How to Publish Your Fiction with Literary Journals and Magazines (Online & Print) - Pt. 2

With this one, I'd like to suss out a few of the particulars that went unmentioned in my first post, which I had to do some research about early on. Hopefully this will help out a future submitter later.

Multiple Submissions Vs. Simultaneous Submissions

Typically defined, the term "multiple submissions" means several unique submissions to the same journal, review, or publication place at the same time. During the course of my exploration, I've found a small number of places that accept multiple submissions. I imagine this is due to the fact that some writers simply can't help themselves and want to send a deluge of content to a place and see which sticks. The problem with this is that it creates a mountain of submissions for editors to sift through. Especially considering how the next phrase works.

"Simultaneous submissions" is a term that means a single piece can be submitted to multiple places/locations/journals at the same time. More publications are open to this as long as they're notified when the piece is published elsewhere so that they can remove it from their own consideration pile. You can see now how the confluence of both multiple and simultaneous submissions can be problematic; submitting the same ten pieces to ten different places might up your odds of something being published, but it overwhelms and gums up the works all across the board. To say nothing of the fact that you'd have to go back and contact each of those publications if one story got published, much less all ten - a very small likelihood in and of itself.

Submitting Novel Excerpts

This one's tricky. Some places accept novel excerpts, but most don't. Why, you might ask? Because there are very few chapters of most books that don't require the chapters before or after it to make sense of the one in question. Even better, remove a chapter from your book. How does the removal of that chapter change the narrative flow of the entire work itself? If the change is so drastic as to make your book unreadable, then obviously you can't submit that piece for standalone publication. A general rule of thumb for my own personal use: don't submit novel excerpts, even if a publication accepts them on principle. It's highly unlikely the piece will make much sense without the corresponding chapters and if you're a writer, then you know you've got other pieces to submit.

If you don't have other pieces to submit, then you're not writing enough. So...go. Write. And write more.

Submitting Near/Around Due Dates

The vast majority of publications have opening and cutoff dates for when they start and stop reading and/or considering submissions. There's no real good way of knowing the best time to submit to places unless you've submitted to a publication on multiple occasions.

What I've started doing over the years is this: at the start of each month, I figure out which publications are opening up submission dates for that month. I break them all down by the genres they typically enjoy, the word counts they abide by, and when they're cutoff dates are.

I tend to submit early now. Like..."first day of open submissions" early. It's possible the editors may not know what kind of theme they may be going for with the issue. It's possible your piece might set the tone. More often than not, the editors probably already know what they like and what they're looking for, so even if your piece(s) get denied early on, you've got more time and more places to submit to. It may not be a win/win situation, but you have a litany of options available to you by submitting earlier than later.

If you submit later (say, the last available day of submissions), you may totally sway the editors, but if you don't, you're just racing against the clock and competing against everyone else who submitted at the last possible minute. By the end of a reading period, I guarantee most editors have some kind of fatigue as well, which can lessen the chances that they take your piece seriously on the last day or two of submissions.

Final Answer: Submitting early doesn't guarantee that you'll get published, but you've probably got a better chance of having your work critiqued by editors more fairly (and with less fatigue) than if you wait until the last minute.

Contacting a Publication on the Status of a Submission

So your piece has been out in submission land for five months. You've heard nothing back from the editors and you worry that they've somehow forgotten about your piece (because your piece being published is the most important thing...to you). Wait another month. Most publications that I've come across have blatantly stated "do not contact us about the status of a submission unless it's been over (x) number of months." Six months is usually the accepted length of time, but I've had pieces accepted nearly two years later.

If you query about the status of a piece any time before the six month mark, you may find yourself either blacklisted from that particular publication or have your submission summarily rejected. These are obviously worst-worst-case scenarios, but it can happen. Don't be a douche; stay patient. If you haven't heard anything in a year, you're more than safe to contact the publication to check on the status.

Paying to Submit

I used to only submit to places that were free and didn't charge a dime for anything; not for reading, not for editing, nothing. Now that most publications have gone to digital submissions, a few have begun charging reading fees. At first this bothered me, but more and more I realized how much paper these places were probably using to print up who knows how many submissions, so their costs were probably ballooning a bit. Since the writer wasn't submitting hard copies via post, this meant more costs in printer ink and paper. And a lot of places only publish digitally now, trying to keep their costs down while still trying to find that writer/writing that they want to highlight in their publication.

Most places charge just a two or three dollar fee to submit. This is COMPLETELY reasonable. There are a few others I've seen that have charged upwards of $30, but this fee includes a deep critique of the submitted piece mailed back to the writer with notes on the manuscript, subscriptions to the magazine, or any other various perks associated with the publication. I won't say that's a high fee, but if you're just starting out and haven't had anyone seriously look at your work before, try one of these once or twice to get a feel for the process. Each editor will read a piece differently, so it's good to get an in-depth look at your work whenever possible from someone who doesn't know you and doesn't care who you are; just know they may tear your writing apart (and this is a good thing; if you disagree, then you may not appreciate the critique process the same way I do).

Bottom line: fees are okay. Don't be afraid to pay them on occasion, but there are certainly plenty of other (free) places out there that produce high-quality content to a large number of people. Figure out what kind of publication(s) constantly put out the type of content you produce and you'll find so much more success in your publishing endeavors...as well as find yourself getting hip to new authors and new voices who may not already have their own books out.

If I've not answered any questions you might have about the publication of stories or poems in collegiate or literary journals/magazines, please feel free to comment with your question (I will answer EVERY ONE). I've had nearly 30 stories published over the last 6 years, so I'm more than happy to expand on any part you may have questions with.