How to Start Submitting to Literary Magazines
A Comprehensive Beginner’s Guide (By a Beginner)
Since I started submitting my writing to literary magazines a couple of years back, I’ve had several fellow writers express a desire to understand how submitting works, exactly. I do not gatekeep, so whenever the question comes up I immediately gush everything I have learned thus far, but I realize it’s a lot to take in over one phone call or a round of drinks. Hence, this guide. It includes all the information I would have wanted to know before I started submitting. If you want to start submitting, start here.
If you just want to download the template I made of my submissions spreadsheet and be on your way, here you go: Submissions Spreadsheet Template.xlsx. It has conditional formatting (aka, the rows turn satisfying colors when you enter certain data) and data validation (aka, drop-down menus for common entries). I made it in Microsoft Excel, but you can use it in Google Sheets as well.
Now, on to the guide!
Table of Contents
PART 1: INTRODUCTION
If you’re a creative writer of any kind, at some point you’ve probably wondered how to go about getting your work published. Maybe you’ve submitted to a few places, but you got rejected and got discouraged. Maybe you want to start submitting, but you don’t know how. Maybe, like me, you were actually given information about how to submit to literary magazines when you were studying creative writing in school, but maybe (like me) you were too confused and intimidated to act on it; maybe (like me) you thought, “Oh, they’ll never publish me anyway; I’m not good enough.”
Two years ago, I started trying to get my work published by submitting to The New Yorker. After that (shockingly) went nowhere, I spent a year figuring out how to find places to submit to. I spent another year figuring out what places I should submit to and why. Since then, I’ve submitted to more than 60 publications and been published at six and counting. In those two years, I’ve learned a lot and made a lot of mistakes. I paid a good number of fees to start; I thought you had to, that that was just the price of being considered. I submitted to many places that, looking back, were never going to be viable options for my work (*cough* The New Yorker *cough*). I floundered in the depths of unfamiliar rules about cover letters, manuscript formatting, and simultaneous submissions (to be accepted, or not to be accepted? 🤔).
In short, I suffered on my way to being published, and I suffered in ways I wouldn’t have had to suffer if I’d had a beginner’s guide like this to follow. That’s why I’m making it for you.
This is a guide for the young writer, the casual writer, the beginning writer, the dreaming writer, the broke writer, the writer with a 9-to-5, the writer with imposter syndrome, the writer with no background in publishing or academia, the writer with no access to a writer’s community, the writer with no mentors to guide them on this journey to publication. Let me be your mentor. I want every writer who wants to get published to get published because it’s a great feeling; a life-changing feeling, for me. It made me feel like I was good enough after all. It made me feel like a capital “W” Writer. I want you to feel that way too.
If you’re ready to start (or restart) trying to get your work published, I hope this guide can help. Feel free to take from it what serves you and leave the rest. For example, I am primarily a writer of fiction—short, genre fiction—so this guide might not be as helpful to, say, a poet or an essayist, as to someone who writes fantasy or sci-fi like me. Still, I think there is something helpful for any writer here.
PART 2: RESOURCES
1) Submissions Spreadsheet
My submissions spreadsheet is my personal submissions database.
A screenshot of my submissions spreadsheet from late November to mid-February, showing the various conditional formatting for rejections, publications, acceptances, withdrawals, etc.
I update it every time I submit with the name of the publication I submitted to (including a link to its website), the piece(s) I submitted, the date I submitted, how I submitted (Submittable, Google Forms, email, etc.), a link to the journal’s submission guidelines, and a note about its submission review period (e.g., “will hear back in two months” or the agonizing “takes time”). I keep it updated as things change.
The spreadsheet also has a second tab with information about each of my pieces (type, genre, year written, word count), statistics about how many times each piece has been submitted, rejected, withdrawn, etc., and names of publications where it’s pending. I made it from scratch and I’m pretty proud of it. You can download a template here.
If you’re not a spreadsheet person you don’t necessarily need to become one, but you should find some way of tracking your submissions. Another option is Chill Subs’ Submissions Tracker, which you need an account to use. Read on for more about Chill Subs and my big ol’ crush on them.
2) Cover Letter and Bio Drafts
Pretty much every magazine will ask you to supply a cover letter and a bio with your submission.
A cover letter
Cover letters sound a lot scarier than they are. There is a lot of variation in what different places ask for in a cover letter, so you should of course tailor it to the specifications of each journal’s submission guidelines, but by and large you basically want to send something along these lines:
Hello,
Thank you for considering my [short story/poem/essay, etc.] “[Title of Piece]” for inclusion in [Publication Name]. [Insert a very short summary/description—one or two sentences—of the piece, if you’d like.] “[Title of Piece]” is [X] words long. It is a simultaneous submission.*
Below, please find my short bio:
[Insert bio here]
Best,
[Your name]
*Simultaneous submissions are when you submit the same piece for consideration to different publications at the same time. If your piece is pending a response at any other publication, it is a simultaneous submission. Obviously only include this sentence in your cover letter if the piece in question is a simultaneous submission. If not, no need to mention it.
For a more illustrative example, here is a cover letter I wrote for a piece that was recently published:
Hello,
Thank you for considering my short story "The Other Side of the Tree" for inclusion in Livina Press. "The Other Side of the Tree," is a semi-autobiographical short story about a young girl dealing with bullying and isolation who finds a portal in the woods of her family’s campground. It is a simultaneous submission. Here is my short bio:
Amanda Bintz is a writer and editor from Upstate New York living in Philadelphia. She completed her first novel, “Wolf Warrior,” when she was in 4th grade and has been trying to top that achievement ever since. She is drawn to stories about women, environmentalism, folklore, legends, history, and magic. Her work has been published in Luna Station Quarterly, BarBar, and Rathalla Review. You can find her on Instagram @amandabintz and on her website amandabintz.com.
Best,
Amanda
Keep it short, sweet, and to the point. Most places will assure you they don’t consider the cover letter when assessing the piece, so don’t waste your time overcomplicating it. Be polite, deliver the information they ask for, and be sure to update the pertinent details when you copy and paste.
A bio
Your bio should be a reflection of you, obviously. I would recommend writing a bio without worrying about the length and then cutting it down to versions that are 100 words or fewer and 50 words or fewer; these are the lengths I see requested most often. I keep all the varying length options of my bio, clearly labeled with the word/character count, in a Word document and then copy and paste accordingly.
In my bios, I usually try to include:
Where I’m from/where I live;
A fun fact about me;
The kinds of things I like to write;
Where I’ve been published; and
My social media handles and website.
For example, here is my current 100-word bio:
Amanda Bintz is a writer from Upstate New York who now calls Philadelphia home. Amanda studied English and creative writing at SUNY Oswego. She is drawn to stories about women and feminism, environmentalism and nature, folklore, legends, history, and magic. She began writing creatively around the age of 8 and completed her first novel, “Wolf Warrior,” when she was in the fourth grade, an achievement she has been trying to top ever since. Her work has been published in Luna Station Quarterly, BarBar Literary Magazine, and Talk Vomit. Find her on Instagram @amandabintz and on her website amandabintz.com.
(98 words, 609 characters)
And here is my current 50-word bio:
Amanda Bintz is a writer from Philadelphia. She completed her first novel, “Wolf Warrior,” in 4th grade and has been trying to top that achievement ever since. Her work has been published in Luna Station Quarterly, BarBar Literary Magazine, and Talk Vomit. Find her on Instagram @amandabintz and on amandabintz.com.
(50 words, 316 characters)
3) Submittable
Submittable is an online submissions manager. Set up an account and get familiar with using the platform. Nearly half of the publications I’ve submitted to use Submittable to manage their submissions.
4) Chill Subs (!!!!!!!)
I did not find Chill Subs until January of this year and I am furious it took me that long. I honestly don’t really understand how Chill Subs exists and is free to use?? You need to create an account to use some of their features, like the submissions tracker, but creating an account costs nothing but your time. They host a database of more than 3,000 literary magazines with regularly updated information about their vibes, response time, acceptance rate, and other details. They also track when places are open for submissions, which is HUGE. You can filter their database by genre, whether or not places pay, whether or not they charge a fee for submissions, whether or not they accept simultaneous submissions, etc. For an example of what they offer in their database, here are their listings for the magazines that have published me thus far:
Most importantly, they publish the Sub Club newsletter.
The Sub Club newsletter emails you lists of literary magazines to submit your work to. Sometimes these lists are on a theme (e.g., “fiction magazines with 5-10% acceptance rates,” or “African literary magazines”). Usually, they are of magazines that just opened for submissions or are closing soon. This newsletter is how I find pretty much all of the places I submit to now. I particularly love the “closing soon” lists because they give me a deadline. I recently started paying for the premium version of the newsletter because I find it that valuable, but the free version is excellent. Subscribe.
5) Manuscript Format Guide
Some publications will ask that your work be submitted in “manuscript format.” This guide simply and clearly explains how to put your piece into manuscript format. Refer to it as needed.
PART 3: MY PROCESS
Let me tell you a little story about the last time I submitted to literary magazines.
I got an email newsletter (another shout out to Sub Club, woo!!) with a list of nearly 50 literary magazines that would be closing for submissions at the end of the month.
First, I skimmed through the list of nearly fifty journals, reading the names, the short descriptions, and the relevant details (Fee or no fee? Pay or no pay? How long have they been in operation?). From there, I opened tabs of all the stand-outs and did light research into each one: what’s their website look like; what’s their social media look like; how do they describe themselves; how do they describe what they’re looking for in submissions; and finally—what does it say about them in Chill Subs’ database??
My options narrowed, I began to do the detailed, focused work of preparing my work per each journal’s specific guidelines and actually submitting it. After two hours of work, I ended up submitting to four places.
Two hours. Four places. Out of 50 potential options. That’s only eight percent! If you’re thinking, “Was that even worth it?” you’re in good company! That is also what I was thinking when I reviewed my updated submissions spreadsheet at the end of that two-hour hyperfocus blur. But that was only my first thought. My second thought was, “I feel really good about these four submissions.”
Because out of those nearly 50 literary magazines I started with, I determined, after careful consideration, that only eight percent of them were a good fit for me and my work, might actually publish me, and were a place I’d be proud to feature in. These three qualifiers are what I use and what I think you should use when deciding where to submit your work.
PART 4: WHERE TO SUBMIT
You should submit your work to literary magazines that:
Are a good fit for you and your work;
Might actually publish you; and
Are a place you’d be proud to feature in.
When I am speaking with someone who is unfamiliar with the concept of submitting to literary magazines, I often compare it to applying for jobs: it is time-consuming; can be demoralizing; can get you really excited about an opportunity only to later have your hopes dashed by the lede of an email; very rarely leads to success (and indeed usually comes with a heaping helping of rejection); and dude, you should absolutely not be writing individual, personalized cover letters for each one!!! Instead, most of your time should be spent narrowing your focus and concentrating your plan of attack.
That is why I spent two hours to apply to four journals—because after all that preparatory work, I actually think those four journals were worth the time I spent. Even if I get rejected by all four,* I’ll know that I did my due diligence in choosing the best places, following all their submission guidelines to a T, and presenting myself well to editors who, even if they reject me this time, may in the future publish my work.
*Note from the future: So far, only been rejected by one; accepted by two. 🤗
1. Are a good fit for you and your work
I’ve given you a lot of options for where to look for places to submit to. (You’ve got all 3,000+ entries in Chill Subs’ database at your fingertips, to start.) Once you’ve browsed the digital stacks for a while, you’ll come to realize two things: 1) there are a LOT of lit mags out there; and, subsequently, 2) there are lit mags out there for every genre, topic, concept, identity, and vague feeling you could ever imagine.
There are literary magazines catered just toward people who have worked in the service/hospitality industry (I’ve applied to two: 86 Logic & MIDLVLMAG). There are literary magazines that only publish work by women-identifying authors (Luna Station Quarterly is one I was published in), or queer authors, or neurodivergent authors, or people of color. There are literary magazines that only publish works about climate change, or childhood, or chronic illness. There is a literary magazine just for works about Taco Bell (Taco Bell Quarterly). Taco Bell!!!! 🌮🌮
You see what I’m getting at. Go forth and find the literary magazines for you and your work.
Trust me: They exist.
2. Might actually publish you
This is a little trickier to determine, and I know they say if you shoot for the moon you’ll end up among the stars or whatever, but if you’re always overshooting your shot, you’re probably just going to get rejected again and again and end up demoralized. Getting accepted builds confidence. Start small, then aim higher as you grow your confidence (and get better at your craft). In my case, starting with The New Yorker was ill-advised. The New Yorker doesn’t generally publish work like mine. I’m a beginning writer who can comfortably find a home in smaller, independent, lesser-known literary magazines. This isn’t to say you shouldn’t take risks, though. Don’t self-reject, but also be realistic about where you’re at.
3. Are a place you’d be proud to feature in
Okay, I know I kinda just told you to aim low, but I want to remind you not to aim too low.
If you submit your work to a magazine, you should be excited by the prospect of being published by that magazine. Don’t submit willy-nilly just to add more rows to your submissions spreadsheet. Think about putting the name of that literary magazine on your creative writing résumé. Consider how you’ll be listed on their website, how your work will be promoted on their social media. Take a look at what they’ve published before and ask yourself: Do I want my work featured alongside this?
Above all else, follow your excitement. Submit to places where the idea of getting an email from them and having to open it and see whether it’s another rejection or a blissful acceptance pumps your stomach full of butterflies. Submit to places where a “no” will ruin your day a little bit. Submit to places where you will celebrate a “yes” with a little dance in your cubicle or the aisles of a grocery store.
PART 5: HOW TO SUBMIT
Step 1: Assess your work.
Dust it off. Reread it. Revise it. Get an understanding of the types of pieces you have, what themes they speak to, what genres they exist in, and what types of characters they feature. Organize your work in some way—by genre, length, type—and make it easy to review at a glance, either by using the “Pieces” tab of my submissions spreadsheet template or some other method that works for you.
Step 2: Sign up for a submissions newsletter.
As should be clear at this point, I recommend Sub Club by Chill Subs. I’ve also gotten good stuff from this one: Authors Publish. Every time you get a new list of lit mags in your inbox, review it for possible fits for your work. If you don’t yet have any work you want to submit, keep an eye out for themed calls for submissions; this is where a magazine is looking to publish an issue on a certain theme and requests submissions of work that fits that theme—write to the theme, then submit before the call period ends.
Step 3: Decide what your submission dealbreakers are. This will help narrow your options.
For example, do you want to only submit to places that allow simultaneous submissions? Most places do, but if a place you want to submit to doesn’t allow them, just make sure the piece you want to submit isn’t currently pending anywhere else (this is where the spreadsheet really comes in clutch), and that you’re willing to wait through their submission review period before you submit it anywhere else. Luna Station Quarterly, where “Skip, Hop, Jump” was published, does not allow simultaneous submissions, but I’m so glad I submitted there—it was the perfect fit for that piece.
Another possible dealbreaker: Do you want to pay submission fees? As I noted earlier, I did pay submission fees to start. They were only $3-$5 each, but none of those submissions ended up working out, so once I realized so many places don’t charge fees, it hardly seemed worth it.
Speaking of pay, some people only submit to places that pay their authors. I’ve been paid for my work: $5 here, $20 there. It’s very nice! But for me, it’s not a dealbreaker if I don’t get paid.
On the flip-side, what are your submission pluses? This may take some time to figure out, but these are basically the things that particularly excite you about the places you want to submit to. It might be that they pay, or that they have a low acceptance rate, or that they have been around for decades. Lately, I’ve been focusing my efforts on submitting to places that either: a) present work really well on their website, in print, and/or on social media; b) have a print edition; c) pay their authors; or d) nominate for prizes.
Step 4: Choose some places you want to submit to (places that, as we’ve already reviewed, are a good fit for your and your work, might actually publish you, and that you would be proud to feature in).
If you haven’t already, figure out what pieces you want to submit to them; do this by reading and re-reading their about page, submission guidelines, things they’ve published recently, etc., until you land on a pairing that you think will be a great match. Then read their submission guidelines again to make sure your chosen piece qualifies. Is it the right length? Right genre? Additionally, do you personally meet the journal’s requirements for submitting, if they have any (e.g., gender identity, race/ethnicity, background)?
Step 5: Submit. But first, read each journal’s submission guidelines again and follow them as closely as you possibly can. Everyone makes mistakes, but you don’t want an editor to toss your submission aside because you’re the tenth person that day who didn’t format the email subject line properly.
In addition to proper email subject line formatting, a journal might ask you to format your work a certain way: in manuscript format (covered above), double-spaced, single-spaced, in a specific typeface, with or without identifying information. They might ask for specific information to be included in your cover letter. They might ask that you include specific information in the body of the email. Protip: If you’re submitting by email, make sure you remember to attach your work!! (cc: me 😳🫣)
Step 6: Breathe. Take a moment to be proud of yourself. Submitting is not only hard because it’s confusing and time-consuming, it’s hard because submitting = putting yourself out there, and putting yourself out there is so hard. Submitting your work for the first time is a victory in of itself.
Step 7: Submit again. And again. And again. Get rejected. Sigh. Submit again. Get rejected, rejected, rejected. Cry. Submit submit submit. Get rejected by a place you were really excited about; have an emotional breakdown about not being good enough after all; eat some ice cream and watch your favorite comfort show to recover from your creative dark night of the soul; submit some more. Repeat.
Eventually, you’ll grow numb(er) to the rejection—I promise. It can sting and it can hurt and sometimes it can send you spiraling, but you have to remember that there are a dozen reasons your piece may have not been chosen, and that reason is not necessarily that the editor didn’t think it was good enough. Maybe it wasn’t the right length for the space they needed to fill. Maybe it was too similar to another piece they already accepted. Maybe it just wasn’t their taste. That doesn’t mean it won’t be some other editor at some other journal’s favorite submission that round. So keep submitting.
Step 8 (Optional): If you submit for the first time after reading this guide, comment below. When you get that first acceptance, come back and comment again. 🥹💞
And finally, a note for future you, when you get your first acceptance: First, congratulations!!!!!!!!!
Second, if the piece that was accepted was a simultaneous submission, remember to withdraw it from every other publication where it was pending as soon as you can. There is a very easy mechanism for withdrawing work on Submittable. If the place you submitted to doesn’t use Submittable, they probably have instructions in their submission guidelines for how to withdraw your work. Usually you just send an email and let them know. They’ll probably congratulate you too.