission: several of your pieces under consideration at one market simultaneously. Guidelines address it with lines like submit only one story at a time, or up to three flash pieces per submission. Simultaneous submission: one piece of yours under consideration at several markets simultaneously. Guidelines address it with we accept simultaneous submissions, or we ask for exclusive consideration.
A memory hook that works: multiple counts manuscripts, simultaneous counts markets. Venues can hold any combination of positions. A flash magazine may welcome three pieces at once but demand exclusivity; a prestige quarterly may accept simultaneous submissions but strictly one story per writer per reading period. The only reliable answer is the guidelines page of the specific venue, read on the day you submit, because policies change.
Why venues limit multiples
Slush volume is the whole story. A magazine receiving a thousand submissions a month cannot let each writer triple the pile, so one-at-a-time rules ration reading attention fairly. Flash and short forms are the standard exception, since three three-hundred-word pieces read faster than one long story. Contests limit entries for the same arithmetic reason, and sometimes to keep judging fair; Writory's monthly contest, for instance, runs on a defined entry structure per cycle rather than an open pile.
There is also a quality signal buried here. Editors report that writers who send everything at once are often submitting instead of selecting. Choosing your single strongest story for a market, and holding the rest, is itself an editorial judgement, and venues structure their rules to force you to make it.
Playing both games well
For multiple submission: send your best single piece unless guidelines explicitly invite more, and when they do, curate rather than empty the drawer; three pieces that share a standard read better than five that argue with each other. Never resubmit a rejected story to the same market unless invited, and wait for a decision before sending the next piece where one-at-a-time rules apply.
For simultaneous submission: track everything, submit only to venues whose policies allow it, and withdraw everywhere else the moment a story is accepted. The trap common to both games is bookkeeping failure. A writer with six stories circulating across a dozen markets is running a small logistics operation, and a spreadsheet, or a submission tracker, is not optional equipment.
How contests count entries
Contests write their own arithmetic, and it pays to read it. Some allow one entry per person per cycle; others sell additional entries, each judged independently; themed prizes sometimes cap total entries rather than entries per writer. Fees usually apply per entry, not per writer, which changes the economics of sending three pieces at once.
Blind judging adds a wrinkle: where entries are anonymised, submitting several pieces is invisible to judges, so multiple entries neither help nor harm each other on merit. The strategic question is purely financial and editorial: whether your second-best story justifies its own fee, or whether that money and attention belong to next month's single strongest piece.
Whatever the rules allow, the discipline of choosing remains yours. Editors and judges see only what you send, so the writer who submits one selected piece is indistinguishable from the writer who had nothing else, and that is the professional camouflage worth wearing.
Neighbours and opposites
Multiple submission stands beside simultaneous submission, its mirror twin, and both differ from resubmission, sending a revised or previously rejected piece back to a market. Exclusive consideration is the opposite of simultaneous submission, a promise that one market alone holds the piece while it decides. And withdrawal is the mechanism that keeps the whole system honest, the formal act of taking a story off a desk when it is no longer available.
What poets can take from this
- Memorise the distinction: multiple counts manuscripts, simultaneous counts markets.
- Reread a venue's guidelines every time you submit; policies change quietly.
- Send one strongest piece unless the guidelines explicitly invite more.
- Track every live submission in one place you actually maintain.
- Withdraw promptly everywhere when a simultaneously submitted story is accepted.
- When rules permit several entries, choose deliberately; selection is part of the craft.
Try it yourself
Write a comic story about a writer who mixes up multiple and simultaneous submission catastrophically, selling the same story twice while flooding one small magazine with nine manuscripts. Let the editor who untangles it become the story's unexpected heart.
Questions
What is the difference between multiple and simultaneous submission?
Multiple submission sends several of your pieces to one market at once; simultaneous submission sends one piece to several markets at once. Venues set separate rules for each, so read guidelines for both terms.
Can I send several stories to the same magazine at once?
Only if its guidelines permit multiple submissions. Many magazines want one story at a time per writer, while flash venues often welcome small batches. The guidelines page is always the final authority.
What happens if a simultaneously submitted story is accepted twice?
You must decline one acceptance, which burns goodwill and can damage your standing at that venue. Prompt withdrawal after the first acceptance exists precisely to prevent this situation.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working poets. Updated July 2026.
Enter a Writory poetry contest
Enter the August contest and have your own poem read and scored.