Looking to get published but don’t have a novel in your pocket? There are plenty of journals, online publications, and contests out there looking for good content.
Historically it is far easier to get published in a journal or to win a contest than with a big publishing house. Partially because journals and contests are looking for shorter works, and taking more of them, but also you aren’t getting paid very much. The turn around time is usually much shorter as well.
So where do you find these opportunities? I start with Poets and Writers—pw.org—as they have an encyclopedic collection of journal and contest notices. For online publications you can keep an eye out in newsletters or on their websites. I have done a couple of guest blog submissions to The Historic Novelist Society of North America’s online site; they take submissions a couple times a year and then publish a few a month.
Journals and contests may ask for reading fees, but not always. I personally don’t mind paying a fee if I think I have a good chance of being published or if it is under $20. The anthology I was published in payed a small stipend to the authors and the grand prize was a free conference ticket, but some contests will have a large cash prize or other writer-benefits. The reading fees not only help cover the costs of these things but also the labor involved in putting together a professional product.
So you want to submit to a journal and you’ve been to pw.org. The first step is to search through the lists of journals and find some that fit your vibe. If you are a historical fiction writer, and a white woman, from Washington; then a journal that features BIPOC men from Florida who write Sci-fi is probably not going to look twice at your work.
There really are journals that are incredibly specific about who they want to publish, but even more likely is that they will be looking for specific genres, forms, or topics for the specific edition they are compiling. If you find a publication that is a good fit for the Who— but not the topic—keep an eye out for future calls for submissions.
Once you have a list of journals that may be a good fit, make sure to read their briefs. What is the word count range? What is the topic? What is the form? Also when is the submission deadline? Can this be a piece previously published? What if you want to publish it elsewhere or as part of a novel? Just read the fine print and follow the submission protocol.
After submitting, make a note of where, when, and what you submitted and then update when you get results. Just because a piece isn’t right for one place doesn’t mean it might not work somewhere else, but it is easy to lose track of where you are in the processes when you have a lot of things moving around.
Everything isn’t going to be accepted. What you think is a horror piece might not be the editor’s cup of tea. What you think is flash fiction may feel unfinished to someone else. Once I submitted to a science fiction contest without realizing it was far more hard science than what I was writing; I got a very nice note on my manuscript, but not a publication credit. That’s okay!
For those of us who prefer writing to marketing ourselves, submitting to journals and contests can be a great way to get some credits as a published author between bouts of sending out bigger work. I say go for it.
Have a great writing week this week, or a great brain resting week which is what I have been doing. Not every day has to be a productive writing day; sometimes resting is part of the process.
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