1. Write
2. Put one word after another. Find the right word, put it down.
3. Finish what you’re writing. Whatever you have to do to finish it, finish it.
4. Put it aside. Read it pretending you’ve never read it before. Show it to friends whose opinion you respect and who like the kind of thing that this is.
5. Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.
6. Fix it. Remember that, sooner or later, before it ever reaches perfection, you will have to let it go and move on and start to write the next thing. Perfection is like chasing the horizon. Keep moving.
7. Laugh at your own jokes.
8. The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you’re allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be a rule for life as well as for writing. But it’s definitely true for writing.) So write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly, and tell it as best you can. I’m not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.
How to Submit Your Writing to Literary Magazines
Would you like to start submitting your work to literary magazines but don’t quite know how to even begin? Or perhaps you are unsure if you are making the right first impression with editors. This wonderful guide for writers seeking to get their work into print comes from the editorial team at Neon, a UK-based literary magazine published every quarter.
If you are looking for places to submit your work to be sure to check out our latest Opportunities for Writers post or see our list 9 Literary Magazines for New and Unpublished Writers.
This article is designed to be a complete and thorough guide for anyone who is interested in having their short story or poem published in a literary magazine, but doesn’t know where to start. You’ll probably find it most useful if you’ve never sent out your work before, or if you’re just beginning to try and get published. This guide is also quite specific to literary magazines. If you’re looking to publish an article, interview, review or feature then the process is quite different. If however it’s a short story, poem or other piece of creative writing that you want to publish, read on!
Step 1: Find A Suitable Publication
The first step is to find a magazine that you’d like to be published in, and which publishes the kind of thing you write. There are thousands of different literary magazines in the world, and each has its own unique tone and style. Familiarising yourself with a magazine by reading a few back issues greatly increases your chances of being able to publish your work there – and also helps support the magazine itself! If you can’t afford to buy a copy of the magazine, many have samples available to read for free on their websites. To help you find the right magazine for your work, there are a number of resources available. Duotrope’s Digest is by far the most comprehensive – for a small monthly fee you get access to a searchable database of over 2000 different literary magazines. Ralan.com, PoetryKit and Neon‘s own list of UK-based magazines are also worth browsing.
Step 2: Read And Follow The Guidelines
Once you have found a magazine that publishes the kind of work you write, you should look for the magazine’s guidelines. These will usually be on a page on the magazine’s website, or printed in the magazine itself. By reading the guidelines you can find out things like maximum or minimum word counts, and the format in which the editor would like to receive your work. There’s some language which might be a little unfamiliar to you that crops up often in guidelines pages. Here’s a brief glossary:
Simultaneous Submissions – This refers to the practice of sending out the same story or poem to several magazines at once. A lot of publishers are happy for you to do this, but some will ask for no simultaneous submissions – if you send them your work, then you should wait for a reply from them before sending it anywhere else.
Withdrawal – If you do send your work out to several magazines at once, and it is accepted by one of them, you’ll need to withdraw it from the other markets. This is usually done by sending an email, and is covered in more detail later on.
Multiple Submissions – This refers to the practice of sending more than one story or poem to the same magazine. Some magazines want to receive more than one piece at once, while others would prefer to only read one at a time.
Reprints – Reprints are stories or poems that have been published before. Most magazines want previously unpublished work, but some are happy to take reprints.
A Note About Rights
Sometimes the guidelines will state the rights that the magazine takes to your work. Rights are not the same thing as copyright. As the creator you own the copyright to your own work by default. You can however give other people rights to do things with your work. Here’s a glossary of what different rights-related terms mean:
First – This is the right to be the first publisher to publish the piece of writing in question.
Serial – This is the right to publish the piece of writing in question in printed form in a magazine.
Online / Electronic – This is the right to publish the piece of writing in question on a website, or as an eBook download.
North American / British / World – The inclusion of a territory indicates the area in which the piece will be published. If a publisher takes North American rights, they may only publish the piece in North America – they cannot then pass it to the British arm of their organisation and publish it there too.
One-time – This indicates that the right will only be exercised once. If the publisher wants to reprint the piece in a “best of” collection they would have to seek your permission again.
Archival – This is the right to store the work and make it available in the magazine archives. This means that even when the issue of the magazine in which your work appears is no longer current, it will still be available in their archives.
Non-exclusive / Exclusive – Exclusive rights are just that – exclusive. If a publisher wants exclusive online rights, that means they want to be the only ones to publish that piece online. If a publisher specifies that they take non-exclusive rights, then they are happy for the piece to appear elsewhere as well.
Anthology – This is the right to print the piece in an anthology or collection. A publisher might ask for this right in addition to others if they are considering publishing a “best-of” collection at the end of the year.
Audio / Film – These rights are self-explanatory. Audio rights grant the publisher the right to make an audio recording – the same for film. So, for example, a publisher that asks for “first North- American serial rights, electronic rights and audio rights” wants to be the first magazine in North America to print the work, and also be allowed to publish it online and in an audiobook format.
Step 3: Format Your Work
In general, when formatting your work, you should do what the guidelines say. If the magazine would prefer work to be pasted into the body of an email, do that. If they ask for attachments, send an attachment. If they want a particular font or type size, then use that font of type size. If, however, the guidelines provided by the magazine have nothing to say about how you should format your work, you can use standard manuscript format. Rather than providing a long description of standard manuscript format, I’ll instead refer you to the expert. William Shunn is the definitive source on manuscript preparation, and on his site you’ll find easy-to-follow instructions on how to format your work. Here’s are some quick links:
Short story manuscript format
Poetry manuscript format
It may seem like a lot of work getting your manuscript looking like the examples provided by Shunn, but it’s worth the effort. It makes it easier for an overworked editor to read, and makes it look professional. Often editors will discard without reading manuscripts that deviate wildly from the formula, so it’s worth taking a few minutes to get things right.
A Few Odds And Ends
There’s an almost limitless number of different ways for magazines to accept submissions, and so you won’t always simply be sending an email attachment. Here are some guidelines for a few different situations which you might come across.
Pasting Into The Email Body
A few magazines will ask you to paste your work into the main body of the email, rather than sending it as an attachment. This is easy to do, but can cause problems.
Your perfectly formatted manuscript can end up looking a mess once you’ve transferred it to an email. To prevent this, copy and paste the text from your manuscript into Notepad (or another basic text editor). Then copy and paste it again from there into the email. This strips away unnecessary formatting, and ensures a clean and tidy result. You might need to play around with the spacing while you have the text in Notepad, but this little extra effort is very much worth the result.
Postal Submissions And The SASE
Magazines that take submissions only by post are now relatively rare, but some of the bigger magazines still insist on it. Here are some pointers for a clean, easy-to-manage postal submission. Again, if the magazine has its own guidelines on how to send your postal submission, follow those! Use the guidelines below if they don’t provide any guidance of their own.
Don’t fold the manuscript. Pick an envelope big enough to accommodate it without folding.
Don’t staple or bind your manuscript. Secure the pages together with a paperclip.
Include a self-addressed envelope. If you want your manuscript returned the envelope must be big enough, and have sufficient postage. If you don’t want your manuscript returned, then say so in your cover letter – you can then include a smaller envelope for the editor’s response only.
Submittable And The CLMP Submissions Manager
There are a few common programmes that magazines use to handle submissions. Submittable is by far the most common submissions handler in use at the moment. It’s very user-friendly and intuitive, and you only need to create one account to be able to submit to all the magazines that use it. Submittable has functionality to allow you to withdraw work if necessary, keeps track of all your submissions, and allows you to check on their status as often as you like. The CLMP Submissions Manager is the second most common submissions handler in use at the moment. Again, it’s relatively easy to use. You will need to create an account for each magazine you want to submit to.
Step 4: Write A Cover Letter
Your cover letter should be short and to the point. If you can, you should address the editor by name (look for a “Masthead” to find a list of the staff at a publication).
Mention that you’re submitting some work, and include the title, word count and if it is a reprint. Mention if you are submitting simultaneously. If you are submitting by post, the letter should be on its own sheet of paper, separate from the manuscript, and should be laid out like a proper letter. If you’re sending by email, put the cover letter in the body of the email. Here’s an example of an ideal cover letter:
Dear Mr or Ms [EDITOR’S NAME],
Please find attached for your consideration my previously unpublished, [WORDCOUNT]-word short story “[STORY TITLE]“. This is a simultaneous submission, but I will let you know immediately if it is accepted elsewhere.
Thanks in advance for your time.
Sincerely,
[YOUR SIGNATURE]
And that’s it! Simple, straightforward, clear. It’s best to aim for a relatively boring cover letter. Don’t try and sell your writing (let it sell itself), and don’t use fancy fonts or annoying gimmicks. If you like you can include a few words about how you discovered the magazine, or what you like about it in your cover letter. Steer clear of flattery though.
Your Biography
Many magazines ask for a brief biography to accompany your work. You can include this in your cover letter. A few magazines have guidelines about what they want in your bio, but most leave it entirely up to you. Generally speaking a bio should be around fifty to one hundred words long. It should be written in the third person. You can include information about where you’re from, if you’ve had work published in literary magazines before, where you have studied or what you do for a living. If you’re really stuck for ideas, grab a copy of the literary magazine to which you’re submitting and have a look at the biographies of the current crop of writers.
Step 5: Send Your Submission
Once you’ve assembled all the different parts of your submission – manuscript, cover letter, biography and so on – there’s nothing left to do but take a deep breath and send it off.
Step 6: Keep Records, Query
Once you’ve sent off your manuscript, make a note of where you sent it, when you sent it, and when you expect to hear a reply. Keeping records is essential if you plan on sending out a lot of work. It means that you won’t end up sending duplicate submissions, and will be able to follow up when necessary. One good way of keeping track is to use an Excel spreadsheet. It might take a few minutes to learn how to filter or sort your entries, but once you’ve gotten used to the software you’ll be amazed at how efficient it is. Here are a few of the different outcomes you can expect when you’re trying to get published.
Acceptance – Great! The editor liked your work, and you’ve been accepted for publication. You’ll probably have to sign a contract or agree to some terms, but you should at some point receive either monetary payment or a copy of the magazine.
Congratulations!
Rejection – Unfortunately, on this occasion, your work wasn’t right for the magazine. Don’t be discouraged. Keep writing, and keep sending your work out. Persistence is key to success.
Nothing – If you don’t hear back from a magazine, don’t take it personally. They receive a huge number of submissions every day, and some can’t respond to them all. If the magazine specifies an average response time in their guidelines you should wait until that time has passed, then send a polite email to check on the status of your submission.
A Few Final Words
And lastly, a few general pieces of advice to help keep you sane as you seek publication:
Don’t give up – It can be discouraging to receive rejection after rejection, but keep going. If you stop sending your work out, you’ll never be published.
Don’t get mad – A rejection doesn’t mean that your work is no good, just that it wasn’t right for that particular magazine. Don’t get wound up when your work is turned down.
Take criticism – If an editor offers you some feedback when they respond to your submission, you should probably listen. The fact that they took the time to respond personally is a very good sign.
Keep writing – Above all, keep writing. Keep improving the things you’ve written. Keep coming up with new ideas. That’s what this is all about, after all.
How to Submit Your Writing to Literary Magazines
Would you like to start submitting your work to literary magazines but don’t quite know how to even begin? Or perhaps you are unsure if you are making the right first impression with editors. This wonderful guide for writers seeking to get their work into print comes from the editorial team at Neon, a UK-based literary magazine published every quarter.
If you are looking for places to submit your work to be sure to check out our latest Opportunities for Writers post or see our list 9 Literary Magazines for New and Unpublished Writers.
This article is designed to be a complete and thorough guide for anyone who is interested in having their short story or poem published in a literary magazine, but doesn’t know where to start. You’ll probably find it most useful if you’ve never sent out your work before, or if you’re just beginning to try and get published. This guide is also quite specific to literary magazines. If you’re looking to publish an article, interview, review or feature then the process is quite different. If however it’s a short story, poem or other piece of creative writing that you want to publish, read on!
Step 1: Find A Suitable Publication
The first step is to find a magazine that you’d like to be published in, and which publishes the kind of thing you write. There are thousands of different literary magazines in the world, and each has its own unique tone and style. Familiarising yourself with a magazine by reading a few back issues greatly increases your chances of being able to publish your work there – and also helps support the magazine itself! If you can’t afford to buy a copy of the magazine, many have samples available to read for free on their websites. To help you find the right magazine for your work, there are a number of resources available. Duotrope’s Digest is by far the most comprehensive – for a small monthly fee you get access to a searchable database of over 2000 different literary magazines. Ralan.com, PoetryKit and Neon‘s own list of UK-based magazines are also worth browsing.
Step 2: Read And Follow The Guidelines
Once you have found a magazine that publishes the kind of work you write, you should look for the magazine’s guidelines. These will usually be on a page on the magazine’s website, or printed in the magazine itself. By reading the guidelines you can find out things like maximum or minimum word counts, and the format in which the editor would like to receive your work. There’s some language which might be a little unfamiliar to you that crops up often in guidelines pages. Here’s a brief glossary:
Simultaneous Submissions – This refers to the practice of sending out the same story or poem to several magazines at once. A lot of publishers are happy for you to do this, but some will ask for no simultaneous submissions – if you send them your work, then you should wait for a reply from them before sending it anywhere else.
Withdrawal – If you do send your work out to several magazines at once, and it is accepted by one of them, you’ll need to withdraw it from the other markets. This is usually done by sending an email, and is covered in more detail later on.
Multiple Submissions – This refers to the practice of sending more than one story or poem to the same magazine. Some magazines want to receive more than one piece at once, while others would prefer to only read one at a time.
Reprints – Reprints are stories or poems that have been published before. Most magazines want previously unpublished work, but some are happy to take reprints.
A Note About Rights
Sometimes the guidelines will state the rights that the magazine takes to your work. Rights are not the same thing as copyright. As the creator you own the copyright to your own work by default. You can however give other people rights to do things with your work. Here’s a glossary of what different rights-related terms mean:
First – This is the right to be the first publisher to publish the piece of writing in question.
Serial – This is the right to publish the piece of writing in question in printed form in a magazine.
Online / Electronic – This is the right to publish the piece of writing in question on a website, or as an eBook download.
North American / British / World – The inclusion of a territory indicates the area in which the piece will be published. If a publisher takes North American rights, they may only publish the piece in North America – they cannot then pass it to the British arm of their organisation and publish it there too.
One-time – This indicates that the right will only be exercised once. If the publisher wants to reprint the piece in a “best of” collection they would have to seek your permission again.
Archival – This is the right to store the work and make it available in the magazine archives. This means that even when the issue of the magazine in which your work appears is no longer current, it will still be available in their archives.
Non-exclusive / Exclusive – Exclusive rights are just that – exclusive. If a publisher wants exclusive online rights, that means they want to be the only ones to publish that piece online. If a publisher specifies that they take non-exclusive rights, then they are happy for the piece to appear elsewhere as well.
Anthology – This is the right to print the piece in an anthology or collection. A publisher might ask for this right in addition to others if they are considering publishing a “best-of” collection at the end of the year.
Audio / Film – These rights are self-explanatory. Audio rights grant the publisher the right to make an audio recording – the same for film. So, for example, a publisher that asks for “first North- American serial rights, electronic rights and audio rights” wants to be the first magazine in North America to print the work, and also be allowed to publish it online and in an audiobook format.
Step 3: Format Your Work
In general, when formatting your work, you should do what the guidelines say. If the magazine would prefer work to be pasted into the body of an email, do that. If they ask for attachments, send an attachment. If they want a particular font or type size, then use that font of type size. If, however, the guidelines provided by the magazine have nothing to say about how you should format your work, you can use standard manuscript format. Rather than providing a long description of standard manuscript format, I’ll instead refer you to the expert. William Shunn is the definitive source on manuscript preparation, and on his site you’ll find easy-to-follow instructions on how to format your work. Here’s are some quick links:
Short story manuscript format
Poetry manuscript format
It may seem like a lot of work getting your manuscript looking like the examples provided by Shunn, but it’s worth the effort. It makes it easier for an overworked editor to read, and makes it look professional. Often editors will discard without reading manuscripts that deviate wildly from the formula, so it’s worth taking a few minutes to get things right.
A Few Odds And Ends
There’s an almost limitless number of different ways for magazines to accept submissions, and so you won’t always simply be sending an email attachment. Here are some guidelines for a few different situations which you might come across.
Pasting Into The Email Body
A few magazines will ask you to paste your work into the main body of the email, rather than sending it as an attachment. This is easy to do, but can cause problems.
Your perfectly formatted manuscript can end up looking a mess once you’ve transferred it to an email. To prevent this, copy and paste the text from your manuscript into Notepad (or another basic text editor). Then copy and paste it again from there into the email. This strips away unnecessary formatting, and ensures a clean and tidy result. You might need to play around with the spacing while you have the text in Notepad, but this little extra effort is very much worth the result.
Postal Submissions And The SASE
Magazines that take submissions only by post are now relatively rare, but some of the bigger magazines still insist on it. Here are some pointers for a clean, easy-to-manage postal submission. Again, if the magazine has its own guidelines on how to send your postal submission, follow those! Use the guidelines below if they don’t provide any guidance of their own.
Don’t fold the manuscript. Pick an envelope big enough to accommodate it without folding.
Don’t staple or bind your manuscript. Secure the pages together with a paperclip.
Include a self-addressed envelope. If you want your manuscript returned the envelope must be big enough, and have sufficient postage. If you don’t want your manuscript returned, then say so in your cover letter – you can then include a smaller envelope for the editor’s response only.
Submittable And The CLMP Submissions Manager
There are a few common programmes that magazines use to handle submissions. Submittable is by far the most common submissions handler in use at the moment. It’s very user-friendly and intuitive, and you only need to create one account to be able to submit to all the magazines that use it. Submittable has functionality to allow you to withdraw work if necessary, keeps track of all your submissions, and allows you to check on their status as often as you like. The CLMP Submissions Manager is the second most common submissions handler in use at the moment. Again, it’s relatively easy to use. You will need to create an account for each magazine you want to submit to.
Step 4: Write A Cover Letter
Your cover letter should be short and to the point. If you can, you should address the editor by name (look for a “Masthead” to find a list of the staff at a publication).
Mention that you’re submitting some work, and include the title, word count and if it is a reprint. Mention if you are submitting simultaneously. If you are submitting by post, the letter should be on its own sheet of paper, separate from the manuscript, and should be laid out like a proper letter. If you’re sending by email, put the cover letter in the body of the email. Here’s an example of an ideal cover letter:
Dear Mr or Ms [EDITOR’S NAME],
Please find attached for your consideration my previously unpublished, [WORDCOUNT]-word short story “[STORY TITLE]“. This is a simultaneous submission, but I will let you know immediately if it is accepted elsewhere.
Thanks in advance for your time.
Sincerely,
[YOUR SIGNATURE]
And that’s it! Simple, straightforward, clear. It’s best to aim for a relatively boring cover letter. Don’t try and sell your writing (let it sell itself), and don’t use fancy fonts or annoying gimmicks. If you like you can include a few words about how you discovered the magazine, or what you like about it in your cover letter. Steer clear of flattery though.
Your Biography
Many magazines ask for a brief biography to accompany your work. You can include this in your cover letter. A few magazines have guidelines about what they want in your bio, but most leave it entirely up to you. Generally speaking a bio should be around fifty to one hundred words long. It should be written in the third person. You can include information about where you’re from, if you’ve had work published in literary magazines before, where you have studied or what you do for a living. If you’re really stuck for ideas, grab a copy of the literary magazine to which you’re submitting and have a look at the biographies of the current crop of writers.
Step 5: Send Your Submission
Once you’ve assembled all the different parts of your submission – manuscript, cover letter, biography and so on – there’s nothing left to do but take a deep breath and send it off.
Step 6: Keep Records, Query
Once you’ve sent off your manuscript, make a note of where you sent it, when you sent it, and when you expect to hear a reply. Keeping records is essential if you plan on sending out a lot of work. It means that you won’t end up sending duplicate submissions, and will be able to follow up when necessary. One good way of keeping track is to use an Excel spreadsheet. It might take a few minutes to learn how to filter or sort your entries, but once you’ve gotten used to the software you’ll be amazed at how efficient it is. Here are a few of the different outcomes you can expect when you’re trying to get published.
Acceptance – Great! The editor liked your work, and you’ve been accepted for publication. You’ll probably have to sign a contract or agree to some terms, but you should at some point receive either monetary payment or a copy of the magazine.
Congratulations!
Rejection – Unfortunately, on this occasion, your work wasn’t right for the magazine. Don’t be discouraged. Keep writing, and keep sending your work out. Persistence is key to success.
Nothing – If you don’t hear back from a magazine, don’t take it personally. They receive a huge number of submissions every day, and some can’t respond to them all. If the magazine specifies an average response time in their guidelines you should wait until that time has passed, then send a polite email to check on the status of your submission.
A Few Final Words
And lastly, a few general pieces of advice to help keep you sane as you seek publication:
Don’t give up – It can be discouraging to receive rejection after rejection, but keep going. If you stop sending your work out, you’ll never be published.
Don’t get mad – A rejection doesn’t mean that your work is no good, just that it wasn’t right for that particular magazine. Don’t get wound up when your work is turned down.
Take criticism – If an editor offers you some feedback when they respond to your submission, you should probably listen. The fact that they took the time to respond personally is a very good sign.
Keep writing – Above all, keep writing. Keep improving the things you’ve written. Keep coming up with new ideas. That’s what this is all about, after all.
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