How to Get Your First Short Story Published in a Literary Magazine

Of all the days in my 25 years of life so far, the best 4 were those in which I had a story accepted for publication in a literary magazine. As a budding writer, you need to share your work with someone in your life to maintain the motivation and self-belief to keep going—and getting the validation from the editor of a literary magazine who is saying not only, “keep writing,” but also, “I want to publish this story and share your work with our audience,” is a top-tier experience during your formative writing years.

That’s why I’m pulling together this guide to submitting your work to literary magazines, so you can get a few publishing credits under your belt and get some motivation to keep going when you might need it most.

What Is a Literary Magazine or Literary Journal?

A Literary Magazine is a publication for literary work, including, but not limited to, short stories, essays, poetry, art, social or political commentary, book reviews, and literary criticism.

Why Should You Submit Your Work to Literary Journals?

First and foremost, submitting your work to literary journals is mutually beneficial for both you and the journal — by submitting your work, you support the journal, and the journal uplifts your writing and shares your work with their audience (which often includes literary agents looking for up-and-coming writers).

Here are a few more reasons why you should submit to literary journals:

• To connect with other writers and editors.
• To connect with other writers, readers, and editors who are into the same kind of writing that you are.
• To support literary journals across the board because you know how important reading, sharing, and celebrating writing is.
• To gain publishing credits that would give an agent further confirmation of your abilities when deciding to represent you.
• To motivate you to finish stories before a journal’s submission window closes.
• Because it feels AMAZING to see your name on your story in a publication and to get to share that with your friends and family.
• Because literary journals tend to be where the ground-breaking & experimental writing finds a home first, and you can be apart of it.
• Some literary journals pay contributors.
• To find new work & writers that inspire you.
• To support your local literary community.

How do I submit my work to literary journals?

Step One: Browse Some Literary Magazines

First, it’s best to just familiarize yourself with the world of literary journals. If you’re not already on Twitter, make an account, and search for “literary journal” and “literary magazine” and click on “People” to find accounts with those terms in their bio. Browse through the results and read and follow some of those publications, and if you find a piece in one of those publications you really like, give the writer a follow on twitter as well! Make note of which journals you’d love to be published in!

Step Two: Write and Edit a Story

This is self-explanatory, but you need to finish something to be able to submit it!

Step Three: Finding Journals to Submit To

If you already have some literary journals in mind that you’d like to submit to, check out their submission guidelines to see how they specifically accept submissions, and make sure to update your submission to fit those guidelines (some outline word counts, or ask that the file you send them doesn’t include your name, etc.).

Most literary journals use Submittable to accept and review submissions, and it’s free to make an account and submit as a writer (unless the journal you’re submitting to has a submission fee), so you’ll definitely want to make an account. Submittable has features for you to discover journals and contests, so you can browse through open calls for submissions there.

Another great, free resource is Chill Subs — this is a tool specifically made to help you search for literary journals and filter results based on your genre, your experience-level as a writer, the journals’ response time, author demographics, and more. This tool is newer and has about 500 literary journals logged in their database.

You can also check out Duotrope, which is similar to Chill Subs, but you have to subscribe for $5/month. They have over 7,000 journals in their database, and results can be filtered for both writing and visual art. Duotrope also allows you to get a lot of data on each specific publisher (or literary journal) including recent response times and percent of submissions accepted, etc. Some literary journals accept submissions through Duosoma, Duotrope’s submission manager as well.

Other submission managers to know are Oleada and Moksha.

Step Four: Create a Tiered Submissions List + Preparing for Rejections

Reviewing writing for acceptance in a literary journal is VERY subjective, so the best thing you can do as you begin submitting your work for publication in literary journals is to shift your mindset from one in which the value of your work is tied directly to how quickly it’s accepted. Each story you write will be very unique, so submitting it to a literary journal is more about finding the best home for the piece where the vibe of the journal matches the vibe of your story.

That being said, you need to be open to feedback from the editors of these literary journals as well — some will provide you with a note or two of feedback, others will simply send you a rejection letter, and after a few rejections you may need to revisit the story to see if it needs further edits in order to be as powerful as it can be. THANK THE EDITORS FOR ANY FEEDBACK YOU RECEIVE, AND FOR REVIEWING & CONSIDERING YOUR STORY.

A good way to approach submissions is to create a tiered submissions list. Say you have 10 literary journals you want to submit a story to. Rank those ten journals based on which ones you’d be most excited to be published in. Then break those ten into three sections (i.e. the top three, middle three, and last four). When you start submitting the story, submit to the top three first, and then wait. If it’s rejected by all three of those top journals, review the story and take any feedback you received into account. Then submit to the middle three, and if those are rejected, review the story again before submitting to the final four.

Be prepared for rejection, and take it in stride. Rejection is just a part of being a writer, and it doesn’t mean you’re a “bad writer,” it just means the story as it is isn’t a good fit for the publication you submitted to, or the story isn’t yet as strong as it could be. Some writers actually set a goal to receive 100 rejections a year, because then they know that they’re trying and putting themselves out there enough!

Step Four: Finally Submitting Your Story

Take a look at the submissions guidelines for each Literary Journal you want to submit to, and follow those instructions to submit your story. Most submissions for ask for you to include a cover letter, and/or an author bio. Below are some scripts you can fill out for your own story to include with your submissions.

Cover Letter Example:

Enclosed you will find my (STORY, ESSAY, POEM), “TITLE,” which I am submitting to (NAME OF LITERARY JOURNAL). This is a simultaneous submission (INCLUDE IF YOU’RE SUBMITTING TO MULTIPLE JOURNALS AT ONCE).

I am (WHO YOU ARE — example: a recent grad w/ a degree in x from x university). My writing has previously been published in LIST OF JOURNALS (leave out if this would be your first publication).

I am a fan of NAME OF JOURNAL, and I particularly enjoyed AUTHOR’S NAME’s recent story “TITLE.” I thought SOMETHING YOU LOVED ABOUT IT.

Thank you for your time & consideration!

YOUR NAME

Author’s Bio Example:

YOUR NAME is WHO YOU ARE (including professional details, and/or interesting tidbits about yourself). HER/HIS/THEIR writing has previously been published in LIST OF LITERARY JOURNALS. She lives in x City with her X family and enjoys spending time doing x hobby (this should be one fun little tidbit!)

Step Five: Waiting

Depending on the journal, you’ll have to wait weeks or months to hear back, so once you submit your story, just get started on the next one!

Step Six: Receiving Your First Acceptance!

CONGRATULATIONS! ENJOY THE EUPHORIA! GO OUT TO DINNER! CELEBRATE

When your story is accepted, you’ll likely have to sign an agreement giving the journal the rights to publish, share, and archive your story, and they may have some small edits for you to review as well.

Make sure to thank the editors!

Step Six: Publication Day!

Make sure to share your story on your social media with your friends and family, and tag the literary journal. Check out the full publication to see who else had work published alongside yours, and congratulate them and give them a follow as well if you enjoyed their story!

I hope this helps! You can find my writing in Eastern Iowa Review, Crabfat Magazine, Gandy Dancer, and Likely Red Press, and you can keep up with me on YouTube.