Submitting to literary magazines can be confusing if you’ve never done it before. I know it was for me. I’ve learned a lot since I first started out. Last week, I started sharing some of what I’ve learned in my post “The Beginner’s Guide to Short Story Submissions (Part 1).” In this post, I’ll share the rest of my advice, divided into categories so you can easily find what you’re looking for.
Where to Submit
1. Submit to your first choice(s) first. If there is a magazine that you most want to publish your story, submit there first. It doesn’t matter if it has a good chance or not. Submit it. Otherwise, you’ll always wonder what would have happened if you had.
2. Follow guidelines for simultaneous submissions. Some magazines don’t mind if you submit to other magazines at the same time. If that is the case, their submission guidelines will state that they accept simultaneous submissions. Other magazines do not allow this and will get upset if they find out you did it. You don’t want to burn bridges in the publishing world, so if a magazine says no simultaneous submissions, don’t do it.
3. Follow guidelines for multiple submissions. Some magazines allow you to submit more than one story to them at a time. If that is the case, their submission guidelines will say that they accept multiple submissions. In my experience, most magazines do not accept multiple submissions. Violating this guideline will probably result in all of your submissions being rejected unread.
4. Only submit simultaneously to magazines you like equally. It can be tempting to submit to every magazine you can at once, especially after you’ve received multiple rejections for the same story. Here’s the problem: if you receive an acceptance from a magazine you like less than one you still haven’t heard back from, you’ll want to wait to respond until you hear back from the one you prefer. But you won’t be able to. You’ll have to choose between turning down an offer for publication or withdrawing your submission from the magazine you prefer, and that is not a position you want to be in.
5. Be selective with submissions that charge fees. Many magazines, especially those that use Submittable, an online submission software, charge submission fees. Most are only $2 or $3, but over time, they can really add up. Especially if you are on a budget, I recommend only paying to submit if you believe you have a good chance of publication or if it is a magazine you really like and respect.
6. Choose magazines that publish your genre/topic. Some magazines give pretty specific guidelines about what they like to publish and what they don’t. Many literary magazines, for example, do not publish genre fiction (romance, mystery, fantasy, sci-fi, etc.). Some fantasy magazines publish only dark fantasy while others are looking for lighter stories. I’ve seen a few magazines that give a list of overused themes that they absolutely don’t want to see. It probably goes without saying that your story has a much better chance of being published in a magazine that likes to publish that type of story.
Cover Letters
1. Always include a cover letter. Unless a magazine’s guidelines specifically state that you don’t need one, you should always include a cover letter with your submission. A cover letter doesn’t have to be long or complicated. For email submissions, I generally include it in the body of the email. There is a template for how I write my cover letters at the end of this post.
2. Address the editor(s) by name. Search the magazine’s home and about pages for the editors’ names. If you find them, use them in the greeting of your cover letter. It shows that you took the time to find out who you were submitting to. The only time I don’t do this is if I can’t find the editors’ names or if there are too many editors to reasonably fit in a greeting.
3. Include all vital information. Cover letters can be pretty short. These days, many magazines seem to prefer that. However, you should generally include the following vital information: your name, story title, story genre, approximate word count, and your publishing credits (if applicable). Also, look at the submission guidelines and include anything specific a magazine requests, such as a short third-person bio or your contact information.
4. Say thank you. Most editors receive and read hundreds of submissions. It is courteous to thank them for taking the time to read yours.
Helpful Hints
1. Know the lingo. There are a number of terms that anyone unused to submitting may not be familiar with. I will define them below, including those I mentioned previously.
- speculative fiction: any story that includes elements that cannot happen in the real world; includes fantasy, sci-fi, superhero, magical realism, steampunk, etc. *This is sometimes called spec fiction for short.*
- genre fiction: any story that focuses more on the elements of a genre than on the literary merit of the work; includes romance, mystery, western, speculative fiction, etc.
- literary fiction: stories with “literary merit;” they tend to be realistic and focus more on characters’ inner thoughts than on plot. *There is a lot of debate over exactly what belongs in the is category.*
- simultaneous submissions: submitting to more than one magazine or publisher at the same time
- multiple submissions: submitting more than one submission to the same magazine at one time
- query: contacting a magazine to ask about the status of your submission
2. Be prepared for rejection. Your stories will not always be accepted. That’s just the way it is. Most magazines only publish a small percentage of the submissions they receive. A few of my stories have been published by the first magazine I submitted them to. Others have been rejected by more magazines than I care to count. Ironically, I like some of the ones that are still unpublished more than the ones that have been accepted. Rejection hurts, but do your best not to get discouraged. If you’re receiving rejections, it means your submitting, which is a good thing.
3. Wait a long time to query. Many magazines tell you their approximate response time and how long to wait before you query. Even if they don’t mention the latter, it is a good idea to wait substantially after their usual response time before you contact a magazine and ask about the status of your story. It can be hard to wait, but you don’t want to annoy the editors. The only exception to this is magazines that emphasize that they want you to query after a certain amount of time.
4. Be willing to revise. Many magazines do not offer feedback on submissions due to time constraints. If you do receive feedback, be willing to consider revising your story. Notice that I said consider. If you decide you like your story the way it is, then leave it that way. But especially if you receive the same feedback more than once, try to be open to revising your story.
5. Keep a record of where you submit. When you first start out, you’ll think you’ll remember everywhere you submit. As you write more stories, it will get harder to remember which story you’ve submitted to which magazines. It is very helpful to document where you submit each of your stories to make sure you don’t submit the same story to a magazine twice. They don’t like that.
That’s all the tips I have about submitting short stories for now. As promised, here is the template for how I usually write my cover letter.
Dear [Editor’s name],
My name is [Your Name,] and I would like to submit [“Story Title”] for your consideration. It is a [story genre] short story that contains approximately [#] words. My previous publishing credits include short stories in [Magazine], [Magazine], and [Magazine.] Thank you for your time, and I hope you enjoy my story.
Best regards,
[Your Name]
If you’ve just started submitting short stories to literary magazines, I hope you find this advice helpful. If anyone has other tips, feel free to share them in the comments.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing to my blog. And best of luck to anyone submitting stories!
