EVERYTHING You Need to Send Your Writing Out Into the World
Triple dog dare you to submit something this week
Hey, word-wranglers
We’ve spent November learning how to self-edit our writing at a professional level, so guess what comes next…? We gotta send it places.
Well, technically, we don’t have to do anything. There’s nothing wrong with writing just for you; it’s beautiful, actually.
But sometimes we want to share what we’ve created with the world, and — hell, I’ll say it — we want people to read it. To do that? We gotta send it places.
Submitting is something we happen to know way too much about — so we made you this.
A Submissions Toolkit
Ok, let’s start with the basics. For this we’ll tap our flagship Submitters Workshop.
It has everything that you need to know (and plenty you don’t) about submitting to lit mags. It’s written by a person who has spent 10+ years submitting, and 4 of those years co-founding
: .Here are some highlights for easy-click-convenience…
Where to publish your writing
Never seen a literary magazine in your life?
Read a bajillion lit mags but stuck in choice paralysis over which one to submit to?
Can’t figure out what kind of publication is even right for your writing (or the other way round)?
Begin here:
How to submit your work for publication
Before you do anything else, you read the freakin’ submission guidelines.
Actually, first, you read this guide to submission guidelines:
How to write a stupid cover-letter & literary bio
Yeah nah it’s not that deep. But it is useful to know your way around general submissions etiquette and logistics.
Here’s pretty much everything you need to know:
Oh, and this lil’ bonus from the Community Corner if writing about yourself in third person gives you the ick:
Creating a submitting system
Woah there, my little wordling. Before we get carried away, let’s make sure we’ve made a note of what we’ve sent out, when we sent it out, and where we sent it.
Otherwise, things can get… messy:
What rejections mean and how to actually get published
Look, we’re not saying it’s a numbers game, but there are a few simple ways to improve your odds (and your writing) along the way…
Genre-specific Submitting Advice
In case that’s not enough for you thirsty lil subs, how about these choice tidbits from our other workshops, which dive even deeper into specific genres, forms, and niche corners of submissionsville:
For poets who hate line breaks:
For writers who hate reality:
For lovers, dreamers, and spicy word-fondlers:
Find Your Publications & Your People
Our sister ‘stack
sends out a fresh list of lit mags that are open for submissions every week.Auntie Andrea has free submitting get-togethers… where you just get together and submit (you can also ask her questions — she’s so nice)
More nepotism but…
Each year mother Chill Subs asks the writing community who their favorite lit mags are.
The mags that get the most votes are named Chill Subs’ Community Favorites Best Lit Mags of the Year.
They get money and love, and writers get a crowd sourced mega list of magazines they should know about.
(The internet is a flaming shit pile, so word of mouth is really all we’ve got.)
You can also snoop on last years winners to see who all everybody is getting on with…
Right. That’s it for now. This is a monster post. You’re a monster writer. Go write. Submit. Vote. Lit mags are cool. Yay!
Oh, one more thing….
What did you submit and where did you send it?
Ok bye.
This is wonderful, thanks!
YES