In my interviews with literary magazine editors, they tell me they want fresh, vital, and well-revised writing to publish. It’s probably clear to you how to revise your work well. (Hint: find a grammarian-friend.) And it’s also not that hard to figure out what an editor might think of as fresh. (Read journals to see… Read more »
When the label on a hopeful submission to your favourite lit mag switches from “In Progress” to “Declined,” you know the steps you’ll take, right? If your hopes were high, this rejection might have you sobbing into a bowl of cookies and cream. If you’ve built up more resilience in the submission game it might… Read more »
Around the time I was getting ready to graduate with my BA in English, I made the decision not to pursue an MFA. Although I knew I had made the right decision for myself, I still didn’t know how I could be part of a writing community without going back to school for it (cue… Read more »
Getting your work published in a literary magazine or journal can serve to build your resume, and grow your writing community. From researching the publications that best fit your work, to writing your cover letter, to clicking “submit,” there are several important steps in sending work to an editor. Here are 5 actionable tips to… Read more »
I’m geekin’ out. Guys, science fiction and fantasy is bigger and better than ever. Check it out: Almost everybody knows at least something about Game of Thrones, The Hunger Games, Harry Potter, Avatar, Ender’s Game… The list of TV and movies for us genre fans just keeps growing, and I couldn’t be happier. But some… Read more »
Okay! I wrote a bunch of short stories—now what do I do with them? – The Next Jane Austen Congrats! You’ve put on your silvery boxing pants, got your boxing gloves on, stuck that plastic guard between your teeth. Finishing something is no small accomplishment. (Pumping “Eye of the Tiger” at full blast during the… Read more »
For all too many writers, the short story market is like a black box: stories go in, rejections come out. I’ve been on the receiving end of those rejections, even when I’ve been notified I’ve made the ‘final round’. So, I decided to find out just how one gets from the slush pile to the… Read more »
This week we’ve discussed how to submit your work. While we’ve focused on submitting to literary magazines and online literary markets, many of the same ideas also apply when querying agents. Today’s prompt works equally well, whether you’re a writer of short fiction or poetry and looking for markets for your work, or if you’re… Read more »
While I was in grad school for my MFA, I spent the first year working on campus literary magazine. For the staff, the primary responsibility was to read submissions and decide what went in the magazine. That year, I learned a lot about submitting work to literary magazines, and applied what I learned when submitting… Read more »
Publishing is a subjective business. It’s easy to forget this. Writers often get so caught up in fear or rejection that they avoid submitting work altogether. This is understandable, of course. It’s much less frightening to tinker with one’s work until it’s perfectthan it is to send the work out into the world. It’s a… Read more »
