Writers: Have you been published in a literary magazine?

I've been published in several mid-tier lit mags, and had my work included/mentioned in Best Small Fictions (two different stories in consecutive years) and included on the longlist for the Wigleaf top 50. I also have been the editor-in-chief for a mid-tier lit mag for about five years, and was a volunteer reader for the same journal for about 3-4 years before that.

I'll start by saying what it looks like you already know: Expect to be rejected. Writing -- publishing in particular -- is an endurance sport. Rejection is part and parcel of the process.

To put some numbers to it: my acceptance rate right now is about 1%. That's since 2015, when I started submitting. There are some years where I don't submit anything (during my MFA I hardly submitted at all because I was so focused on producing) and some years, like last year, where I submit to over 100 journals. 1% is a little below average for folks who are submitting to mid-to-high tier journals. Before last year, when I was exclusively submitting to mid-tier journals, my acceptance rate was about 4%, which is a good bit higher than most folks.

A lot of times, people only hear those numbers from the writer's perspective. To give you an idea of what high volume journals are looking at from the publisher's side, my lit mag gets about 16-18,000 submissions a year, on average. We publish 40-50 (one story most weeks, plus a special print version once a year). So that means we're only publishing at best 0.2% of all submissions we receive.

I don't want that to be disheartening although I know that it can be. There are things you can do to increase your odds. One thing to know is a healthy chunk of those submissions we receive would never in a million years be published by my journal. Why? Because the writer didn't read our submission guidelines, or spend even 30 seconds looking at what we publish. I don't mean that they submitted single space when we ask for double space (though I'll grumble about it, I'll still read and consider the work). I mean that they submitted their high fantasy space opera, which may be very very good for the right audience, but absolutely does not fit the aesthetic of what we work with. Or it means they submitted poetry to a prose-only journal. Yes, this happens every week.

So the advice I give to everyone, especially folks who are just starting to submit:

• Know the journal you're submitting to. Read their guidelines, read their About page, check out their masthead. Pick 3-5 pieces from their archive and read through them. Ideally in full, but at least enough to get a sense for their interests. Does the writing quality seem to align with yours? Would it be jarring for a reader to go from your story to something else in their catalog? (Imagine reading Ray Bradbury and then David Foster Wallace -- both good at what they do, but they're doing very different things.) Do they publish the same style that you write?

• Pay attention to the guidelines. If they want you to take your name off the document before you submit, they probably have a good reason. If they want you to double space your submission, it's because they're reading a thousand other stories and single space hurts their eyes. If they want you to put your name and phone number in the margins, go ahead and throw that in there. It's unlikely any litmag is going to call you about your work in 2023, but it probably means they print out or otherwise anonymize your story in some way and you want to be sure they know who to contact when the time comes.

• Set your expectations appropriately. Understand why you're doing this. Do you want other people to read your work? Do you want to add a great publication to your CV? Or do you want the feeling of external validation? Would seeing your name in print anywhere be as meaningful? These are honest questions that I wish more writers would ask of themselves. Some folks don't have the fortitude for frequent rejection and they shoot their story to the Paris Review and the New Yorker without taking a second to consider what they're expecting the outcome to be, and then they throw in the towel after five flat rejections. If your one and only goal is to be published, anywhere, there are journals that get quite a few readers who have acceptance rates above 15-20%. But most writers aren't really going to take those publications seriously.

Most people will say shoot to publish in journals whose acceptance rates are no higher than 5%. There are a couple reasons for this, besides ego, though ego plays a part in that too. The biggest is it means the journal is taking their publication seriously. A low acceptance rate means their expectations for quality are high; it means they're receiving a large number of submissions (i.e., folks want to publish there), and they're taking the time to consider whether your submission is a good match.

You can see acceptance rates on Duotrope (which is a subscription service, but one I've used for eight years) with the caveat that it requires people to report their submissions and responses. I would say that the numbers there are fairly accurate, enough to get a good sense for volume. Another great feature for Duotrope is the "Other people who've submitted here/published here have also submitted/published with these other journals" list. I use that frequently to find new journals to send my work to.

• I would recommend avoiding contests. Contests are even more of a crap shoot than regular submissions. Volume of submissions is far higher (though of course the allure of high prize payments is there), but if you think about it strictly from a numbers perspective: there can only be one winner for a contest. When you submit to a general submission pool, you're really only competing against yourself. If the journal likes it, they'll really consider it. (Now, there may be other factors that work against you here, things that you can't know and have no control over: the journal may have just accepted a story with a similar feel as yours, or they might have too much XYZ for their issue, etc.) That's why:

• It's important to understand what rejection letters mean. There are two-to-three tiers of rejections. A flat form rejection is the letter they send to most people. Thanks but no thanks, essentially. It means that story really isn't right for the journal. It doesn't mean the story is bad, or that your writing is bad, or that you should never submit to that journal again. It just means: This isn't a good fit. A higher tier rejection is more personal: We really like your writing style, or we really enjoyed the plot, or we like your voice (etc. etc.) but for right now, we can't accept this. It could mean they don't have space for it at the moment, or it could mean the story still needs to go through another draft to work out the kinks. It definitely means: Please send more of your writing our way. Rarely, a journal will suggest specific changes to a story. This is a revise-and-resubmit rejection. Unless a journal sends that, I wouldn't recommend sending the same story to the same journal. You're better off sending a different story in that same vein.

• When you're starting out, I suggest sending your story to about 5 journals at a time and then wait. Usually response rates are around 3-5 months. The more well known the journal, the longer you'll need to wait. A lot of journals are tied to academic programs, so submissions are often closed in the summer months; even if they're not, there's a good chance you won't hear until school is in session. Some journals don't allow for simultaneous submissions. I think that's pretty bullshit, when they take more than 3 weeks to reply. You have my permission to ignore that. I really don't know of any writer who respects that desire. At best, the journal has no idea you've submitted elsewhere. At worst, you'll annoy an editor if two places happen to pick up the story at the same time. It's not the end of the world.

• If you've received 10-15 rejections on the story, I'd suggest pulling it from your submissions rotation and sit on it for another 3-5 months before going back to editing. There may be something not working in this draft yet that a future draft can iron out. Editors want your best work, and though there's (usually) an opportunity for edits, it's unlikely at this level that the story will be markedly different from the one you submitted.

• PROOFREAD before you submit. Nothing turns an editor off quicker than the sense that the writer doesn't care about the work. If you don't care, why should the editor? Now: a typo here and there happens. I've probably made a few in this post. If you repeat a word, or there's a missing apostrophe or a comma splice on pg. 5, I don't really care. But if the wrong there/their/they're is used in the first sentence, or a character name changes midway through the story, or -- god forbid -- you've left your notes in the draft you submitted, I'll close out of the story and move on with my day. I have too many other submissions to get through to spend my time on something the writer didn't even proofread.

• And closing out the circle: If you notice a bunch of typos on the journal's page, or there are errors in story/presentation as you're reviewing a journal, seriously consider whether they're worth your time. If they don't take any pride in what they publish, how is it going to feel as a writer to publish with them?

Some final things to consider: Many journals charge reading fees. Many don't. Some run contests but have free submission opportunities. Some exclusively run contests. Some journals pay their writers, some don't. Some charge crazy high reading fees (like $20+), don't pay their writers, and have large acceptance rates. Only that last one is an outright scam, but you have to think about what you're willing to pursue ethically and morally. There are a lot of really successful writers who will not under any circumstances pay a reading fee. That's fine! I understand where they're coming from. Still others refuse and denigrate journals who run contests, because contests have higher submission fees. I absolutely understand their aversion, but I'd also suggest those folks look at who is being paid and how much. If the winning writer is being paid only $100 and everyone is charged $20, then yeah, I'd say that seems scammy. But if the prizes are high and the journal pays all their writers (even the non-contest-winners), then the journal is likely staying open and able to operate because of contests. That doesn't mean you have to submit to the contest obviously, but it's not a journal I'd write off out of hand.

Personally, I won't pay more than $5 to submit. $5 is even a stretch. I prioritize journals who pay, but there are some great, prestigious markets who don't pay but who can really make a CV look great. (Generally, these are the upper tier university-affiliated journals.)

I use Erika Krouse's lit mag tier list to help find new journals (there are a lot out there). Cliff Garstang has a similar list, as does John Fox. (John's seems a bit out of date, and I can't track down a more recent version, so he may have discontinued this practice).

Finally, never ever ever reply to a rejection message (unless specifically asked to for some reason). You won't gain anything at all from it. At best, you'll be ignored. At worst, the editor will remember your name and won't even consider anything you submit in the future. Editors talk to other editors. We share our horror stories and we definitely warn other editors about writers who are harassing us. I'm sure I don't need to mention that anyway, but I always do because for some reason those people are out there in the world doing weird and shitty things.

This was super long, so I apologize, but I hope you found something helpful in all my rambling! If you've got any questions about anything specifically, I'm happy to help. I love talking about writing and editing and helping folks get started is something I really enjoy.

Good luck!