Depends on what you mean when you refer to authority sites. Yahoo and Dmoz cost to get into and those that you will find listed on this forum are not only dear but they have in been better shape on better days.
Everybody says DMOZ is free, but they didn't want to list me. Probably because is not so free. Some people get 4-5 links there, I didn't get even one. Who shold I pay ?
I've submit also my site to DMOZ for past a month and until now They don't enlist my site. Maybe this is a part of their time interval for reviewing site.