5 Things I Learned After Submitting to Literary Magazines for 3 Years
A list I wish someone had given me when I started sending out work.
In 2020, just weeks before the pandemic ravished us, I had decided I was finally going to send some of my poetry to literary magazines. After sitting on work for a few years, my friend Rod bluntly told me “it’s time.”
So I listened.
I did what most people do: I searched on Google. Then I searched Twitter for literary magazines, and began to read their guidelines. There are already tons of articles on reading mastheads — we’ve even done that here, during the Think in Ink MailChimp era (see Auntie Says circa 2020).
I won’t rehash old points, but I will tell you about the lesser known things I’ve learned from personal experience. Without further ado, here are five things I learned after three years (1,148 days to be exact).
1 - Some magazines have FREE submission opportunities for paid contests/prizes specifically for BIPOC writers.
Take advantage of this y’all! Here are some publishers I know for a fact waive fees for BIPOC writers:
2 - MAGAZINES CLOSE. You cannot predict which ones.
Websites are not cheap to maintain. Lit mags are at fork in the road when starting up. If they charge fees they may be called inaccessible. This doesn’t even account for if the mag is run by volunteers or paid editors and readers. In other words, it’s on the mag to sustain itself.
To cover your you know what, I suggest you screenshot any poem you publish on a website. You can compile those screenshots into a doc file and save the file as a PDF at the end of the year so you have a portfolio and proof your work was published.
3 - This is a numbers game. In the beginning it is good to send work out far and wide, especially to get your name out there.
Research the mags of course, and find the ones that excite you. The more you send out work, the more likely you are to get an acceptance (at least in the beginning).
4 - Embrace rejection. Seriously.
One of the first goals I had in year one of sending out work was getting to the 100 rejection club. By owning the negative, it often adds humor to the process.
Then you can aim for the 500 and 1,000 club or whatever silly metric you do to make it fun.
5 - Just because one magazine rejects you, doesn’t mean the work is not good or publishable.
I’ve had work rejected by lesser known magazines that were accepted by widely read print journals (and vice versa).
At the end of the day, the most important thing to do is have fun! If you lose sight of that, it can deeply affect your writing process.
Trust yourself and do what feels natural to you. Happy writing, and good luck with your submissions!
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