Last Updated on March 30, 2019 by Nathaniel Tower
A good submission strategy requires significant time and thought. There’s certainly a lot more to it than sending your poetry or fiction to every single publication you stumble upon. Unless you want to be rejected constantly or end up with a bunch of bad publications, you need to be selective. You need to make sure a venue is the right fit for your work. And you need to make sure you’re going to get what you want out of a publication – should they choose to accept your story or poem in the first place.
Here are the most important things you need to consider before submitting your work to a publication:
What will you get paid if your work is accepted?
Not every publication will pay you for your work. In fact, the vast majority of them won’t. This is something you need to seriously consider before sending in your story or poem. Are you okay getting nothing for all your hard work? Is $5 enough for that 5,000-word story that took you 50+ hours to write and edit? Maybe it is. After all, it’s not always about the money. Just make sure you understand what you will get paid before you submit your stuff. If you’re not okay with what they’re offering, don’t submit. Believe me, they aren’t going to negotiate with you.
Where exactly will you piece be published?
If accepted, how will your work be made available to the world? Here are some of the possibilities:
- Website
- Print magazine or anthology
- Ebook
It could be published in any combination of the above. For example, maybe it’s going to be on the website and also as a print book and ebook on Amazon. If it’s going to be published on a website, will it be on a featured page, or will it be buried deep in a one-page issue that you can’t conveniently link to? How will it be archived in the future? If it’s a print magazine, is it a limited edition run? Will anyone be able to read it next year, or will it be out of print? As you can see, there’s a lot to consider here.
Make sure you understand exactly where your story or poem will be published before sending out your work. If you aren’t okay with online only, then don’t send it to a publication that only puts work on their website. If you want everyone to be able to read it, don’t send it to a place that only publishes their work in a $50 print book.
What else are they offering besides money?
Money isn’t the only form of payment a publication can offer. Maybe they will give you a free print copy. Or possibly several free print copies. Maybe they will give you a featured spot on their website and a link back to your own website. Maybe they plan to do a whole social media or email campaign around your story.
Word to the wise: if it’s a publication that doesn’t offer a free contributor copy either in print or ebook form, then run away without ever submitting. You shouldn’t have to pay to see your published work.
How long will they take to get back to you?
Waiting for an acceptance is a bit of a drag. The longer you have to wait, the more it sucks. This is especially true if they don’t allow simultaneous submissions. It’s good to know how long a publication typically takes to respond before sending in your work. You can sometimes get this information straight from their guidelines. For most magazines, you’ll need to turn to a source like Duotrope of Submission Grinder. These websites usually give a good indicator of how long it takes for a particular publication to respond. If you don’t want to wait 400 days for a 99.9% chance of rejection, then you’ll certainly want to skip certain publications. Of course, waiting isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Some publications are worth it. Besides, it’s not like you need to have your story accepted next week.
Will people actually read your story?
Non-paying publications often brag about “exposure” or a publication credit. But what exposure are they really offering you? While you aren’t going to be able to get access to their analytics to see their exact traffic data, you should be able to get a sense of their popularity. Look at their social media accounts. Do they have a lot of followers? If they only have 15 likes on Facebook and 50 followers on Twitter, then you can be pretty confident that not many people are going to read a story published on their website. Look for any data regarding their popularity and think about whether or not that’s good enough for you. You probably don’t want to send your best work to a publication that only gets 10 readers per month. Unless they’re paying you a lot of money. Then you’ll probably be able to live with small readership. But if there’s no payment at all, you’ll definitely want to get a lot more of that elusive exposure.
Is this publication even a good fit for your work?
Just because a publication meets all your requirements for all of the above criteria doesn’t mean it’s the right place to send your work. You need to make sure you actually like what they publish first. Don’t send your stuff to a magazine if you can’t stand their work. The other important thing to consider here is whether or not they are likely to want your fiction or poetry in the first place. If your work doesn’t seem to fit their aesthetic, then don’t waste your time submitting. Look for publications you really enjoy that seems like a place where your stories and poems would live alongside everything else in harmony. That’s the ideal publication.
What are the main factors you consider before sending out your work? Share your thoughts in the comments.
