How do you decide which literary magazines to submit to?
And associated best practices based on my personal experience and what other writers have said
I remember the first time I submitted an essay to a literary magazine. I did my due diligence and perused the magazine shelves in my university library to make a list. The problem was, of course, that the library only subscribed to the top-of-the-line lit mags: the Paris Review, Granta, Sport Literate, and the like. Even seasoned writers can’t get published in those magazines, so what were my chances?
I had the good sense to not submit my ~700-word personal essay to any of those top-tier magazines. My essay was fine, good even (according to my editor, anyway), but not the kind you see on, say, The Point.
So, the first thing I had to do was look for which literary magazines are out there accepting flash nonfiction submissions from a total newbie. And boy, that was one hell of a tedious job!
My next move was to figure out which of these magazines would publish a good but not an imma-die-it’s-so-fucking-great memoir/essay. Of course, I had no way of knowing for sure, but after some digging, I made a list of some 20 magazines where I thought my essay would “fit.” It was a mix of what I presumed were somewhat-hard-to-get-in to should-be-relatively-easier pubs.
Here’s what happened after:
I submitted to all 20-ish magazines on the same day and waited. A month went by. Then I started getting some responses. I got four consecutive rejections. Then a fifth magazine—Porter House Review—reached out with an acceptance. I promptly said yes to their proposal and proceeded to withdraw my essay from all the other remaining publications.
Fun fact: Porter House Review was one of the somewhat-hard-to-get-in pubs on my list based on its meager ~4% acceptance rate (according to Duotrope). Not bad for a first-timer, eh?
All in all, things worked out for the best.
So, here’s a list of takeaways from my own literary magazine submission/publication story, which will be the foundation for today’s talking points:
Writing your story,
Finding literary magazines,
Figuring out where your writing belongs (a.k.a. making a shortlist), and,
Finally, submission best practices that I learned over time.
FYI, this is part of my “Literary Magazine” series. You can find a full list of posts on this series here:
1. Writing your story
Tell you what… few people can make a living with creative writing. So why even try, eh? Why not do this out of passion for the art first and then think about money?
The reason I say this is because of some very problematic tropes going around among a few albeit loud writers who also happen to teach writing: Write the kind of stories that your contemporaries are writing because that’s the stuff that gets published.
This makes no sense to me….
It’s one thing to read to learn the craft of writing, and honestly, there’s plenty to learn from old writing. Some of my favorite books that I’ve learned so much from are Literary Journalists by Norman Sims, and Hunter S. Thompson’s Gonzo Papers (a set of four books), all published in the late 70s and 80s.
Anyhow.
These are the scenarios I’ve encountered as a follower and observer of this industry:
Those who make real money through creative writing alone do so by writing mega best-sellers. And if you read those best-sellers, one thing you’ll notice pretty quickly is that their writing doesn’t fit a mold. So why even bother trying to emulate what your contemporaries are writing?
A break often comes to those who cultivate their unique style and aren’t afraid to stick to it, nurture it, and refine it. (On that note, may I suggest Haruki Murakami’s Novelist As A Vocation? It’s pretty great even if you do not write novels and only write essays and short stories.)
The vast majority of really amazing creative writers do not do this as their main J.O.B. And if it isn’t paying the bills, then why bother mimicking others just for the sake of getting published?
I know publication is important. Heck, I spend way too much time these days writing and trying to get published for little to no money because it is important! And it is important because I do not make any money, so the only validation I have is a publication.
Without it, my well of creativity would dry up and wither into oblivion. Not kidding, guys; it’s a fact.
But wouldn’t you rather be published for writing that represents you and not some BS this-is-what-everyone-else-is-writing?
Again, I’m not an authority in this field quite yet, but none of my accepted submissions so far—my first lit-mag essay on Porter House Review, my argument that there’s nothing wrong with acknowledging that erotica can be a piece of fucking art on Splice Today, my zombie story that’s coming out sometime this Summer, and another creepy AF story coming out sometime in the Fall/Winter—was born out of trying to write the stuff that typically gets published.
I wrote the stories that I believe only I could write because they came from my heart. And then I tried to find publications that may be willing to publish them.
The best part? So far it has worked just fine!
Takeaway?
Write what you want to write. Period. After you’ve written your piece, find publications where it might fit. Not the other way around.
Unless, of course, a magazine asks you to write something for them, but that would only happen to seasoned writers. If you’re that writer, then you’ve subscribed to the wrong newsletter, my friend! 🙃
2. Finding literary magazines for your writing
No matter how you go about it, this is one of the most tedious processes ever!
The thing is, there’s no shortage of lit mags. A lot of indie magazines are started and run by just one person or a tiny team of literary nerds. Heck, even I am considering creating one!
My point is, how do you even decide which pubs to submit to when there are soooo many options?
Everybody knows about the New Yorker or the Paris Review. But when you’re brand new, it will take nothing short of a lucky fluke to get accepted by one of those magazines.
Don’t let it stop you from submitting, of course. If you love your story and want to see it in one of the top-tier magazines, then the only thing you can do to make your dream come true is submit it, right? So yeah, go ahead and do that.
But make sure to submit to other pubs too… just in case (and that “just in case” is going to be the case for a vast majority of you because that’s just how the world works.)
Here’s what I say: your goal should be to make a shortlist of 20-30 magazines for a single piece of writing, especially when you’re just starting out and nobody knows who the fudgebiscuit you are.
Now, how do you find those magazines?
Consult lists
Lists are… annoying. But useful.
The good news is that once you’ve gone through these lists, painstakingly, it’ll be easier the next time you’re submitting.
It sucks the first time though….
Remember how I said that your shortlist should have a variety of publications? Basically, depending on your confidence level, you should have 0-5 top-tier pubs, 10-15 mid-tier pubs, and 5-10 relatively easy to get into pubs on your shortlist.
Now, writers make lists based on a variety of things: which magazines get nominated for Pushcart? Best of the net? Best small fiction? Best microfiction? Etc. Me? I consult the Best American Essays and the Best American Short Stories. They come out every year and I’ve been buying them for the past few. These books have a notable mention section at the end which is where I get tons of ideas. (This year’s Best American Essays were divine, FYI.)
But, I do have a few other sources:
Brecht De Poortere has a list of literary magazines. Download it!
Brevity has a list of pubs that accept flash nonfiction. Beware, not all of them are still around. A sad fact about lit mags, not many stay open longer than a few years at most :(
Duotrope and Chill Subs are good places to find pubs too. Chill Subs, especially, is pretty cool. Their pub finder tool is free to use and you can use some cool filters to find pubs that accept fiction, nonfiction, vibes, and other parameters.
Submittable’s “Discover” tab is another great place to find publications that are open for submission.
And of course, the notable mentions from the Best American series.
Lastly, snooping around and seeing where other writers publish their work.
On that last point, I’ve found Twitter to be a great place for finding indie magazines. I have started following writers and publishers, and I’d often find other up-and-coming writers’ websites on their bio and they’ll have listed their publications. That’s how I’ve come to find a ton of great indie literary magazines such as BULL, Identity Theory, JAKE, Trampset, Bullshit Lit, Maudlin House, Bending Genre, and a bunch more!
[Self-promo plug: I share a list of pubs open for submission on my Get Published column, every Friday-ish, FYI.]
3. Figuring out which literary publications to submit to (a.k.a. making a shortlist)
So, you’ve got lists. Now what? Which of these should you submit to?
Even if a story or an essay isn’t fit for the top-tier pubs, you will still want to submit to a decent magazine, right?
The initial process is the most tedious. Say, for example, you’re going by Bretch’s list that I linked above. Now Bretch has over a thousand pubs listed on there… how do you go from that to, say, 20-30 pubs?
I have no easy solution except that check out these pubs until you get bored or you want to gouge your eyes out….
Honestly, here’s what I do… I go to a pub’s website, and if I like the vibe—and that’s entirely an intuitive thing—within the first, say… 10 seconds or so, I add it to my longlist.
Once I have a longlist of 50 or 500 pubs, I’ll do a few other things:
Read a piece or two (or skim) to see if I like their vibe. If I don’t, chances are that the magazine won’t be a good fit for the stuff I write.
Check if a magazine has a good website. Usually, this part is taken care of in the longlist-making process… if the pub doesn’t have a decent site, then it probably wouldn’t even be in my longlist. Also, this website thing may just be a “me” thing, but a legit literary magazine should, at the very least, have a functional website. Otherwise, it comes off as unprofessional, and well, that’s a red flag… for me anyway. I mean, this is 2024… it’s harder to have a bad website than a good one. A well-designed, fast-loading, secure site with its own domain—now we’re talking.
I see if a publication is listed on Duptrope. I google “publication name + Duotrop”; that usually lets me know right away if the pub is listed there. This might be another “me” thing but unless a pub is listed on Duotrope, it comes off as a little too amateurish to me.
I check their acceptance rate. You’ll find this on Duotrope. (Google for “Pub name + acceptance rate + Duotrope.”) I’ve shared above how to make a shortlist based on acceptance difficulty, remember? This acceptance rate lets me know whether the magazine should be top-tier (0-5% acceptance rate), mid-tier (5-25%), or easy-tier (25%+). There’s no universal rule, of course, this is just how I do things.
(Note: these rates aren’t 100% accurate, but they’re still better than nothing.)Check their vibe again, but with a bit more scrutiny this time.
Now, make your shortlist. Once you align the vibe with a desired acceptance rate, you should be able to make a nice shortlist of 20-30 pubs. As a reminder, I’d recommend 0-5 top-tier, 10-15 mid-tier, and 5-10 easy-tier pubs for beginners.
4. Submission best practices
4.1 Batch submission
Imagine this not-so-hypothetical scenario:
You’ve written a short story. You think it’s lovely! It deserves to be in Granta! Or the Yale Review! Or ZYZZYVA!
But you’re also a new writer and you wonder if you’ve overestimated your writing quality. So, to be safe, you also decide to submit to an easier-to-get-into pub—Quirky Quack (not a real pub!)
Now you wait… and then, boom! Quirky Quack accepts your submission! You’re on cloud 9. It’s your first publication. You promptly accept their proposal and… an hour goes by, and comes another email… this time from the Yale Review… and they’ve… *gasp* accepted your story!!!
But wait, you’ve already said yes to Quirky Quack and perhaps even signed a contract! And even if you haven’t, it’s just bad manners to say yes to a proposal and then go back on your word and say, oh no! I can’t because YALE!!!
Yeah… believe it or not, I know writers who’ve had this happen to them.
So, here’s my advice:
Feel free to submit in batches.
In the first batch, submit to magazines where you really, really want to see your story. No matter which of these pubs accept, you’ll be happy regardless.
If all of them reject your piece, then go ahead and submit it to the next batch.
Because trust me, you don’t want to be the jerk that accepts a proposal from a pub and then goes back on their word just because a better pub has chosen your story a few hours or a few days later. A lot of these readers and editors are volunteers or underpaid, so please, do not waste their time and effort like that.
Also, once you get an acceptance, it is best to promptly withdraw your submission from elsewhere. Withdrawing on Submittable, which is what most publications use these days, is easy… a couple of clicks and you’re done. But keep track of things you’re submitting using custom forms or emails so you remember to go and withdraw.
Speaking of tracking…
4.2 Keep track of your submissions
I use a spreadsheet to keep track of my submissions.
I have rows for the pub name, date submitted, how I submitted (Submittable, custom form, email, etc.), submission fee, whether or not a pub pays, and submission status (accepted, rejected, or withdrawn).
It looks like this:
Yeah… I color-code it too. Fancy shit.
Feel free to use this Google sheet as your template, or download the Excel file below:
4.3 Follow the guidelines
This is obvious, but worth saying still.
Read the fine print and follow the guidelines, please. 😊
I wish all magazines followed a simple set of universal submission guidelines, but that is, unfortunately, not the case.
Some pubs want you to include your name on every page. Others want you to remove all identifying details from your document. Some want X, others want Z.
It’s annoying but what’s be done, eh?
4.4 Keep the cover letter short and simple
Again, read if they want anything specific in the cover letter. If not, then here’s what I do: I keep it short.
Most of the time, I’ll just include the word count and a third-person bio. If your story has triggering elements, I’d note that too. Something like, “Content warning: abuse and trauma,” for example.
Here’s what I included in my cover letter for Porter House Review:
Dear editor
Submitting a flash nonfiction piece about grieving a parent's death as an estranged daughter, in 721 words, for your consideration.
I'm Maliha. I consider myself an "emerging" writer as I'm without any significant history of being published in reputable journals or magazines. My writing experience is confined to blog posts. For now.
Sincerely,
Maliha
For another accepted piece that’s forthcoming, all I did was include a third-person bio and nothing else.
This is what I wrote in the cover letter:
Maliha is a Denver-based writer of essays and short stories. Their words have appeared in Porter House Review, Splice Today, Uppercase magazine, and elsewhere.
FYI, when I say cover letter, I mean the field on your Submittable form that says “cover letter.” If you’re sending an email submission, I’d say something similar to the first cover letter in the body of the email, followed by a third-person bio.
Understand that a cover letter isn’t a pitch. They’re very different things! A pitch is where you do not have a full submission, but you’re trying to get an editor to commission you a story or an essay or the like. A pitch has to be detailed. But a cover letter, especially for creative writing that you’re submitting in full, need not be a pitch.
4.5 Patience is a virtue (Or… good things come to those who wait)
Now just hit the submit/send button and wait forever.
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: The literary world is a fucking SLOTH.
That is all.
I know this was a looong-ass post, but hopefully, this will be useful to you if you’re new to submitting to literary magazines.
✌️
Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments :)
thank you for this post! as a person who has dappled in poetry, essays, and short fiction, this has been very helpful!!