Forum / Advice from people who submit to journals/magazines?

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    Kait Mauro
    Mar 06, 03:33pm

    Hi all,

    I'm interested in submitting a couple of my poems to journals/magazines just to see what comes of it. The point is still the writing but I'd like to dip my toe in this realm of things too. So -- does anyone have advice for someone who is very new to submitting? Any publications I should definitely try/check out? Poetry is my medium of choice so magazines with that genre would be best. Any advice about the process?

    THANKS,
    Kait

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    Dolemite
    Mar 06, 03:39pm

    If you haven't already, go to Duotrope's Digest and start swimmin' in the info.

    http://www.duotrope.com/recentupdates.aspx

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    Bill Yarrow
    Mar 06, 03:40pm

    Rejections are never personal. It's all about the "fit."
    Good luck, Kait!

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    Dolemite
    Mar 06, 03:43pm

    "Rejections are never personal"

    Then why does it feeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeel that way?!

    Whaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

    ;-)

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    Linda Simoni-Wastila
    Mar 06, 04:44pm

    I think going to duotrope is a fine idea. But, the best way to see if your poetry fits in is to read the journals and see what resonates with you. Aim for those.

    And yes, rejections are (rarely) personal ;^) Keep a poem in circulation until you find a home. Usually once a story/poem of mine gets rejected, I send to another within 24 hours. The exception is when I sense, from feedback or my gut, that it is not working and I need to revise.

    Best of luck, and so happy to have you swimming with the rest of us! Peace...

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    Darryl Price
    Mar 06, 05:33pm

    Rejections are personal. They feel as real as any slap to the face. But they also come with the territory. Some editors are simply not going to like your work for whatever reasons,and some of those can be highly personal based on background,education,philosophy,environment,lunch,etc.--and this doesn't mean your work does not have any true merit to it,or isn't good enough to be published, or that you aren't good enough as a writer to be looking to be published in the first place. If you fit the picture they're painting you're in, if not you're not. I hATE TO say it,having been an editor myself, but most people are not looking for originality or even artistic perfection--no one cares if you can write sonnets around Shakespeare--but missing pieces to the puzzle of yet another issue with a deadline to meet.If it were only good pieces of writing people were looking for the world would be full of a lot more literary magazines, fatter magazines, because that's how much good writing is out there.So I think you should take it personally--you're being pushed around by people with the power to publish or not--but accept it as a challenge,not as any kind of defeat,and certainly not as the rejection to end all rejections.There will be more. Learn to move on.You'll do better. You'll just as probably do worse. You'll do better again. They can't stop you.That's the point. Only you can stop you. And why would you want to do that? You haven't come this far to lose your way now.Emily Dickinson didn't stop writing just because nobody wanted to touch her stuff with a ten foot pole. It was who she was. She chose to be herself. She chose her poetry.I'm so very glad she did,along with millions of others around the world.Writing's a tough business and make no mistake about it.But it doesn't hinge on being accepted or rejected so much as on the sincere desire to continue to create works that matter.

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    Gessy Alvarez
    Mar 06, 05:51pm

    Darryl, thanks for writing such good advice. I'm guilty of feeling defeated so I'm taking your words as a good kick in the butt.

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    Misti Rainwater-Lites
    Mar 06, 07:00pm

    I have been rejected quite a bit lately but feel that my writing is stronger than ever. Submit to Negative Suck, Gargoyle, Bone Orchard Poetry, THIRTEEN MYNA BIRDS, Red Fez and Shampoo, for starters. It took me six tries to get inside Shampoo. I was damn determined. If the magazine has the word "review" in the title I submit as a masochist knowing the sadists will reject me because I do not have that MFA flavor. Ploughshares can kiss my rosy butt.

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    Gessy Alvarez
    Mar 06, 09:08pm

    Misti, MFAs don't help in the "review" world...I do think those journals tend not to publish work that may be too "challenging" for their readership...unless you're one of the "famed" few, that is...

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    Misti Rainwater-Lites
    Mar 06, 10:30pm

    Gessy, what I mean by MFA is academic. One of my favorite writers, Zachary C. Bush, is an academic but he writes visceral, not safe and bland. Of course I am generalizing and generalities serve no one. I just know from my experience that a lot of magazines I have found at duotrope's and certainly many that have review in the title tend to favor castrated and anemic verse.

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    Misti Rainwater-Lites
    Mar 06, 10:32pm

    (which i do not write)

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    Dolemite
    Mar 06, 10:38pm

    Buk was in Poetry Magazine, early on, too.

    (ya NEVER KNOW...)

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    Misti Rainwater-Lites
    Mar 06, 11:06pm

    wow...did not know that...was he writing about sun dappled kitty cats in the early days? I jest.

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    Matthew Robinson
    Mar 06, 11:11pm

    Aim high. Lower gradually, if necessary.

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    Sally Houtman
    Mar 07, 12:06am

    What a great discussion. I'm fairly new-ish at the publication game (only a few years) and yes, one rejection is still potent enough to dissolve ten acceptances.

    What I've learned to do is to read authors whose work/voice/style is similar to mine then read their bios to find out where they've been published. At Fn you can often find this info on the author's profile page. Maybe this is 'cheating' - or maybe just benefitting from others' experience. Hook up with writers whose work you admire and they'll be glad to help (at least that's what I've found here).

    Failing that, just do a search for 'castrated and anemic prose" on Duotrope. (Just kidding. I LOVE that phrase and may use it myself).

    Keep us posted, Kati

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    Misti Rainwater-Lites
    Mar 07, 12:27am

    LOL. Good one, Sally. I received my first acceptances in 2005 from Zygote in my Coffee, Titty Biscuits and Lit Vision. My favorite zine ever is the sadly defunct Zen Baby. Vacancy was great, too. I was the editor of Instant Pussy for a few years. I hope to start a new print zine this summer called Bacon Grease Review. I will show favor toward GBLT writers, prisoners and horny housewives.

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    Sally Houtman
    Mar 07, 12:56am

    Ooooh, Misti, I might just submit something on one of those criterion...but I won't tell you which one (and I use the word 'submit' in its literal sense).

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    Misti Rainwater-Lites
    Mar 07, 01:04am

    hahaha...now i will have to put my money where my mouth is...soon as i get settled in new place i will crank up the old copy machine (or there's always lulu)

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    MaryAnne Kolton
    Mar 07, 05:16am

    Kait, last year, after a life enforced hiatus of approximately twenty years, I came to Fictionaut. I started writing again and submitting due to the encouragement of many of the FN people. Each rejection (or Decline as I like to call them) was an arrow to my heart.
    I was boo-hooing about it here, when Susan Tepper told me something that has proven to be true many times over.

    Editing is a very subjective thing. Some editors will love your work and some will not. The people who publish it often become your friends. Just keep submitting. I often have five or six stories at eight or ten places each. In the year since I re-started I've had twenty eight stories published with another seven forthcoming. Be persistent, be professional and keep writing.

    PS The Toucan (Lovely Liz and Laura)were the first to accept my work - three days after I sent It. I know they had some space to fill. It was a poem. I am not a poet. Best of luck to you!

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    MaryAnne Kolton
    Mar 07, 05:21am

    Another PS If you ever need any help don't hesitate to ask. Some very fine poets post work here.
    And, feel free to reach out to me anytime. . .

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    David Maverick
    Mar 07, 10:38am

    I'm new to submitting work. In fact, I'm fairly new to the whole writing arena, especially in the sense of displaying it online. I took a chance a couple of months ago and responded to a link in a thread here. I submitted a short piece of writing to turtleneckpress.com. It was my first submission anywhere and it was accepted (which was nice).

    I'm certain of being rejected elsewhere but it won't stop me. This thread is good to see and I'm sure it will prove helpful to me, so thanks to all those who contribute advice. It's much appreciated.

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    Tina Barry
    Mar 09, 11:00pm

    I've had plenty of rejections. The good thing about them is that after you've cursed out the editor for her/his lack of taste, drank a couple glasses of wine, and convinced yourself that you'll never get published, you will! And it will be sweet.

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    Misti Rainwater-Lites
    Mar 09, 11:33pm

    Amen to that, Tina!

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    Neil Serven
    Mar 10, 02:52pm

    I regard rejections the way Stalin regarded death: a single one is tragic, but all of them together are just a statistic. Rejections do not bother me. Receiving a rejection is simply a reminder that I am participating in this process that I want to be participating in, and that there was a time not long ago when I was not receiving rejections because I was not submitting anything.

    Don't submit to one place, or a handful of places, and say you are done. Placing all of your eggs in one basket is only going to be discouraging. Look at Duotrope, make a note of which markets accept simultaneous submissions and submit to all of the ones that you think might be a fit for your piece. Carpet-bomb the fuck out of the market. The more personal rejections you receive, the better sense you will get if a piece is worth continuing to submit.

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    Matthew Robinson
    Mar 10, 09:04pm

    ^ More on that, emphasis on finding a good fit for your piece. If you carpetbomb and get an acceptance, be very prompt in withdrawing from the other markets you submitted to.

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    Dolemite
    Mar 11, 05:16am

    In addition to carpet bombing, I recommend addressing the editors by their first names, as if you knew them personally--they LOVE THAT, but being the shy birds they are, are loathe to admit it.

    Also, if submitting fiction, be sure to include 2-3 paragraphs explaining the story. Why take a chance on being misunderstood?!

    Be sure and list EVERY publication you have.

    Published a poem in the church newsletter when you were in the fourth grade? INCLUDE IT! Letter to the editor? MENTION IT! What, they're going to check? Also (and this part is something they REALLY want to keep quite), it's rarely the quality of the piece submitted, but where you have been published before that counts.

    Period.

    As for bios, be sure and include all kinds of cutesy things like how many cats you have (editors LOVE CATS!), every single job you've ever had, every hobby, your favorite authors, and (pay attention here...) if your mother/brother/father/sister likes your poetry/story/memoir--for who could be a better judge than your own family?

    If you are one of the lucky ones able to afford academic instruction, mention it, AND the name of the instructor, as many times as you feel comfortable doing. Studied under more than one? Mention them all, and every positive, encouraging, enlightening comment they were paid to dispense (comments about "form" and "voice" carry particular weight).

    Never forget: They all know each other, and consider publishing a student of a fellow teacher as a favor to said teacher (who they might also have studied "under," and whose friend published THEM because of this, and so on and so on and...)

    Finally, if you are just starting out as a writer and are unsure of your work, be sure to include something like: "I know you'll probably hate my poem/story/memoir, but I just started writing last week and want to get published right away," for humility PLUS eagerness are almost universally irresistible.

    Hope this helps!

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    Kait Mauro
    Mar 11, 06:29am

    LOL

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    Sam Rasnake
    Mar 11, 12:53pm

    Be sure to read past issues of any magazine / journal that you're submitting to. Familiarize yourself with its editorial bent. Also, follow submission guidelines to the letter.

    Read, read, read.

    Keep your hand to the pen.

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