Writing etiquette question

[nonionay]

So I've written a short story which I'm going to submit to a market with a May 15 deadline. May 15 is also the deadline for a workshop I'm participating in, and I was thinking of submitting the short story to it as well. The market says they'll report in a week if they're holding or rejecting a story. The workshop's in a couple months. I suspect it will get rejected, but what if it isn't? Would I be a bitch, making people crit a story that just got sold? ...even though it probably won't sell?
I might be able to churn out another short story for the workshop, since I don't have anything else ready at the moment.
Should I submit the story to both, or should I suck it up and write another short?

Comments

[csinman.livejournal.com]

You should suck it up and write another short, and then decide which one you'd rather have critiqued.

Even if it sold, if there were slight changes you may be able to interest the editor in a slightly stronger version of the same story. I think it's only rude if you ask people to put hard work into something you know you won't change.

[saycestsay.livejournal.com]

This actually happened to me from the other side recently. This amazing story came through the workshop and with just a few tweaks and reconsiderations it could have been an award winner, in my opinion. Found out a week later that it had previously sold to a high-profile magazine.

As an editor, this upset me for the loss of potential and as a writer/critter it pissed me off for the waste of time. The story won't be edited; my input, my time spent reading and evaluating and considering was wasted before I even read the story.

So... yeah, write another story. You need to write more anyway ).

[quantumage.livejournal.com]

I agree with both of the above, BUT:

If you don't finish your second story, change the names of the people and places in workshop version of the first story to protect the innocent magazine version.

Wear a ridiculous but believable false mustache to the workshop. This will not only throw them off and distract them from asking questions like "Hey, didn't I read a story like this in X?" but will also really throw them for a loop and open up your opportunity to observe all kinds of amusing awkward side glances and interactions as they wonder if the stache is real, or if you are really a woman or just an effeminite man with boobs, or perhaps transgender. For bonus points, feel free to flirt with the person you make the most nervous.

Change the perspective or POV of the first story and see if it gets a good or bad reaction, or if someone says, "I think you need to change the perspective or PoV."

Give your return crits as an interpretive dance. Again, distracts them from asking uncomfortable questions or feeling upset at reading something that may be published already. If this seems to be failing terribly, stripping is always a last resort (not that I condone such actions in a workshop. But I have managed to get most of my more em-bare-ass-ing pictures removed from the interweb, so hopefully no lasting repercussions).

Randy