Tips for Submitting Your Work

Every week, I send out my work to other journals in hopes that someone will pick up a poem or a story and publish it in their journal. On average, I send out to at least ten places a month. When people ask me how I get published, I try to explain to them that sending your work out should be more like a game, like a fun thing you do, letting go of any worry of rejection. Rejection is BOUND to happen, but so is acceptance, as long as you send, send, send. It’s like being a traveling salesman. You go door to door in a neighborhood, asking each person to purchase your vacuum or your magazine subscriptions, and you know that if you make it to at least twenty doors, then one person or two might give you money (and this can go up on those days that are out of character and people are just extra nice). It’s the same with submitting. You have to keep sending your work, your BEST work, and wait till the circumstances are right. The right person WILL read your work at the RIGHT time. Here are some hopefully helpful tips, rules I follow weekly (and when I am really in the mood, daily!).

1). Keep track of your submissions. I don’t care how you do this, but being unorganized can really get you in a lot of trouble. For example, a journal picked up a poem of mine once and I couldn’t find the version I had sent to them. So, I had to send them a newer version, hoping they would accept the revisions. They did – luckily. What I do now is save each submission in one file – and then I save it under the journal name and the date the submission goes out. This is so helpful. As soon as I receive a rejection, I can edit the submission as I please and send to another journal.

2). Don’t just send to any old journal. I think it’s really important to acquaint yourself the best you can with journals that seem to be a good fit for you and your work. How do you find journals that fit you? There are many websites for writers, created just for this purpose.

http://www.duotrope.com/ and http://www.everywritersresource.com/literarymagazines/

These two websites will allow you to browse lists of journals, to head over to the journals’ websites, and read archives of work – so you know for sure if it’s a good place to send your own. Most editors have a particular style and you can only find that out by looking and poking around their websites. If you need to, order older issues. See who has been published in them and what they tend to publish the most of. See if you are a good fit.

3). Go ahead – simultaneous submit.

I know – some people are gritting their teeth right now. So many journals actually ask you to not submit any part of this submission to other journals. Here is what I think – If you only get a few acceptances for every 10-20 places you send your work, then how likely is it REALLY that two places will pick up the same poem? I find it highly unlikely – unless it’s the best poem and you know it and that’s why you want to send it to multiple places until someone picks it up.

Another reason to go ahead and simultaneously submit – it takes forever for editors to respond, understandingly. I have work that has been out for 240+ days. If I wait an entire year for someone to respond, then couldn’t I possibly get it into another journal, possibly faster?

It also depends on if you are sending to a place that’s your number 1 pick – if you only want those poems in that particular journal, then only send to that journal. But I am warning you – you can fall in love with your own work like that, saying to yourself that this journal is the only one good enough for you, that THIS poem ONLY belongs in one place. Think of it this way – tomorrow you are going to write another poem you will love, and the next day you will write another one. Don’t be so choosey that certain poems only belong in certain places. Be picky enough that you get in a journal you find respectable and dependable, but don’t assume all your work belongs in the New Yorker. You are going to grow as a writer and have more opportunities to submit to the awesome journals you imagine being in one day. So strive for them, but don’t get stuck there now, while you are still growing as a writer.

Overall, it does really depend on your work and the journal’s aesthetics. Just withdraw a poem if it does, by chance, get picked up somewhere else.

4). Be wary of newer journals who haven’t been around for a very long time. At the same time, don’t send them your sub-par work, either. A problem newer journals have is that some people see it as an opportunity to send anything or everything, not work that has been polished, cleaned, and is top notch. How else will newer journals get up there unless writers offer them their best work?

5). Make your cover letter as SHORT AS POSSIBLE. Your cover letter should include only a few things: Address it to the editor’s first name (if you can find it on the website), include the title(s) of the pieces you are submitting, and include a very short third person bio. Your final line should simply say: Thank you for your time and consideration.

Editors don’t want to know that you wrote your poem because your dog had to be put to sleep, or that you have sent these poems out to many places and are frustrated that no one has picked them up. We don’t want a life story. This isn’t to be mean, but it’s just that a submission should always speak for itself. In your cover letter, be short and compliment the editor on a good job in their last issue, or point out something you read in their issue and liked. Make it about the journal, not about you.

6). If you are submitting poetry follow these rules: Begin each poem on a different page. Use size11-12 font, and Times or Arial or Courier – nothing fancy. Do NOT center your poems. Unless the journal asks you, do NOT put your name on any page except the cover letter. Make sure the title of the poem is the same size and font as the poem itself. Whatever you do, make it as plain as possible. Remember, what we are looking for is a beautiful poem, not one that simply LOOKS pretty.

Think of formatting as though it’s for an English teacher. A teacher has to read about thousands of words a semester, and the main reason for asking for uniformity is so that the teacher can easily read each paper, without the strain on her eyes and without a change in her grading routine. This is pretty much the same reason with journals – uniformity helps in the reading process and it helps when it comes time to creating the journal itself. If the submissions already fit a particular format, it’s that much easier to move over.

This reminds me – read directions on submitting very carefully. Often, if you don’t follow the directions as precisely as they have them, your submission can be deleted without you even knowing about it. This is really important – because if you wait months and months to hear from them, you may think the journal is irresponsible. Following directions can be a deciding factor on if your poems are even read.

7). HAVE FUN why don’t ya? I know so many people who shy away from submitting to journals. Self-esteem issues are a major reason – no one wants rejection. But, is it really rejection? I like to see a letter of decline as saying “Not at this time.” It’s an opening to send my work somewhere else.

I used to open rejections in the bathroom and toss them immediately in the trash. The bathroom trash I saw most fitting because it’s kind of the grimiest place in the house, right? I know people who save every rejection letter. This, to me, is like carrying around a big box of self-hatred. Don’t hold on to such negativity. Save rejection letters that are helpful, humorous, or too weird to toss out. All others, throw away. Keep acceptance letters. Post these to the wall above where you write. Remind yourself why you do this in the first place.

Also, as a writer, you need to have some ego. You need to love your own work just enough to know that someone somewhere will also love your work – you just have to find them. It’s like soul mate searching in a way. You know when a poem is good, when you feel it inside of you and when you read it aloud. Send that poem. Send it because you didn’t write it just so it could sit in a file on your computer. Send it because language is meant to be shared and because you are writing to tell your story. You want to be heard.

If someone says no, then shake it off, realize that person wasn’t “it” and move on to the next one.

Submitting to journals can be a game – I have colleagues who see who can send to the most places in a certain time period, and they even get money involved. Put a boot in a writer friend’s butt and submit things together at the same time – if it makes you feel less alone, less scared. Get together a writing group and set a goal of sending out to three places a month and whoever doesn’t do it has to buy a round of drinks. Make it a game and make it fun. Don’t worry about technology and its effect on the process – it makes it easier in many cases. But there are still some snail mail journals out there, holding on to a great past that is fast moving beyond us. Who knows where we will be in five years.

In the meantime, submit your work so that the world has a chance to read it.