Amanda Conover

Recently, I’ve noticed conversations popping up about publications, and I’ve even been personally asked about this myself, so I figured I would post a guide that I can link to whenever anyone has questions. I wish I had something like this when I was first submitting poems, or that it was covered more in my college creative writing classes. Instead, I figured everything out by trial + error and talking to other writers later on. I also made a YouTube version of this video: https://youtu.be/1EJ5siSRLdQ

1. Read. And then read more. And more. And still more.

Okay, not so much that you are prioritizing quantity > quality, as quality should always come first. But, I think it’s important to read both what you’re drawn towards and what you aren’t drawn towards as much. Variety in genres and subgenres is wildly important, even when you think it makes no sense. One of my former fiction professors told us her advisor badgered her to read poetry, and she kept refusing, until one day she decided to try it out. It ended up strengthening her prose writing and unlocked new techniques and ideas that hadn’t surfaced in all of her years of fiction reading. The same is true of poetry: read poems and collections from a variety of time periods and movements, and also read beyond poetry. Creating a regular reading routine can help eventually make this process more natural rather than forced. This goes for literary publications as well; read widely and diversely, and consider subscribing to some publications, in either print format or by email newsletter.

2. Workshop your poems.

This is a big one, and something I can tell isn’t happening in some of the submissions I review as a poetry editor. It *technically* isn’t necessary, and I have definitely gotten a handful of pieces published without workshopping them, but typically, I highly recommend workshopping your poems. It’s one of the best ways to get good feedback and to adjust your poems so that they convey what you intend.

Also, workshopping can help with being able to handle constructive criticism and look at your work more objectively, no matter how personal or sensitive your poems are. Being able to sort out which pieces of advice to pay attention to and which to ignore when you revise a poem is an invaluable skill. Look for local or online groups. Sometimes libraries, bookstores, and other organizations will host workshops. The ones I am in, I found through MeetUp.com and my school connections.

3. Research different publications and formulate goals.

Ground yourself in your “why”. Really reflect on what your purpose is in trying to get into literary magazines. Is it for career purposes, to feel validated as a writer, or some other reason? Be as honest as possible, as this will help you figure out where you want to get published.

How to find lit mags and submission platforms: Use free websites like ChillSubs, Submittable, and DuoTrope to find out which publications are open for submissions. Social media is also a great place to find opportunities, and the more writers you connect with, the more you will start to see reposts of journals and opportunities. Many platforms let you filter by whether a call has fees or not, whether it’s a themed call or a call limited to certain demographics (for example, a women-specific issue might only allow people who identify as women to submit), and whether they accept previously published pieces.

One important note that many people do not realize is that “previously published” often includes posting a poem on a blog, social media, or other website. Sometimes it doesn’t mean that, but I’ve noticed that it’s common for the meaning of “previously published” to include sharing a poem online in any public capacity (This is why I don’t personally post anything unpublished here or on any social media).

4. Read each lit mag that you want to submit to.

This one tends to get skipped over a lot. I remember rolling my eyes (in my head lol) when a professor advised this to my class many years ago. It’s easy to think getting published is all about submitting as much as possible (see more about that in the bonus tips at the end), but when you’re blindly sending out work without knowing much about the vibe, themes, and aesthetic of a journal, you’re setting yourself up for unnecessary failure.

Read at least a couple of poems from previous issues, skim through the about page of the journal, and overall, try to get a general sense of what the publication typically publishes. This will help you decide when a magazine is and isn’t right for your work, what poems to include in your submission, and maybe even what kinds of poems you want to write later on, if you are really vibing with a certain mag. I promise, it actually doesn’t take that long when you commit to it and can substantially increase your rate of acceptances!

5. Choose which poems to submit.

So, one caveat before I begin talking about this: I strongly recommend that you organize your poetry prior to submitting poems, as it will make things much easier in the long run. I personally have 2 documents that I use: one Google doc with every poem I am open to submitting at the moment, with each poem starting a new page and with linked headings for the titles, so it’s easy to see all titles at once. The second is a Google sheet where I keep a record of pretty much every poem I ever write (I update it every couple of months or so) and a description of the main themes, ideas, images that stand out, etc. I also give each poem a ranking, list when I wrote it, and link to wherever that poem is (on my computer, phone, notebook, etc.).

Okay, so for the actual choosing process. Everyone does this differently, but for me, it all comes down to trusting my gut/the overall vibe I am feeling for which poems seem good for a particular journal, as well as thinking about fit. Sometimes, I save my higher self-ranked poems for bigger, more established publications, and submit my lower-tiered pieces to new or emerging literary magazines. If it’s a themed call, obviously submit work regarding that theme, but otherwise, you want to select pieces that feel cohesive with other poems that specific journal has previously published. Or you can just trust your intuition and submit what you feel could work, even if you can’t explain the logic behind choosing one poem over another. The more you experiment with this, the easier the choosing aspect will become.

6. Format your piece(s) according to the guidelines!!!

This is an issue I often encounter in my work as a Poetry Editor, and even in my professional role as an Editor for scientific research (no field is immune). It sounds simple enough: read the guidelines stated and format your work accordingly. But in the rush and hecticness of submitting to multiple places one after another, it can be easy to lose track of formatting requirements.

What I do is have several templates titled “3 poems,” “4 poems,” “5 poems,” and so on, where I have that number of poems pasted (each piece beginning on a new page), in Times New Roman, 12-point font, with no identifying information. Having a basic, standard format for poems can make it easier to customize certain elements later on. For the most part, this bare-bones format is acceptable to a wide number of magazines. For others, I can quickly add page numbers or change the spacing or whatever else journals list out in their instructions.

Don’t skip this step, as some literary magazines will reject pieces solely because they were formatted incorrectly! Also, make sure to keep track of which pieces you are submitting. You can list out the titles of each poem you submit as the title of the submission, in the cover letter (more on that below), or keep track somewhere else. If you get an acceptance, it will be important later on to go back through and find every place still under consideration for that particular poem, to notify editors that it is no longer available.

7. How to write a cover letter for submissions.

There are so many other great posts, videos, and articles detailing this, so I will keep this short. You will want to make a template stored elsewhere that you can copy and paste while also adjusting details based on the magazine. For example, publications seem to love it when you mention in a cover letter a specific piece from their latest issue that resonated with you! Here is the template I use, of course, inputting ‘XXX’ with the journal name and number of poems I am submitting:

Dear XXX,

My name is Amanda Conover, and I have attached XXX unpublished poems for your consideration. Here is a brief third-person bio: 

Amanda Conover is a poet currently based in Peoria, IL, who often explores themes of existentialism and spirituality. She is the Poetry Editor for Carolina Muse Literary & Arts Magazine and holds an MFA from Arcadia University. Her poems have been published in Atlanta Review, the lickety~split, Sad Girl Diaries, Witches Magazine, and elsewhere. Find her at http://www.amandaconover.com or on Instagram @amandamconover. 

Thank you for considering my poetry. I appreciate any time and attention my submission may receive, and look forward to hearing back.

Sincerely,

Amanda Conover

8. How to deal with rejections

Rejection in any capacity is not always easy. Especially starting off, it can feel incredibly painful and like you aren’t “worthy enough” to call yourself a writer or that your work isn’t “good”. The good news is, it’s normal to feel hurt, disappointed, or frustrated with rejections, especially when it feels like that is all you are getting. The other good news is, it gets so much easier to deal with rejections in time…or at least it did for me, now ~7 years into my poetry practice.

As a Poetry Editor, I can confidently say that some of the best, most stunning pieces I have reviewed were rejected. It had absolutely nothing to do with the quality of work in any capacity, but was related to the fit and scope of the journal I edit for. Sometimes, we have already decided to accept 2 other pieces about heartbreak and want more variety for our issue, so we have to reject an amazing heartbreak poem. Other times, a poem is too dark for our typical content and would stand out in an issue. Knowing this might not erase the sting of a rejection fully, but remind yourself that great poems get rejected, and even your favorite poets and writers were rejected, sometimes numerous times, before an acceptance.

In a spiritual capacity, I believe rejection is divine redirection. Maybe your work is meant to find a home in a journal you weren’t initially considering. Regardless, have compassion and grace for yourself and your writing. What would you tell a friend whose work was being rejected? One interesting strategy I’ve seen people do is print out or collect their first 100 rejections as a sign of success: to be rejected means you tried in the first place, and that is worth much celebration!

bonus tips:

• Don’t worry about quantity as much as quality. I know one of the most common pieces of advice for submitting poems is “it’s a numbers game,” but there is no point in getting a piece accepted somewhere that you realize later you aren’t proud to be in. Not every magazine is somewhere you want your work to be. See my next bullet for an elaboration on that:
• Watch out for bad actors. While the literary community at large is a wonderful place, some journals are predatory, scammy, and generally just not the best. Platforms like ChillSubs have made it easier to weed out these publications, but they can still go unnoticed. It’s not normal or right to be published in a print publication that won’t provide you with a free contributor’s copy!!! Journals that are unresponsive, make edits to your piece and publish them without letting you know of the changes first, and journals that aren’t transparent about a timeline or how their process works are ones to be wary of. Maybe you still decide to submit there, but it’s good to proceed with caution when something feels off.
• Almost always, submit the max number of poems that the submission allows for. Why not, if you’re already submitting? The one exception to this that I’ve found is themed submissions. Sometimes there’s only 1 or 2 poems that will fit a particular theme, and in that case, it’s fine to only submit those.

I hope these points were helpful!! If you have any questions or want something elaborated on further, please leave a comment 🙂 I wish you all the best on your journey of submitting! There may be ups and downs, but overall, the literary life is full of magic, growth, and joy. And remember, if you are reading this now, you, yes you, are already a writer.

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