Why Are You Submitting to Lit Mags In the First Place?
Lesson 2 of 12: Sorry For The Inconvenience — A Submitter's Guide to Lit Mags
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On to lesson 2! Thank you everyone for your encouraging words and recommendations in the comments of lesson 1. A lot of you recommended different books for learning craft. I've compiled those recommendations here so others don't have to go scrolling through the comments to find them.
Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg - Ally Mia Bishop
Operating Instructions by Anne Lamott - Ally Mia Bishop
In the Palm of Your Hand by Steve Kowit - Ally Mia Bishop
Writing the Australian Crawl by William Stafford - Doug Fritock
Your Story Matters by Nikesh Shukla - Caylee Amber
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamont - Caylee Amber
Save the Cat! Writes a Novel - Amanda Karch
Stephen King’s On Writing - Deborah L. Klein & Beth
Building Great Sentences by Brooks Landon - Ray Duval
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders - Sara Maurer
Several Short Sentences About Writing by Verlyn Klinkenborg - Fernando Gros
Steering the Craft by Ursula K. Le Guin -
In Other Worlds by Margaret Atwood (for spec fic writers) -
I linked mostly to the publishers and not Amazon or Goodreads because Jeff Bezos has made enough money off of my BUY NOW addiction. If you enjoy places like Goodreads, I’d highly recommend The StoryGraph. From this list, I’ve read On Writing, Bird by Bird, Several Short Sentences About Writing, and Save the Cat! Some lessons to be learned about lit mags specifically from them, Stephen King sent stories out for years and years and notes how, once he became, Stephen King, there were a lot less rejection letters. i.e. reputation matters. And Anne Lamont chastises students early on in her book for focusing too much on getting agents and selling their work — yet Anne Lamont’s father was a writer and she spent years having his agent review and consider her work before her career launched. i.e. connections matter. This isn’t to say that either of them are poor writers (they aren’t) or that their work wouldn’t be published without these things (I’m sure they would) but just that, reading between the lines, there is a lot more to publishing than writing something great.1
In case you missed it:
In this lesson, I will cover all of the most common reasons folks say they submit to lit mags along with recommended lit mags for each and what I believe would be the best next steps. You can find all of the lit mags and resources I talk about in this lesson here. Also, I reference several lists I’ve created for our Sub Club Newsletter. I don’t want those without paid access to be restricted from the full value of this lesson, so I’ve created a 7 Day Free Trial Link so you can see any of those lists in full.
On to the why. This is not about why you write. Nobody will care about that until you're a famous writer in a room with a bad interviewer. This is about why you submit and it’s an important question to answer. If you don’t know why you’re submitting to lit mags, you’re going to hate it. It’s convoluted, hierarchical, and super niche. If you tell someone you were published in, say, ZYZZYVA, the person is more likely to say, “Bless you,” than “Congratulations!” And if you tell them you landed a story in Joyland, dollars to donuts, the next words out of their mouth will be, “I think I took my kids there once.” I can’t give you your reasons for doing it. Everyone is different. But I can tell you the most popular reasons, and we can take it from there.
I’ll say here at the top, you do not need a reason to submit to lit mags. It is fun. It can simply be fun and social. You’ll meet loads of like-minded creatives who make your writing life more rich and full of support. And it will make you a better writer. Doing it for a specific reason can be less fun. Hell, it can be downright frustrating and discouraging. Having your work rejected over and over by form letters that amount to:
“Dear cardboard cutout of a human, NO.”
…sucks. I am not going to ham-fist a load of affirmations on the joys of creative expression for the sake of it. Instead, I will try to be constructive and transparent to the best of my abilities. Here we go.
Community
This might be the best reason to submit to lit mags. In recent years, I've come to see the internet's trajectory headed toward what Erik Hoel calls 'Walled Gardens.' Niches, micro-cultures, and so on. Lit Mags are gardens, and editors are gardeners. Many are passion projects by a small group of dedicated people. They curate carefully and well. They have workshops, live readings, events, subscriptions, and supportive internal communities for writers to help them succeed. While a lot of prestige is based on achievements in literary merit, there are so many beloved, community-oriented magazines out there.
Barbara Diehl, EiC of Baltimore Review knocked this out of the park in an interview I did with her:
Find your people. Through courses, writing groups, volunteering with a journal, giving as much as you get—supporting other writers with advice, encouragement, buying their books, attending their readings. Support journals. Most editors are writers themselves. Most are trying their best to be good literary citizens.
Next steps: If you want community, read, socialize, celebrate lit mags and fellow writers. Subscribe to newsletters, follow on socials, and target magazines that support their writers.
Lit Mags building communities:
Barrelhouse (pop culture) - Great long-standing well-respected magazine with events, retreats, and even a podcast.
HAD (varies) - Wild experiment in submission calls with a super engaged community.
Dread Machine (sci-fi/spec) - Really engaged and transparent editors with their own discord.
Apex Magazine (sci-fi/spec) - Host loads of events and rejection breakdowns on youtube. High-end market for sci-fi stuff.
Points In Case (humor) - Great humor mag that dedicates a whole section of their website to author profiles and let’s them market their books.
ONLY POEMS (poetry) - Wonderful new poetry magazine that focuses on publishing poets over simply their poems.
Intrepidus Ink (spec/fantasy) - Highly engaged, super kind and supportive editorial team who interview every published writer on Twitter (Ugh, fine, “X”).
Stanchion (varies): Extremely passionate and supportive EiC who puts loads of work into the lit mag.
Fifth Wheel Press (LGBTQIA+)- they have a whole section of their website dedicated to selling other people’s books.
The Hooghly Review (varies) - Highly engaged editors who are always supporting and sharing their writers.
Lists I have created in the past:
We did a community nominations thing last year and so many wonderful lit mags were lifted up by their engaged communities. Pretty much all of these will help you (at the very least) find some lit mag friends.
Best Lit Mags of 2023: Chill Subs Community Favorites # 11-25
Best Lit Mags of 2023: Chill Subs Community Favorites # 6-10
A big goal of mine this year is to share more lit mags from outside of North America as well. So many brilliant ones have popped up especially in recent years, so I’ve been collecting them bit by bit. You can explore those here:
Soon, I’ll be doing Africa, Asia, and South America.
Validation
Everyone has the potential to be a writer. There is an anecdote from Haruki Murakami's book, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, where, on the way home from a baseball game, he decides to write a novel. He does. He submits it to a contest. He wins. He is one of the most famous writers in the world now. Point: Fuck Haruki Murakami. Kidding. No, my point is that anyone can be a writer. This means If you decide to be a writer, there are eight billion chances someone might wake up one day, roll over, and decide to be a much better writer than you. Imposter syndrome is inevitable. Submitting to and getting accepted by literary magazines is a way of whispering to yourself, whew, maybe you're one of the good ones.
Next steps: If you want validation, you're in for a bumpy ride. Rejection is a huge part of the submission process. And most rejection has as much to do with timing and theme (sometimes more so) as it does with quality. If you are new and want to try more accessible journals to start, there are some fantastic, less psychotically competitive ones. Then work your way up from there. You may also want to target magazines that present work well. After all, if you're going to go around shouting, "Look, Ma, I've made it!" You'll want folks to be able to access and read your work easily.
Lit Mags to watch:
New Writer Friendly, somewhat competitive, and present work well: Maudlin House, Scrawl Place, The Good Life Review, Five on the Fifth
More competitive and present work well: Astrolabe, Hunger Mountain, Little Engines, Northwest Review, Bending Genres, Crow & Cross Keys
They could print it on an old napkin and people would still, at the very least, say it’s good: Virginia Quarterly Review, Ploughshares, The Sun, Joyland.
Relevant lists I have created in the past:
Starting out: 14 Top-Tier Magazines That Want To Watch You Crawl Out of a Rhino’s Butthole
Expert: 100 Best Literary Magazines From a Totally Bullshit Ranking System We Tried To Make
Readers
This is a tough one. Most readers want escapism and actionable information. That, or they want to look smart. OK, not all readers. But the most popular fiction genres are Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Dystopian, Adventure, and Romance. Literary Fiction doesn't crack the Top 10. The top three best-selling genres, in general, are memoirs, self-help, and religion. And, I hate to break this to you, but memoirs aren't best-selling for their literary merit. If you want to be a best-selling memoirist, be really famous, or be kind of famous and die unexpectedly. I don't say this as an argument against looking for readers but to set realistic expectations. The top three best-selling books of short stories on Amazon as of writing are…
Torrent Witches Cozy Mysteries Complete Box Set: Books 1-10
Possessive Stepbrother (Steamy Shorts2 Book 1)
Essays of E. B. White.
Top selling in poetry? Dr. Seuss's Beginner Book Boxed Set Collection.
Lit mags will give you credibility, but rarely an excess of readers. Ploughshares, one of the top fiction magazines, has 3,600 subscribers. If you take the time and energy it takes to write something for these top magazines and put it into a Substack or blog; you'll get readers a lot faster.
Next steps: If you want readers, use magazines as a supplement to something else. Use submitting to test your work, grow as a writer, connect with others, and wrangle a few readers along the way. It is possible to garner readers through lit mags, but in terms of time, energy, and money, there are much easier paths. Since web traffic and circulation are closely held secrets for many magazines, your best metric will be to watch for social media popularity and, most importantly, their engagement (more on this later). If you’re worried about going off on your own to find an audience because you’re not sure people out there will follow you, I need to tell you about Mukbangs. If you don't know what Mukbangs are, it's a Korean trend of watching people house massive amounts of food for hours. It has its own Wikipedia page. It has millions of fans. Why does this matter to you? Mastering your craft doesn't matter if all you want is an audience. The world is trash; go find your pack of filthy raccoons.
I went ahead and asked our social media manager for Chill Subs (my partner & best friend) to share some lit mags on socials who do a really great job with engagement and sharing the work of their writers. Here is what she had to say:
Many magazines post on socials but that doesn’t mean they’ll post about you. These ones will, and they’ll do it in a way you’ll be proud to share. They also have high engagement rates & solid followings. Grams’ hyperlinked for easy creeping.
King Fisher Magazine - I expect this magazine will introduce indie lit to many new people because their vibe is so effortlessly cool, like I want to be them. I hope they do, their mission is beautiful.
Joyland - Their posts, feed, and vibe feel expensive (in a good way)
Only Poems - Their model is the perfect place for a writer to get exposure. OP focuses on a “poet of the week” and they promote the shit out of them on their rapidly growing highly engaged socials feeds.
Rewrite the Stars Review - Super active, growing quickly. Very creative with how they promote their writers and foster community.
Same Faces Collective -Elevated feed, artistic “Vogue” feel.
Lists I have created in the past:
I’m going to add a bit more here. So, my brother asked me why anyone would put something in a lit mag rather than just put it on Medium, Substack, Socials, or a blog where they might attract more readers directly to their personal project or name. And, OK, two reasons. First, having your work in a lit mag gives it a certain level of credibility. Someone, somewhere said, “This is good.” Now, and I’ll get into this more later, but most magazines have rights refer back to the author upon publication. This means you can have it published in a lit mag, then, sometime later, publish it on your blog, website, socials, and so on (crediting the mag for first publication, of course). It is a win-win. Have ALL your cake. Eat ALL your cake. Then film it and get your goddamn Mukbang on.
Career Advancement
If you are looking to advance within the literary world, publications are gold stars on your resume. A published piece in a major magazine can lead to solicitations from agents, award-winning opportunities, and a variety of snack tables at different conferences where folks will ask you a lot of questions like, "Why do you write?" If this is your "why," then you should never submit willy-nilly to top-tier magazines. Read, analyze, and craft your work to adhere to their norms. There is a box. It's a nice box, roomy, air-conditioned, but still a box. Get in the fucking box.
Next steps: If you want career advancement, don't just submit. Volunteer as a reader, attend events and throw your hat in the race to be an editor. Learn what magazines look for and how they process submissions. Treat submitting like you would any other career. Learn what will get you to the next level of recognition, and then target those accolades mercilessly. If you want to write as a literary career writer, you can't write non-literary things. You'll want to focus on prestigious lit mags. And contests. Win contests.3 For this route, you must consider the craft elements of your work. You'll be wasting your time to submit works beyond well-crafted literary pieces. (About possessive stepbrothers, for example.)4
Kolby Granville of After Dinner Conversation had some great advice especially for those with this goal in mind:
I think many writers, particularly new writers, think submitting is a numbers game. “I have a 1% chance of getting accepted, so I just need to spam 100 people my story and I’ll get published.” But that’s not the way it works. You have a 0% chance of getting published in a literary magazine that doesn’t fit your writing and a very high chance of getting published in a magazine that does. Better to submit less, but more selectively.
Lit Mags to watch: Rather than target specific magazines, you’ll want to look at these lists:
These are three individuals who have painstakingly analyzed lit mags to find the very best in terms of accolades earned.
Resources for jobs & networking:
Becky Tuch posts round ups in her newsletter Lit Mag News where she includes job postings and reading opportunities from different lit mags. This is a great resource if you want to find a position like this. And Publisher’s Weekly has a whole jobs in publishing section on their website.
Lists I have created in the past:
Starting Out: 15 Lit Mags That Are Like That Quiet But Deeply Cool Kid At The Party
Expert: 15 Magazines That Will Boost Your Writing Career or 18 Lit Mags That Will Make Agents Notice You
Further Reading:
How Literary Journal Publishing Built My Career by KATHERINE E. STANDEFER
Money
Lol, no.
Next steps: Get a job.5
Honorable Mention: You’re putting together a collection of poems, stories, or essays to submit and want to give it some weight.
I make this one an honorable mention because it could connect to any of the above reasons. Basically, if you want to publish a collection, a lot of presses want to see that the work within has been “approved”. Having a load of the works within a collection placed in nice lit mags will make it more appealing to publishers. For this, it really depends on how big you’re looking to go. As you can see from the above examples (Oh hey there stepbrother—ahem)6 literary collections aren’t exactly flying off the shelves. There isn’t some new path if this is your goal, but I didn’t want to leave it out because I know a lot of folks (including myself) are motivated by this. I can’t put an exact number on this but if I had to ballpark, I’d say you want 30-50% of your work published before you start sending it out as a collection.
If you're anything like most writers, you won't have only one goal. Likely, it'll be a mix of all four. Maybe you have a fifth thrown in there. The thing is, you can easily waste a lot of time with all of this if you chase the wrong meat truck. Yes, sometimes there are pretentious snobs behind some lit mags who say all of the mean things you’re worried they might say about your work. Yes, some lit mags don’t advertise how little they publish from their slush pile.7 And plenty just run hack contests and publish their friends. Here’s the thing. Fuck those people.
There is one thing I am not going to do in this course. I will not slag on or play games of gotcha with specific bad actors. Writers Beware does is this very well; The Blacklist Lit is a new website also trying their hand at this; and Lit Mag News covers it on the regular. I only say it so you’re not walking blindly into the industry thinking it’s all tickle-butts and puppy-licks.8 I will teach you all of the general signs and red flags of an unreliable or sketch lit mag later in this course.
But, I promise, you can give me any story, any genre, any poem, and I can find you a lit mag (at any prestige level you’re hoping to achieve) who works their ass off to be kind and fair to those who submit. And I will introduce you to many of them throughout this course. The healthiest perspective, if you are going into indie lit, is not to kid yourself, and not to waste your time. Set your goals. Find your friends. Have fun.
What you can do with your why on Chill Subs
*Sorry for the mumbling and weird musical interlude. We just moved for like the 6th time this year and my brain is a little woohoo.
Discussion Questions:
What are your goals for submitting to lit mags?
What barriers have you come up against or challenges you’ve overcome in pursuit of these goals?
Can you think of other reasons why people might want to submit to lit mags?
BONUS: What is a lit mag you know that slots well into one of these goals? I will create a spreadsheet of these recommendations and link it in the next lesson. Please recommend only ONE lit mag to keep this from getting too out of hand.
Exercise
Write out a blurb for your ideal literary magazine. What do they publish? What goals do they help you accomplish? Have fun with it. Give them a name, a theme, a little background. You can take a look on Chill Subs for examples of what lit mags put as their blurbs and go from there. I’ll comment if I spot anywhere I know a mag that is close to your dream fit.
Thank you for joining! On Friday, we’ll move on to Lesson 3: 5 Ways to Find Lit Mags. If you’re new to this course, you can find the full breakdown and schedule in my introduction post.
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Is the stepbrother wearing the shorts? Why are they steamy!? This is why titles matter.
I’m not going to talk about contests much in this course because they are a whole other monster that deserves their own course.
So, I had TWO people tell me they didn’t understand the stepbrother callback. Let me know if you do.
I’m being flippant here. You can make money in writing. But it would be extremely tough to do that solely publishing in lit mags.
Yes, of course I doubled down on the one joke nobody was getting.
I once got a two-fer on this where someone tweeted that they knew slush pile was a derogatory word because they and their co-editors used to make fun of slush pile submissions.
name of your sex tape
I can't believe how much great information you packed into this post! Are you really just one person? I'm going to be digesting this for a long time. Re: footnote #6, in early internet days I saw a back and forth (that the editors obviously didn't realize could be seen by just any yahoo) where one of them laughed about being overwhelmed with the slush pile and just sweeping it into the garbage can. And of course it stung because I had subbed to them and never heard back. I chalk it up now to them being young and I do think most editors today work hard at being good literary citizens. Here's the kicker: you mentioned this person in one of your posts and it all came back to me! As always, the world is big and the world is small!
Woh, Ben ... My head is spinning with all the lit journal lists. I think I may have drooled a little on my laptop. Thanks again for all the resources.
So many lit mags ... so little time! My goals with publishing in lit journals are:
1. I'm one of the slew of writers trying to build up my repertoire of published poetry so I can be one of a slightly smaller slew with a published chapbook. The first time I tried submitting a chapbook I had no lit journal credits for the selected poems. It was a fail. Now I have a number of journal-published poems & I'm hoping for a better outcome.
2. Author bios with lit journal creds in them are also great if you're trying to nab feature perfomer slots in your local poetry /spoken word community. I'm going for that too.
3. I wanted to be a princess when I was 5. Since that didn't pan out, lit journals credits make me feel just a teeny bit famous.