Submission strategies
Here are a few tips for submitting short stories and essays:
Be strategic. Start at the TOP (Tier 1) and work your way down. Don't get impatient and try for more immediate gratification with lower-tier magazines right away. Getting published at a top magazine is not just good-feeling, it's career-building. You can always settle for less later.
Plan your submissions based on reading periods, and give some time between batches. Wouldn't it be a bummer if Nothing Special Quarterly accepted your piece two hours before The New Yorker emailed you with an acceptance? If you plan to go tier by tier, you have less chance of this tragedy happening.
If you’re just starting out, consider batches of 30-50 every month or so, and give about 4-8 weeks between batches.
How much do scores matter? A little. For example, a magazine with a score of 130 is better-regarded than a magazine with a score of 13. But is there a quality difference between a magazine scoring 3 and one scoring 2? If there is, it has nothing to do with the scoring.
Instead, consider how your story will be treated. Will it be one of many short stories, as in StoryQuarterly, or will it stand all by its badass self, as in One Story? Are they likely to nominate you for a Pushcart, or are such honors more likely to go to Haruki Murakami, Lauren Groff, etc.? Does the magazine have a loyal following, or is it more random? Is it new or well-established?
Editors are picky, so make sure you format your submission correctly. Click here to download a template (check your downloads folder).
Make a game out of the rejections. I set myself a rejection goal each year, usually 30-45, although it should be more. When I started out, it was 65—that also should have been more! I also try to have a significant number of submissions in play at any given time. It's a numbers game—the more rejections you get, the more acceptances you get, period.
Every publication is a good publication. If you get your work published somewhere, celebrate!
Remember that rejections are more than rejections. Editors are reading your work, and you may be making friends without realizing it. You'll get a form letter 5 times, but maybe an editor has been secretly enjoying your work, fighting for it, getting shot down, etc. Putting your work out there is the best exposure.
If the online submission fee is a couple of dollars, pay it! Magazines often use this money to pay their writers, and the fee is usually equivalent to postage and paper supplies. But if they're charging more than five dollars...I don't know. Seems wrong to me, but make your own decision.
Always follow the magazine's writer's guidelines, even if the guidelines are stupid. You can find those on their websites.
Don't feel disadvantaged if you don't have an agent and you submit your stories the ordinary way (through the “slush pile"). I do have an agent, and I still submit everything via slush, mostly because I don't want to bug my agent with every story I write. Most magazines read their slush piles. That's why they have them!
Keep careful records of where and when you sent each submission, when you heard back, and any editor's names you pick up from your rejections. Cultivate those relationships! If they ask for more, send them more.
If you want to drive yourself bananas, visit this Rejection Wiki to interpret your rejection letters.
You can also use the Submission Grinder to anticipate when you'll hear back from a given magazine (when you search at this site, keep in mind that all magazines that begin with “The"—The Paris Review, The Iowa Review—are alphabetized under T).
The year after you publish a piece, always check the “Special Mention” section of the Pushcart Prize Anthology, the “Distinguished Stories” section of the Best American Short Stories/Essays as well as the Best American offshoots (Mysteries, Travel Writing, Sci-Fi and Fantasy, etc.), and the “Notable” section of Best American Nonrequired Reading. You might be a finalist!
Make sure your work is ready-ready-ready before sending it. Here's the most surefire way to get published: WRITE SOMETHING AMAZING.
Good luck, and never give up!
