I have a confession to make. When I am planning to submit a story for publication, I always submit to five publications at a time. I could tell you again and again how slowly some magazines respond, so I ignore (sorry editors!) the request to avoid multiple submissions. When an editor holds and then later rejects, a submission after 3 years, one learns quickly that one must look out for themselves. I have been told that they are lost, won't be retuned (after keeping my SASE), that they've been lost in the mail.

So is it unethical to do multiple submissions? No more unethical than holding a submission for a ridiculous amount of time.

I have never had a aubmission accepted by two magazines at the same time. It rarely, if ever, happens because it is quite difficult to get published in a lot of the journals to which I submit. If it does happen, I guess I'll have to suck it up and send a letter saying that I have to withdraw the story from consideration - maybe burninga bridge in at the same time, but hopefully not.