Eight Quick Submission Tips 
(or How to Save Yourself Some Grief)

by Trent Walters

First Tip: Never Tell an Editor He's Full of Garbanzo Beans

1) Look at what the magazine has published and try to match your material. This may be the most obvious yet most often overlooked advice. Many "Year's Best" anthologies should include works from the top magazines; however, a magazine may have changed editorship since the 1935 O. Henry awards, but you never know.

2) Read the editorials/history of the magazine. It will give you a better idea of what kind of material you ought to send. Editors get plenty of material that does not fit their needs. A magazine called Freedom and founded on the principles of anarchy will probably not be interested in an article entitled "What Your Constitution Can Do for You!" As co-editor of Mythic Circle, I was amazed how often submissions had nothing remotely resembling myth -- no matter how broadly we interpreted the term.

3) Address the envelope and cover letter to the current editor, so you sound like you have done a modicum of research. Nothing is sadder than receiving a submission for an editor who has been dead for the past decade. You might, on the other hand, get a sympathetic reading if you kindly explained to the editor that you were so impoverished that you couldn't afford the bus fare to get to a bookstore and thumb through the latest edition of The Writer's Market and that you had to steal postage stamps from a little old lady exiting your local post office.

4) Don't get upset over rejection. The rule of thumb is THE RULE OF TWELVE. A work that receives twelve rejections is in a highly probable need of revision. But THE RULE OF TWELVE also requires maintaining submissions of twelve different works to twelve different places. By actively submitting, you are less likely to get upset and more likely to fill someone's needs. Of course, twelve is an arbitrary number. Call it THE RULE OF THREE if you have only three manuscripts ready for circulation.

5) If you get any sort of comment, fire another submission right back, thanking them for their suggestions or kind words. If asked for a rewrite, remember that the editor is always right; but you should vouch for your own vision, politely, if need be, i.e.:

Mid-America Poetry Review
Robert C. Jones, Editor
PO Box 575
Warrensburg, Missouri 64093-0575

Dear Mr. Robert C. Jones, Editor:

Thank you for the suggestions on revising "In the Dead." I believe they have helped tighten the poem.

If I did not happen to incorporate some advice, it was an attempt to maintain the parallel structure, i.e. keeping in "before emergence" retains the reason (being underwater) why there is the loss of direction. If you feel the poem still needs cutting, please do so. Your cuts suggest stronger lines. In any case, I appreciate your willingness to provide input.

I have enclosed an SASE and a copy of your original comments for your convenience. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Trent M. Walters

As an editor, I also have examples of how not to write to an editor (one from a professor who thought poorly of my suggestions and wrote an angry, single-spaced, two-page letter along with copies of essays, plays, and stories he had published to prove it). Never adopt an angry tone -- no matter how you feel. Put away the letter until you can write a well-reasoned note. (Or go ahead and mail it if you don't mind a dubious reputation. Editors talk.)

6) Start-up magazines are always on the lookout for new writers, which only stands to reason. Nobody has heard of them yet. New magazines sprout and die daily. Should you bother? How good are you? The idea is to get a story you care about into the highest possible quality magazine. But The New Yorker, Harper's or The Atlantic Monthly will not hesitate to reject your work if they sense a flaw. You must be either better than flawless or better than lucky. It helps to have some credits catch their eye. All the help credits will give, though, is to ask the editor to take a closer look. On the other hand, if you have ever read any of the major magazines steadily, you'll find that luck does count. So don't be afraid to submit to the top magazines. Today might be your lucky day. Shoot for Broadway, but don't neglect off-off-Broadway because of delusions of grandeur.

7) Look for magazines that have titles and layouts that appeal to you. They will probably be closer to the kind of magazine that will take notice of your work and of the credits you may or will have. Don't forget this can work the other way. For instance, do not say you've been published in Romancing the Bone Quarterly if you are looking to get into Asimov's. You're less likely to get as fair a reading -- except for a good laugh. For a positive example, a small-small-press credit in Bathtub Gin may interest New York Quarterly, but not The Atlantic Monthly.

8) Submit. Even if you don't follow any of the above advice tips, an editor might still accept your work; however, an editor cannot accept manuscripts stored on the tape drive of your Commodore Pet computer if you never get around to printing them off and sending them in.

These are just rough sketchings of how to approach the submission process. If you want a sound-bite, try "know your market and be polite," which should cure any submission ill.

-- TW
©2001 Trent Walters

Trent is working on his M.D. and a book of interviews. He has had over six dozen articles, poems, and stories published.