hey fellas!

usually people in person ask me this more, but i figured i would write it all out so i don’t miss anything. here is how i do submissions!

info about me: i am 19 and have been published over 30 times in magazines and journals. my work is not the best poetry at all by a long shot, and i have a ways to go (like all artists and creatives do – there is always room to improve) but i am proud of how i have been able to use my organizational skills to further my career.

step one: make a spreadsheet. typically i line it up in columns, and divide each column into a number of parts. usually you’ll want about 15 rows per poem set, half for the poem titles and half for where you have submitted them. below is a photo of mine:

as you can see, i usually end up doubling back.

step two: condense your poems into sets. usually i do sets of three, this is kind of a catch all number, and most magazines want somewhere in the ballpark of 2-5, so it’s a good happy medium. each poem goes on a separate page, times new roman 12 point font, bolded titles. bada bing bada boom. after you do this, you’re going to want to write a brief cover letter describing the poems for EACH poem set – it is tedious, but worth it. you’ll also want to write a quick third person bio. these both get copied and pasted in if you’re using submittable.

step three: create a submittable account. this isn’t necessary but it really helps most major/reputable magazines (not to hate on ones that don’t! i run my own and literally cannot afford to create a submittable call lol, this is not the end all be all) use it, so you will likely struggle to find a significant quantity of magazines that aren’t on submittable. in theory, you could just submit to the ones that used email submissions, but they are fewer and far between. a lot of the magazines on submittable do charge fees – i just don’t submit to those.

step four: lurk and submit! typically i make a list, either on paper or in a doc, of magazines on both submittable and poets and writers that are having open calls. i usually submit to five magazines for two reasons: one, i am constantly running out of magazines to submit to, and two, when i have to withdraw submissions if a poem has been accepted, (THIS IS IMPORTANT), it makes it less effort. i did start with ten each though, so this is something to consider.

step five: when a poem is accepted, you MUST withdraw that poem from everywhere else you submitted it. most times you can just leave a note in submittable or email the magazine. sometimes you’ll have to withdraw the whole thing.

that’s it! go forth!