As editors, we want you to write not only the words that only you can write but the words you must write. I know you can do this. Here are five ways to help you.

1) Consume Carefully

The struggle to spend quality-time with literature is real. It’s so easy to instead skim articles online and binge podcasts or the latest “golden-age-of-television” offering.

You don’t need to cloister yourself. Just try for balance. Keep track of how much you create and how much you consume each week. Like, literally write it down. Then let creation top your chart. Careful consumption of media will give your voice and ideas room to breathe and develop.

Try to make the bulk of your reading stories and poems that affect you deeply. To write your most profound stuff, you must drink from the wells of thought-provoking and daring writers. In this way, your writing will become bold and thoughtful, too.

Take this even further by reading specifically to identify urgency in the oeuvres you love. What techniques, images, or forms do the authors use to express exigence? What stokes the fire in their bellies?

2) Spy-Explore

In sixth grade, my favourite book was a manual on how to be a spy. It was also the first year a teacher singled me out with praise for a poem I wrote. These things are connected.

When I interviewed PRISM poetry editor, Shazia Hafiz Ramji, she delightfully called our job as writers the Spy-Explorer. (That squeal you hear is my gleeful eleven-year-old self.) It fits perfectly. As writers, our job is to let readers listen in and to take them places. Spies observe; urgent writing requires we pay attention. Explorers traverse new territory; we do this with words.

You can approach this in a literal way. Take a walk, watch people, visit a location, and drink it all in. Use all your senses to notice anything that will allow you to be more precise in your writing. What do you find beautiful, or repulsive, or magical, or frightening in your world?

Some discoveries may be fleeting thoughts, lost forever if you don’t have a notebook handy. So keep notebooks handy! Track dreams, snippets of conversation, and anything else of significance. Then refer back every so often to see what gems you can polish from your pebble-trails of notes.

Spy-Explorers must also be ready for the occasional fisticuffs. Meaning, we can’t pull punches. The Gravity of the Thing editor, Thea Prieto, told me that in many submissions, writers stop at a critical moment, kind of like a camera crane shot backing off in a film.

Don’t do this. What happens after the moment you want to look away? Hold there.

3) Draw from Your Darkness

The bravest part of writing your most essential words requires facing your shadow self. As Wendy Lesser of Threepenny Review told me, “Really great writers are in touch with their own dark sides, their own destructive sides, and their own cruel sides…they are pouring their own selves, and lives, and unconscious desires, and everything else into their work.”

It takes deep honesty and understanding to draw from your dark side. It calls on you to reveal in yourself or your characters things that might be seen as unacceptable or inappropriate. My colleague, Room magazine’s contest editor, Sierra Skye Gemma, described two comparable entries to a writing contest. Both were on the topic of parenting, but the one she sent to the longlist revealed unexpected feelings that go along with motherhood—things we are not allowed to talk about, like fantasies about what life would be like without our children.

Drawing from your darkness could also entail facing traumatic events. But you needn’t plunder details of the incident. The most revealing, urgent, surprising stories will examine an aftermath. Of course, it can take years to be ready to write around a traumatic event, and Mary Karr’s book The Art of Memoir has an excellent exercise to discover if you’re prepared to write a painful personal story.

4) Slow Down

Do not rush into writing. I know this contradicts the current cultural drive to be productive, but as TNQ editor Pamela Mulloy said, “Writing is a process that requires a great deal of patience and revisiting and rethinking.”

Pre-writing, the time you take to mull things over, to argue with yourself, and to inventory your ideas, will make your writing richer before you even begin to put words on a page. Your pre-writing practice could include mind mapping ideas, drawing a story arc, or mentally interviewing your protagonist.

Ironically, going slower will make you faster. When you take the time to create thoughtfully, listen to and learn from your writing, and allow it to lead you to new places, you’ll become a more efficient writer. Your future compositions will come together more quickly.

Also, don’t be in a hurry to send your work out. Give time between several revisions to allow the work to breathe. (But definitely send it out when you’ve done all you can.)

“When I think something’s about 90% done, it’s really 50% done,” The Forge editor John Haggerty said in reference to his own writing.

5) Make it Mean Something

The revision stage is also the time to understand and further develop the central questions of your work. If you’re consuming carefully, spy-exploring, drawing from your darkness, and going slowly, your work will already have some nascent themes. Uncover them by looking for clues like structure, sounds, word choices, and literary devices.

Do you notice any patterns or recurring images, like objects that frequently show up, repeating places, or repetitions in dialogue? Once you find central themes in your writing, shore them up. Amplify (subtly) the images, colours, and sensory descriptions that most impact this broader meaning.

“I have a practice now of writing revision narratives where I look at a poem and/or essay that I’ve written and sort of talk out why it is organized the way I have, and what questions it raises for me, what discoveries I’ve made in the process of putting it together, and how it might be strengthened by a shift in simile or linebreak or prosity,” [PANK] editor Maya Marshall told me.

Doing this will give editors and readers the opportunity to learn something, ask new questions, and connect meaningfully with your words. And isn’t that why you do it?

I expect this list seems a little daunting, but I hope that you take it like the best Spy-Explorers: as a challenge and adventure! I promise you that by following this list, you’ll write your most vital, urgent work. It will allow you to continue writing for a long time, with editors and readers drawn to your words.

Author and literary magazine editor Rachel Thompson is the host of Lit Mag Love: A Podcast for Creative Writers Who Want to Publish.

The post #5onFri: Five Ways to Write Your Most Urgent (and Publishable) Work for Lit Mags According to Lit Mag Editors appeared first on DIY MFA.

But, what’s the plan for when the label changes to “Accepted”?

Sure, you’ll probably start by jumping up and down and freaking the heck out of your cats or children. And a celebratory bowl of that same cookies and cream might follow. But what comes after that?

How you manage good news in your writing life is equally, if not more important, than how you weather the bad and the ugly news. There is an art to handling a journal acceptance. And there are steps you can take to foster the writing community you need to have a long and satisfying writing career.

Writing is a career of attrition, as one of my early writing teachers dryly, and accurately, put it. Writers who toil in a room of their own without finding connection and support may perish in those rooms. Or, at least their careers will.

Every opportunity you have to build the network you need to weather the hard and often lonely slog of writing is a golden one. When you publish work, this is one such opportunity—a chance to find writers as committed and ambitious as you are, who will champion you and your work.

Start with a Pat On Your Back—You’ve Earned It

Congratulations! Your piece leapt out of the slush pile and into the top 1-3% of submissions. Is it time to rest on your laurels and soak in this win? Yes. Of course, it is. Savour the moment. Once you’ve savoured, however, go on to forge those deeper connections in the writing community.

Here are five steps you can take to do this:

1) Promote the Magazine

Before your issue comes out, you can help with its promotion. I know first-hand that there are so many people toiling behind the scenes at a journal—way more than you might think—to bring your work from slush pile to printed page or screen. They make a lot with minimal resources.

You can choose to be an additional resource. Promoting the lit mag like you’re invested in this labour of love—because, of course, you are—will deepen your connection to the journal’s editors and readers alike.

You can share their upcoming deadlines, events, or promotions using social media or in emails to other writers. You can attend their live events and invite all your friends.

The magazine editors and the community that supports the magazine will remember you as someone who helped boost their promotional efforts, and will surely pave the way for future submissions.

Bonus: you’ll also help make sure the journal is still around to publish you next time.

2) Share Extra Copies

Pick up extra copies of the journal. Magazines often offer additional copies to contributors at around cost. (Ask them about this if they don’t mention it in your acceptance email.) Then give the extra issues away to people who helped you publish that particular piece or who would benefit from reading the journal. Think of writing mentors, writing-group friends, family, and other writers you want to share in your success.

Never imagine this is bragging. You earned this success, yet it’s also much more significant than you. There’s so much in one issue of a lit mag, and sharing copies is a celebration of all that went into its publication.

3) Devour the Issue

When the issue lands in your hands or is out online, read it all. As you read, consider why the editors selected your piece. For editors, the submissions selected are as much about the fit and resonance with other works as about the quality of individual submissions. Do you notice connections to themes, images, or do you even recognize a narrative arc? How does the other writing resonate with your own?

Reading all the pieces gives you more insight to help you connect with both the editors and your writing peers published in the issue. You’ll grow as a writer by genuinely engaging with the published work. (By the way, few writers do this, so let this be your advantage.) It’ll also prepare you for more direct connections in the steps to come.

4) Reach Out to Writers You Admire

Take a moment to think about how much work you put into your writing, and imagine how meaningful it would be to hear from another writer who is at your level of craft about what they admired in your work. Then give this experience to another writer. It may spark an instant bond, or start a slow-burn toward deeper connection down the road.

If you love a story or poem, tell the writer. Look them up on social media, on their website, or seek them out at events. Tell them precisely what you enjoyed in their work. You’ll know because you devoured the issue.

When you start to build your reputation as an engaged, generous, and kind writer, you will draw your writing community to you.

5) Practice Gratitude

Write thank you notes to anyone who helped you publish in the journal. Doing this will deepen the community you have, the people who already support your writing.

Give thanks to the editors, the mentors, the workshop readers, the writing instructors, and even the babysitters who helped you take your first writing classes. Give thanks to friends who didn’t roll their eyes when you said you wanted to be a writer.

Gratitude is memorable and contagious. I don’t remember every writer I’ve published in journals, but I do remember all those who sent me notes of appreciation—especially the handwritten ones. Also, I find myself following their careers. The effect of their letters was to engage my interest in them because they recognized the investment I made in their writing. And I suspect the people you share gratitude with will be more inclined to give you a reference, make an introduction, and give trusted advice further along the road.

The next (or first) time you publish in lit mags, follow these five steps to forge strong bonds with other writers and editors. You’ll shore up the support you will need for the harder days of writing. And, alas, there will be many rejections to come. It’s a big part of the writing life.

Author and literary magazine editor Rachel Thompson is the host of Lit Mag Love: A Podcast for Creative Writers Who Want to Publish.

The post #5onFri: Five Steps to Build Your Writing Community After You’ve Published in a Lit Mag appeared first on DIY MFA.

Luckily, around that same time, I found a post online about volunteer positions at Carve (a literary magazine named after the great storyteller Raymond Carver). The best part about the posting? I didn’t need to have an MFA to volunteer! Just a passion for words and a good sense of the magazine’s style.

Fast forward two years later and I’m still volunteering for Carve. I’ve had the opportunity to read through and evaluate hundreds of submissions and was even able to conduct my very first author interview not too long ago. All while finishing up my Bachelor’s degree and joining the workforce.

If you’re still on the fence about volunteering for a literary magazine, here are five reasons why you absolutely should (no MFA required).

1) Improve Your Writing

Sounds a little counter-intuitive, right? How are you supposed to improve your own writing by reading through hundreds of submissions from other people? Well, wading through the slush pile is a lot like attending a creative writing workshop. You read each piece and evaluate them, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses.

If you believe a piece is strong enough for publication in a magazine, you have to explain why to the editors. Same thing if you believe a piece is not suitable for publication.When you apply this technique to every submission, you begin to learn what works and what doesn’t work in a story; you might even begin to see the same mistakes over and over again.

The best part of all that close reading? You can take what you learn and use it to strengthen your own writing.

2) Gain Valuable Industry Experience

Ever wonder how literary magazines operate behind-the-scenes? I’ve got good news: you don’t have to move to New York City and work for some huge press to find out.

While I can’t speak for every magazine out there, I know Carve allows a lot of its volunteers to work remotely. That means I can learn about the publishing industry, help review submissions and interview authors all without changing out of my pajamas. Awesome, right?

Volunteering gives you the opportunity to learn about what goes into the process of publishing a magazine, from reviewing submissions to editing and printing. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and get involved!

3) Be Part Of A Community

One of my biggest fears about graduating and deciding not to pursue an MFA involved feeling isolated from the writing community. How would I be able to connect with other readers and writers in a way that felt authentic? Would I be doomed to stalk people on Facebook?

Volunteering for Carve has helped me move past that fear. I feel like part of a great community and, although most of us live in different parts of the country, us volunteers are still connected.

By actively engaging with the submissions we receive, we are both honing our crafts and helping build an amazing magazine that readers will love. And let me tell you, it’s super satisfying to see all your hard work pay off in the form of a beautiful literary magazine filled with awesome stories.

4) Make Connections With Authors

Some literary magazines feature author interviews in each issue. I think this is great, because it gives volunteers the opportunity to interview authors and learn more about their writing process and journey.

I remember the first author interview I did…I was so nervous. I mean, I was about to talk to a real, live published writer! What if I made a fool out of myself? What if I ran out of questions to ask? Turns out, I had nothing to worry about.

Authors are people, too, and I think sometimes us starstruck readers can forget that. That’s why I’m a huge fan of volunteering to conduct author interviews. Not only do I get to work on my interview skills, but I also get to learn more about how another person writes, where they get their ideas from, and how far they’ve come in their writing journey

5) Streamline Your Own Submission Process

There’s something about reading through other people’s cover letters and submissions that makes me a bit more aware of how I’m submitting my own work.  For example, I’ve learned that proper formatting is extremely important, especially if you don’t want to annoy whoever happens to be reading your work on the other end of the submission process.

I’ve also learned that, in the grand scheme of things, what you put in your submission cover letter doesn’t matter as much as, well…your actual submission. Simply put, don’t sweat too much about capturing your entire writing career in your cover letter. Just focus on submitting an amazing story that fits in with the literary magazine’s aesthetic. The editors will thank you!

So, have I convinced you to volunteer for a literary magazine yet?

If you’re interested in searching for opportunities, I found some volunteer opportunities on Indeed, surprisingly enough. Just use the search terms “volunteer” and “literary magazine” and see what pops up. Additionally, if you find a literary magazine that you want to volunteer for, you can always reach out to the editors with a friendly email. I am sure that some would welcome the help!

The post #5onFri: Five Benefits Of Volunteering For A Literary Magazine appeared first on DIY MFA.

1) Know your options

When you first begin exploring literary magazines and journals, it is completely normal for the market to seem intimidating. A quick Google search will yield a dizzying number of options, and it is helpful to have some context to guide your research.

Sites such as Poets and Writers or Submission Grinder are great resources for sorting through the market. These sites offer a list of magazines and journals, along with some details regarding the type of work each publication seeks, and related deadlines.

Read as many literary magazines and journals as possible, to get a feel for the kind of writing different publications seek. If you want to conserve cash, many magazines and journals also publish work for free on their websites. Be sure to read those pieces in addition to any hard copies you select to purchase. Look carefully at each publication you read. Do they mostly publish poetry, essays or fiction? Do they prefer literary or genre work?

2) Find publications and editors that share a similar taste to your own

Editors at varying publications will have different taste/preferences, and you will see that reflected in the work they select to publish. When you are overwhelmed by the number of magazines and journals out there, consider that it is best to boil it down to those that you enjoy reading.

It’s very intuitive; if you find a journal to be boring or odd, then it is probably not a good fit for your work! If you love the stories a magazine prints, and you find them to be similar to your writing style, submit your work! While there is no way to be 100% certain your work will be selected, following this rule of thumb will point you in the right direction.

3) Make your cover letter sweet and simple

As editor at 2 Elizabeths, I see a variety of cover letters every day; some are excellent, and others could stand to be improved. With that in mind, there are a few key pieces of information you want to include in your own cover letters, while keeping them short and sweet. In fact, a cover letter should only be a couple of paragraphs long, and no more than roughly 100 – 150 words.

A few tips on writing cover letters:

• Try to seek out the editor’s name instead of using a generic greeting. Usually, you can find this information on the magazine or journal’s website, or in their submission guidelines.
• Be certain to read the submission guidelines thoroughly for each publication you send your work to. This should state the exact details that need to be included in each cover letter.
• I recently wrote a full article on the perfect cover letter, here. Check it out for clear, simple instructions, along with sample letters.

4) Track your submissions.

Most magazines and journals will accept simultaneous submissions, meaning that you can send the same piece to several publications for concurrent consideration. Compound that with multiple submissions, meaning you send more than one piece of work to the same publication to consider at one time, and you can see how it might become difficult to remember what work you’ve sent where!

To avoid forgetting to send a piece to an editor who might love it, or alternatively, to avoid sending the same piece to the same editor more than once, it is a great idea to track your submissions with a simple list or spreadsheet. Click here for your free template!

5) Celebrate and Keep Going!

Take a moment to acknowledge what you’ve accomplished; you’ve submitted a piece of thoughtfully curated art, all your own. I believe it is important to celebrate our accomplishments, big or small, in some meaningful way. It is important to do this in order to prevent burnout, and to continue to love creating your work. So, call an old friend to join you for dinner, take your dog to your favorite park, or just pour yourself a relaxing bubble bath at the end of a long day. Choose a small celebration that resonates with you, and enjoy!

Once you’ve celebrated, the best thing you can do is get back to writing! Keep your creative juices flowing, and increase your odds of being selected for publishing, by writing and submitting work frequently. While you’re at it, send your short fiction or poetry to 2 Elizabeths! We would be honored to read your work.

Elise Holland is co-founder and editor of 2 Elizabeths, a short fiction and poetry publication. Her work has appeared in various publications, most recently in Story a Day, and at JaneFriedman.com.  Through 2 Elizabeths, Elise strives to create value and visibility for writers, through writing contests, events, and more!

The post #5onFri: Five Tips for Submitting Your Work to a Literary Magazine appeared first on DIY MFA.

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 of us (read: me, a couple of years ago) have only heard of the mainstream stuff. While everyone may have seen a “Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine” on the shelf at their local Barnes and Noble—and, as a genre writer, it’s hard not to know about magazines like these that mostly pay pro rates—I’ve decided to illuminate five of the smaller, free-er, better (whoops, is that my bias showing?) literary magazines for fantasy and science fiction writers.

 I’m a big proponent of submitting work, especially when you’re just starting out, to the smaller magazines. Support your little startups and get yourself some exposure in the meantime.

Without further ado: Readers, mine this gold in the interwebs infosphere! Almost all these mags are read-for-free! Writers of genre literature: Submit here! Everything has a flat or semi-pro rate on this list!

Five Literary Magazines for the Scifi and Fantasy Writer

Fiction Vortex

Whoops, there goes my bias, showing all over the place again. Fiction Vortex is the first place that bought one of my science fiction stories, and remains to be one of my favorite magazines to read.

Need some proof? Check out this story, about a strange little girl in a strange, lush fantasy world. Not stringent enough for you science fiction fans? How about this one, in which the main character must continued her abhorred father’s work to find sentience in a bunch of wriggly worms.

Yeah. They’re basically awesome.

Bonus: They give out extra moneys for Editor’s Choice picks and a Reader’s Choice poll every month.

Kasma SF

I found Kasma through this incredible story, detailing the struggle of a man determined to find out, once and for all, what’s real and what isn’t. After perusing their online catalog for a while, one thought came to mind:

Woah. These guys are serious about serious science fiction, ranging from technology to social issues.

For example, don’t you wish that all creatures great and small could live together in harmony? Yeah. I did too before I read this one.

Bonus: You can flip through stories randomly, making it feel like a fun game to find your favorite!

Apex Magazine

This is kinda one of the Big Ones—they pay pro payment (6 cents per word, according to SFWA), so I wondered about including Apex because lots of sci-fi writers already know about them. But ultimately I couldn’t exclude one of my favorite magazines.

Apex has been host to greats like Theodora Goss, Saladin Ahmed, Elizabeth Bear, former editor Catherynne M. Valente (I can’t get over how fantastic she is), and a personal favorite of mine, Kelly Link, who wrote “The Constable of Abal.” She looks at  ghosts and witches in a way nobody ever has before, twisting tropes and making everything all beautiful.

Apex is brilliant at curating both the light and beautiful and the dark and hair-raising. A more recent story, “Coins for Their Eyes” by Kris Millering, is a wonderful example of a read for darker seasons.

Betwixt Magazine

Betwixt is not too old or well-known yet, but it’s well on its way, boasting up-and-coming names in speculative fiction. Their choice in fiction is really beautiful—they go for tight character stories that taste like poetry. Take Sean R. Robinson’s “Madder Root and Rampion.” It’s a lush thicket of savory images—even sporting a great example of how to do second-person POV right!

Or how about Sara Saab’s “Blood Pepper and Brave Meat”? It’s just as rich and even more accessible. Its seven-year-old narrator is worried about all normal things a seven-year-old should worry about—plus watching gladiators fight and selling illegal drugs. She learns a hard lesson about the world and learns to stand up for herself.

Mmm. Speculative-fiction-poetry. My favorite kind of yum.

Fantasy Scroll Mag

If fast-paced sci-fi and fantasy genre literature is more your game, check out Fantasy Scroll. Its issues are packed to the gills with interviews (with famous people!) as well as up-and-coming writers on the more traditional side of the genre.

I picked out two firey examples from the latest issue to inflame your fantasy-taste-buds. First, check out “The First First Fire” by Alexander Monteagudo.  The bite-sized story chronicles a gentle man and how he comes to protect his village.

Another story with more of a horror lean is “Burn in Me” by Carrie Martin. All I’m sayin’ is, if you’re a firefighter, watch out for fire-demons. What I love about both stories is that they focus tightly around one character’s journey and arc, something that all of us genre writers could do to learn how to write.

 And that’s it! What do you think? Did I hit your favorite genre literature magazine?

The post #5OnFri: The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazines You’ve Never Heard Of appeared first on DIY MFA.

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 reading of this blog post is optional.)

Now it’s time to get those gloves broken in and learn how to hit that knockout strike.

Getting something published is a long game. A lot of twiddling your thumbs, picking your nose, and constantly checking your Twitter stream. Looking for instantaneous success?

Hah. Haha. Heh.

When I first began to submit to literary magazines, I made a ton of mistakes that cost me valuable time and frustration. Let me here elucidate some of them so that you don’t follow in my bumbling footsteps.

1. Not Doing Your Research

You finished your story! Everyone must read it RIGHT NOW! Doesn’t matter if the magazine guidelines say they’ve seen enough Frankenstein/succubus romance to last a lifetime, because you know that yours will change their minds!

Coming from experience, magazine guidelines exist for a reason. When I read for Bartleby Snopes, we had to continually revise our guidelines of things we didn’t want to see because authors kept sending in stories that didn’t resonate with us.

In short: If the magazine classifies itself as “literary fiction,” hard sci-fi is going to be a hard sell.

Do the editors—and yourself—a favor and don’t submit to magazines that just aren’t picking up what you’re throwing down. You feel me?

Make sure you’re a good fit before you submit (Feel free to put that phrase to whatever catchy Arianna Grande tune is on the radio today). A great way to research magazines in your market is Duotrope or the Submission Grinder. I originally listed Duotrope on DIY MFA’s Resource List because you could search magazines for word count, genre, payments, average response times, and more. While it’s gone to a yearly payment (a cost I gladly pay, as I’ve found an incredible amount of magazines and have been published because of Duotrope), Submission Grinder is a good no-cost alternative.

2. Wanting to See Your Name in Lights

While poking around the literary magazines, one might notice that only about 10% of them (75% of percentages are made up on the spot) are in print; it is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single writer must be in want of her name in print. Errr…I mean, one might be inclined to snub one’s nose at the online magazines. It’s not a real magazine, is it?

When I first started out, I wanted to see my name in print. It’s the thing we authors salivate over. But most print journals are highly selective—understandably so, since as we all know print is slowly slouching toward the way of the dodo (or however that phrase goes) and people don’t buy as many print magazines.

However, lots of people have access to internet—and these people love to read things for free.

Two of my favorite stories were accepted by two wonderful online magazines—one put my full story online for free and they both promoted the hell out of my work. That’s the kind of notoriety that you can not only tell your friends about (and earn rabid readers along the way) but that looks good in cover letters when you submit to magazines in the future.

Speaking of that (only natural) authorly desire for fame and fortune…

3. Going for the Big Money

I have a friend who has yet to publish anything, and yet he told me that he hoped to get his first short story sold to Tin House because he’d like to pay back some student loans.

Sure, I took my turn at the Tin House submissions. And maybe someday you’ll work your way up to that point, but professional payment is not easy to come by—and practically impossible on your first short story.

Let me say this once: If you are in this writing gig just for the money, get out now.

It’s totally possible to build a sustainable, lucrative career on writing. But when you’re first starting out, nobody’s going to be lining up to tuck money in your pantyline.

Editors of free/low-cost magazines agonize just as long and hard over which stories to include as those that offer high payment. It’s not like they’re cheap because the fiction is low-quality—it’s because these magazines want to get into the hands of more people and find you more readers.

Submitting to magazines that offer little to no payment might seem like you’re selling yourself short—literally—but once you get published? You’ll get that little boost of confidence and build a foundation for breaking into markets with higher author pay.

4. Submitting Only to Non-Simultaneous Markets

Most of the big, prestigious, pro-paying markets have this little note in their submission guidelines: No simultaneous submissions.

All that means is that they don’t want you submitting your story for consideration to other magazines while they’re reading it. They usually have the best of intentions for doing this—from keeping themselves from drowning in a stack of submissions to upping the quality of submissions, and even to allow themselves more time to carefully review stories.

But the problem comes when you see their average response time—3 months. I even know of one magazine which gives a minimum of 6 months.

As a beginning author, it’s likely that you’re going to receive more rejections than acceptances. That means that if you send your story just to one magazine, you could be twiddling your thumbs for 3-6 months before you get your rejection.

This is probably my biggest mistake when I first started submitting. Don’t do what I did. Submit lots of stories to lots of places. You still might wait 6 months, but at least you can submit the story to more magazines while you’re waiting. This will up your chances of getting accepted and ensure that you don’t throw things at the wall and scream colorful curses loud enough for the editors to hear.

I mean, wait, what? I never did that. Nope, never.

5. Letting Rejections Deter You

After over 50 rejections before my first sale, I was sorely tempted to give up. The self-doubt inevitably crept in: What if I’m wasting my time? What if I’m not cut out for this writing thing?

Maybe some of you reading this actually aren’t cut out for this writing thing. But if you can’t help yourself, if you absolutely must write—despite the nay-sayers—then you absolutely are meant to be a writer, no matter how many rejections you get.

Whenever one of my friends gets a rejection, I congratulate them. Why? It means they took a risk. It means they’re moving forward. It means they’re building a tough skin and getting better as an author.

Keep on keepin’ on. Do you have any idea how many times Rocky Balboa got knocked out? I don’t. It’s probably a lot

Persistence is key. The more rejections you get, the closer you are to an acceptance, and to getting your first published story. Now, are you going to roll over or are you going to stand up and throw the winning punch?

Got a question? Tweet me @beccaquibbles with the hashtag #askbecca, email me at becca [at] DIYMFA [dot] com, or just leave a comment below! You could see your question answered right here at Ask Becca! 

…………………..

Rebecca Ann Jordan is a speculative fiction author and artist. She recently won Reader’s Choice Best of 2013 for her short story “Promised Land” at Fiction Vortex and has published poetry and fiction in Flapperhouse, Swamp Biscuits & Tea, Yemassee Journal and more. Becca is pursuing a master’s degree in Creative Writing from California Institute of the Arts. See more from her at rebeccaannjordan.com.

The post Ask Becca: 5 Worst Mistakes When Submitting to Literary Magazines appeared first on DIY MFA.

I’ve been submitting works to a professional magazine I’ll call ‘Fantastico’ for about a year now.  I would send them a submission, receive an email that the story made it to the final round, then about a month later, a rejection.  After the fifth story, I wrote to the editor, asking (oh, so politely!) why I was getting bounced.  Was I doing something wrong?  Was there an element in my stories that made them fail?  A couple of weeks after my query, the editor sent me a very long explanation of just how stories get chosen for Fantastico.

First, some background on the magazine.  Fantastico publishes monthly with four or five stories per issue.  The submissions run about 250 stories per month.  The Editor in Chief reads all of the stories.  Here’s how he addressed my inquiry.

The Premise:

“When I evaluate submissions, I don’t read and then immediately accept/reject.  I will read a block of stories, ten at a time, and once I’ve read them I set them to the side for an hour or so.  When I come back, the stories I remember get passed to the next level.”

What this tells us :

Make our stories memorable, in a good way!

Craft:

“The last round of stories is usually 30-40 stories.  I do an initial elimination off a single reading, getting the number down to 12-15. . . . Nit-picky stuff can mean the difference between a rejection and remaining in the hunt.”

What this tells us:

It’s not enough to be memorable.  We must have a good grasp of the craft.  Spelling and grammar, yes, but also continuity, timelines, believability, plot, characters, setting.

Editing:

“[I rejected] an author who apparently feels an editor should overlook copious grammatical and spelling errors in a submission.”

What this tells us:

Editors have enough work to do just pulling together an issue.  They don’t have time to go back and forth with me about craft issues.

This is not to say that editors won’t edit.  I had one story accepted by another market.  Huzzah! Or so I thought, until the story came back festooned with little red marks.  This was something that passed grammar and spell checkers plus my alpha and beta readers.  Editors will edit—they just don’t have the time to correct obvious errors.

So, what’s the difference between making the final fifteen and getting accepted?

Tangible Factors:

“I work a lot of different combinations of stories to see which I feel works best.  Usually, I come out of the round of 40 with two or three stories that, in my head, are already selected for the issue.  So at that point, I have to find a way to make the issue work.”

What this tells us:

One of the ways an editor has to “make the issue work” is a hard factor like total word count.  An issue of Fantastico will have a given number of physical pages.  On those pages are the stories, ads, editor’s column, standard features, and graphics.  The amount of space (and thus words) for stories is fixed.

Let’s say that out of the available space for fiction, the editor has selected four stories that are a lock for the issue.  Unfortunately, the remaining space for story number five is only about two thirds of the maximum submission size.  If we are in the habit of writing stories that are as big as possible, we’ll lose to a smaller, tighter story.

Intangible Factors:

“So getting to the final round out of hundreds of submissions doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re doing something wrong.  What it means is that sometimes, your story just doesn’t work with the other stories I’ve already selected. […] If you’ve made it to multiple final rounds, then I’d expect your stories to continue to do so–and eventually, you’ll break through.”

What this tells us:

Beyond the hard factors like maximum word count are such intangibles such as how well each story fits or compliments each other.  This can be some of the most maddening rejections.

Sometimes, the puzzle pieces just don’t fit.  I had an excellent story for this market, but its format just didn’t jibe with the others.  That didn’t mean it wasn’t a good story, it just wasn’t a good match for the others.  It is maddening, but that’s just the way it is.  An ace is a great card in poker, but if you have four jacks, an ace is pretty much worthless.

• • • • •

So there you have it.  A great premise gets you past the first hurdle.  Good craft is required to get your story to the final round.  The story has to fit within the remaining space.  It must appeal to the readership.  After that, well, it’s mostly intangible—how well does your work fit with the other selected stories.

The real lesson is to keep trying—never stop writing and submitting.  Someday, you, too, will break through.

Bill Patterson has been published in JournalStone’s SF anthology “90 Minutes to Live”(2012), as well as Mutation Press’s SF anthology “Rocket Science” (2012).  He was nominated for the British Science Fiction Award (Non-Fiction category) in 2012.

He joined National Novel Writing Month in 2007, and has participated in every November and many Camp NaNo events, winning nine of the past ten such challenges.  He has served as co-Municipal Liaison of the Central NJ Region since 2011. He and his wife of 30 years, Barbara, live with their two sons in Central New Jersey.

https://PattersonBill.WordPress.com

The post A Short Story from the Slush to the Cover appeared first on DIY MFA.

Regardless of what you submitting, every writer needs one thing: a submission schedule.

Weekend Prompt: Make a Submission Schedule

Set aside time specifically for working on submissions.  The key is to send work out regularly but also not to let the submission process cut into valuable writing time.

This block of time is when you’ll research agents or literary markets where you’d like to submit work.  This is also when you’ll write your query letters, format your manuscript according to the different guidelines and keep track of all your submissions.  Determine, how many submissions you can complete and send out during the allotted time each week, then try to complete this number of submissions weekly until you’ve feel satisfied with the number of agents/editors you’ve contacted.

How frequently you schedule time in your schedule for submissions will depending on where you are in the writing process.  If you have only one short story read, then you may be able to send out all your submissions in a week or two.  If you’ve got several pieces ready or are querying your book you might need to spread the work out over several weeks or months until you’re satisfied with the number of submissions you’ve sent.

The idea here is to make a schedule you can stick to and to spread the work out so that it doesn’t overwhelm you.

Write on!

The post Prompt: Make a Submission Schedule appeared first on DIY MFA.

Step 1:  Look for publications that are a good fit for your piece.

There’s no point in sending your work to a magazine you know isn’t a good fit so familiarize yourself with the magazines or e-zines before sending your work to them.  E-zines are easy to research because their entire publication is online.  Print magazines take a little more effort but these days, most of them have an internet presence and often post a selection of their work online.  The idea is to read some of the work these magazines publish and see if your work would fit.  Whenever possible, support the magazines where you submit by purchasing issues; it’s good karma!

How do you find these markets in the first place?  My favorite resource is Duotrope.com, a search engine that lets you search for literary magazines and other publications.  You can narrow your search according to genre or subject, making it easy to find magazines that could be a good fit.  Each market’s entry on the Duotrope database includes submission information as well as a link to the magazine’s site.

The Writer’s Market is a book and subscription-based website that also gives similar information.  The book is updated each year so it can get pricey to keep purchasing it year after year but you can always go to your local library and peruse the latest volume.  The website offers both the search engine function as well as a submission tracker that allows you to keep track of places you’ve submitted work to.

Step 2: Read the submission guidelines carefully and follow them.

If the guidelines say “no attachments,” don’t send an attachment.  If the market asks for your piece formatted a certain way, do it that way.  It might feel like you’re jumping through hoops but really, most of these guidelines are there for practical reasons (like to avoid your piece getting caught in a spam filter or getting misplaced).  Yes, this means that each time you submit a piece, you’ll have to put in a little extra effort to format the submission to that specific market, but if it helps keep your piece from getting lost in the ether, isn’t it worth it?

Make sure to follow the submission guidelines on the website because while Duotrope and The Writer’s Market also include this information, it might not be as up-to-date as the guidelines on the website.  The safest bet is to use resources like Duotrope or The Writer’s Market as starting points but to double-check against the submissions online.

Step 3:  Understand the lingo.

Simultaneous Submission

This means you’re submitting the same piece simultaneously to several magazines or e-zines.  Some magazines say “No simultaneous submissions” in their guidelines, which means if you want to submit something to them, you must wait until you hear back before sending it elsewhere.  Most markets, however, will accept simultaneous submissions as long as you let them know in the cover letter and you contact them if your work gets accepted elsewhere.

Multiple Submission

This is when you submit multiple pieces to the same market.  Most markets will accept multiple poetry submissions (they usually specify a maximum number) but few markets will accept multiple short stories.  Usually, the submission guidelines will specify how long you must wait before submitting work to them again.

First North American Rights

This means the magazine is licensing the right to publish your piece in North America before anyone else can have it.  Most magazines will let you know when it’s OK for you to republish or reprint your piece.  First Electronic Rights means the same thing, only instead of publishing it first in North America, the market gets to publish it first online.

Step 4:  Write a cover letter.

The cover letter should be no more than a couple of paragraphs–half a page at most if printed.  Keep it to the point.  Here’s an example:

Dear Mr./Ms. [Name of Awesomesauce Magazine Editor Here],

Please consider this 750-word story entitled “Super-Duper Family Reunion.”  I learned about Awesomesauce Magazine through Duotrope several months ago and have become an avid reader and fan of your quirky, whimsical style.

“Super-Duper Family Reunion” recounts the events of a family reunion from the point of view of a sassy, at times even snarky, eleven-year-old girl as she observes her family members and realizes the truth behind the family dynamics.

My work has appeared in several literary magazines, including Fanshmastic Magazine and Storylicious Review.

This is a simultaneous submission, but I will notify you if it is accepted elsewhere.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Best regards,
[Your Name Here]

Notes on the Cover Letter:

• Whenever possible, address the cover letter to the specific editor who will read your work.
• Key information (title, genre and word count) is right in the first sentence.
• If applicable, it’s nice to mention how you learned about the magazine or why you think your work would be a good fit.  (If you don’t have something relevant or sincere to say here, just skip this part.)
• Give a one or two-sentence summary of the story but don’t get into too much detail.  Let the story speak for itself.
• Mention previous publications but avoid giving a long laundry list.  If you have no previous publications, don’t sweat it and please don’t apologize for it.  Just leave that part out.

Step 5:  Keep track of your submissions.

I keep a spreadsheet with all the important information for each piece I submit.

• Title of the Piece
• E-zine or Magazine
• URL for the E-Zine/Magazine’s Website
• Editor’s Name/Email (person I sent the piece to)
• Date Submitted
• Response Received and Date

I also color code each row (blue for pending submissions, red for “NO” and green for “YES”).  There are websites like The Writer’s Market and Duotrope that have submission trackers, essentially serving the same function as the spreadsheet.  I haven’t explored these services in depth because I like my spreadsheet system, but if you’re tech-saavy these sites are worth a look.

Once you’ve gone through all five steps, then it’s just a waiting game.

If you’ve hit “send” and your work is out of your hands, your best bet is to get your mind off of it by starting something new.

The post How to Submit to Literary Magazines appeared first on DIY MFA.

Or not.

Everyday, editors at literary magazines and agents in literary agencies face piles upon piles of submissions.  The dreaded slush pile. Having worked both as an intern in a literary agency and as a staff member for a literary magazine, I assure you that the slush pile can terrify editors and agents just as much as it scares the pants off of writers.  People reading slush have to make fast decisions about the work they read or they’d never get through it all.  And these decisions are inevitably subjective.

Ultimately, the key to writers’ sanity is to embrace this subjectivity.

I’d like you do a little exercise.  Pull out a piece of paper and write the word “rejection” on it.  Take out a second piece and write “acceptance.”  Now I’d like you to ceremoniously destroy these pieces of paper.  Tear them up.  Crumple up the pieces.  Stomp on them.  Set them on fire.  Whatever you choose to do, make it dramatic.

Why did I ask you to do that?  Because submitting your work–be it a query to an agent or a short story to a literary magazine–is not about acceptance or rejection.

It’s about finding the right home for your work.

When you get a YES or NO response about your writing, you’re getting feedback and this feedback helps you narrow down your search.  It’s like that picture book Are You My Mother? where the little bird goes from place to place asking animals that same question until he finally finds his mother.  We’re that little bird.  And we’re asking agent after agent (or literary magazine after literary magazine) “Is your agency or publication the right home for my work?”  Each agent or editor who says NO brings us one step closer to finding that one YES.

These words–acceptance and rejection–are an illusion.  They imply that if your work gets chosen, you’re getting that magic seal of approval whereas if you hear “thanks, but no thanks” your work is no good.  At least, that’s what it feels like.  The truth is that most of the time it has nothing to do with value-judgements like “good” or “bad.”  Some work happens to be the right fit for an agent or editor and some just isn’t.  What one agent or editor sees as not for them, could be the piece that another agent or editor has been waiting for.

And here’s the beauty of all of this: all you need is one.  Your work is not a Vanderbilt, it doesn’t need multiple vacation homes.  All you need is one.  One agent.  One editor.  One champion for your work.

Even if you send a zillion queries or submissions, this doesn’t mean the chances of your work getting chosen is one zillion to one.  Think about it, if your work lands in the hands of that one person who’s the best fit then the odds of getting a YES are 100%.  The trick is finding that one person and that’s where perseverance comes in.

Every piece I’ve submitted has eventually found its home.  With one story, I found the right fit on the first try and the whole process from submission to YES happened literally overnight.  Other pieces, took years and dozens of NO’s before I could find that YES.  But I’ve noticed one trend, whether the YES takes a few hours or a few years.  When the YES finally happens, the person saying it doesn’t just say it in an unceremonious form-letter.  They tell you that they’ve “been waiting for a piece just like this.”

And when you hear that, you know you’ve found home.

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