Illiterati
"So what you need to do" my writer friends told me" is send some of your stuff to 'literary magazines'. They publish writing because it is good; trade magazines publish only what appeals to their very focused audiences and your writing has to match that style, content, et cetera."
Notwithstanding the daunting fact that "good" is relative term and my hermetic self is in a poor position to judge what is "good enough" for the lit-mags, I have set myself at least to become familiar with them. I now have a long list of selected magazines, print and online, and a list of lists of lit-mags, since they sort of hang out together and post "other resources" on each site, meaning "more publications like us". Once you find one of them, pull the thread and you'll find oodles. It's been sort of interesting, actually. Here's my take on the matter:
Firstly, I think it's safe to say many of you will never have heard of these limited-audience publications. They are not limited by lowest common denominator taste or comprehension when it comes to ascribing names to the magazine as they do not have to catch the eye of the grocery-store-shopping housewife in the checkout aisle in order to sell the rag. So they come with some odd names. Consider, for instance: Mudlark; Painted Bride; DeadMule; Owlfarm; Crazyhorse; Pig Iron Malt.
Lit mags seem to have an uncertain life expectancy. I'd say about thirty percent of the links I explore bring up either the white page of death, or archives of old issues only-- the mag having gone recently extinct; or a brief goodbye, thanking all their former readers for (months--less commonly years) of dedicated readership. Some come out annually. Many are twice yearly. There are quite a few "quarterly reviews" among university supported magazines. Most are low circulation and high price-point for purchase. Seems that many originate from university MFA or Creative Writing departments or are works of love of grads of such. Can't imagine anybody is making lots of money at this. Most offer two free copies of the issue in which a contributor's piece is published. Some actually pay, a little, after waiting up to six or more months to reply to your submission, and then paying only on publication. Not much of a ready or dependable income stream for the proverbial "starving" artist.
My impression is that literary magazines publish just gobs of poetry; and lots of fiction; and some non-fiction. Many are restricted to the first two genre; or poetry only. If they accept "creative non-fiction", their archives show it poorly represented, proportionally.
Some of the top tier lit mags prominently display who their most famous contributors are, and I am scared away immediately. If I see Annie Dillard and Fred Chappell and Ron Rash listed, I know I'm out of my league. Others seem to accept and print stuff that I purely don't get. Some is frankly bizarre -- way too "artsy" I guess for the unsophisticated likes of me. But then, I think it's true that the readership is the "twenty-somethings", in which case I should be approaching THREE TIMES the saavy of the 20-yr-old, given my overwhelming chronological advantage.
I think it makes sense for me to look primarily at regional magazines since my stuff is regionally branded by the language and often times by the subject matter. The Sun, Chattahoochee Review, Mockingbird Journal, storySouth and Rivendell are a few I've either sent stuff too or plan to do so. I told you a few weeks ago I had a piece accepted by the Birmingham Arts Journal; it was very much a southern piece set in Birmingham, actually, so that seemed a good match.
Rivendell operates out of Asheville and they have a theme for their two issues each year. The upcoming issue topic is "Southern Appalachia" and I have something that I think fits very well except that I've already sent it somewhere else. Rivendell will decide in 3 months, the other place in "six or more", although the 'somewhere else' is a more prestigious publication by far, and consequently a longer shot for acceptance, just playing the odds. So there's a little quandry there.
I've sent a piece off this week to storySouth-- an online-only journal. The editor Jason Sanford has a piece called "How to Expose New Writers: Online Versus Print Magazines and I think he makes a good case that online is a viable and growing venu for new writers. And storySouth features a nicely laid-out page for easy online reading. I'd like to see something of mine show up there some day.
Here at ZuZu's Petals is where I started my lit-mag exploration some time back. Here's another alphabetical list. And another rich literary readership site is WebDelSol. Almost all lit quarterlies and reviews have submission guidelines you can cut and paste from their websites. A growing number are allowing (or some requiring) email-only submissions of manuscripts and that sure beats the mailer and SASE and stamps and such. But an electronic rejection can be even less satisfying than a tangible paper generic rejection form letter that comes in the mailbox that you can rip open, wad up and throw dramatically into the trash, a pox on all their houses.
Gee. Amazing how one can ramble on at 3:00 in the morning when he doesn't have anything particular to say, but plenty of time to say it in.
Comments
The reason to submit to literary magazines: Publications here are big point scores with publishing houses that do publish literary-quality works. Several North American Review pieces, and you'd be out of the slush pile and into the "give this some serious consideration" pile.
I have gone into a serious rant/teacherly lecture on your vascillations on my blog. It got too long for a comment. Sorry...
Posted by: trish | February 26, 2004 12:45 PM
Yes, the literary magazines are strange birds in my book. I've submitted to a few and they won't give me the time of day.
I agree, the regional route is probably more profitable to explore.
Posted by: Ellen | February 26, 2004 12:54 PM
Bravo on your bravery. If nothing else, learning to submit, submit, submit does something good for the soul: it breeds generosity of spirit and faith that somewhere someone will publish your writing. It's just a matter of time.
Perhaps it's good to think about dandelions: all those seeds freely given. Not all of them make it, of course: plenty get squashed, eaten, shriveled, etc. But there's plenty of dandelions out there 'cause dandelions know to keep pumping out seeds. There's no sting of rejection if you have more where that one came from...
Posted by: Lorianne | February 26, 2004 2:37 PM
Ivy (at Ivy is Here blog) proferred some excellent advice a short while back: NEVER say "submission," always say "contribution"! She has a word to substitute for "rejection(s)" too - I believe it's "return(s)."
I stopped sending contributions to literary magazines because it's very time-consuming, and because I felt like a hypocrite for never buying a subscription. (I'm on a very limited income - for $6 I can get either one issue of a magazine 90% of which I won't care for, or a used book that I actually want to own.) I agree that the regional approach is very sound for a beginning writer. One lit magazine i actually like is published in KY, and is very welcoming to unknown writers: Wind (http://wind.wind.org/).
As you say, most lit mags are tied to MFA programs. Thus, the inclusion of creative nonfiction emphases in a growing number of MFA programs augurs well for the reception of lit mags to essays such as yours. The fact that you actually have something to say most of the time may or may not work in your favor.
Posted by: Dave | February 26, 2004 3:40 PM
My big problem with many literary magazines-- in print and online-- is the fine print. Many of them will put you in print and a few will even pay you, but just as many will see to it that you ceed your right to copyright and any future earnings that piece might earn to their pockets and not yours. Some-- because they own the piece in full-- will then go so far as to give your piece a new author's name and sell it to larger houses. I find it intolerable that any publication would claim lifetime rights to an author's works at any price. Read the small print, then decide if your work is worth throwing away if by chance the magazine you're submitting to claims the copyrights. -Billy
Posted by: Billy The Blogging Poet | February 26, 2004 11:54 PM