What You Need to Know About Submitting to a Literary Magazine

So you’ve written a short story (or maybe a poem or essay) and you’d like to see it published; how do you go about submitting it to literary journals?

This post plans on walking you through finding and choosing the right journal(s) for you, what simultaneous submissions are, submission guidelines and industry standards for when pieces are missing, the difference between a cover letter and a query letter, and finally, reasons you may want to track your submissions and how.

Before we continue I want to touch on one tiny thing…

We have to discuss two types of stories that may be sitting in front of you. One is a story you wrote with a specific journal in mind. Maybe you saw their call for submissions, maybe they have a unique call like you have to use a certain prompt or line in the work, or maybe you just really like them and were focused on writing something you think they’d publish. The other is just a story that you wanted to write that is now looking for a home. We’re going to focus on stories looking for a home but if you skip ahead to submissions guidelines we’ll be back with those of you that have written for a specific journal.

Finding the Perfect Lit Mag

It’s overwhelming but looking at already curated lit mag lists can be super helpful.

In fact, I think curated lists are the way to go most of the time. But, consider searching for “Calls for Submissions” on social media and also asking your colleagues about where they're publishing and what they’re reading.

You can find curated lists on places like Chill Subs and Author’s Publish. And otherwise searching for journals with keywords matching your piece will be the best route. Consider things like adding genre, themes, and author identities (like queer, Black, Canadian etc) to your search with a call for submission or literary magazine/journal. It’s going to be a lot of work finding the right journals, but it’s great practice for when you go to find the perfect agent for your novel down the line (if you’re planning on going that route.)

Choosing a Literary Journal

In many situations you’ll be submitting to multiple journals at one (a bit more on this in a second) but you should narrow down your first batch to a manageable number (and should you wish or require, send out a second and third batch). I feel like 10 is a pretty good number to begin with but if you feel that’s too many or like you can handle more, adjust as needed!

What you’re looking for when reviewing journals to submit:

• You meet the criteria set out in submissions guidelines (more on this is second)

• Your story meets the criteria set out in submissions guidelines

• Do they allow simultaneous submissions?

• Less concretely, the vibes, themes, and style of your piece should match the vibes of the journal. This means reading previous issues or featured stories.

• How do they take submissions (email, form, snail mail, third party-platform?)

• Prestige and values of the journal (do they submit to awards? Are they well known? Do they support writers and stories you believe in? Do these things matter to you?)

• Review author publishing rights

• Review author compensation

• Review submission fees

Know going in what you’re willing to pay and what you’re willing to receive for your story so you can easily cross journals off your list. And likewise, understand your story intimately (I doubt this will be a problem) because journals aren’t always clear cut about genre and prefer vibe or theme based requests.

Submission Guidelines

Every publication will have their own set of guidelines which can include formatting, file type, word counts, genres, pay out and submission fees, how long to expect a response, issue deadlines, who can submit, who to submit to, and how to submit. It’s possible not all of these things will be specified but there are some industry standards you can fall back on, particularly for formatting.

When in doubt a PDF or .doc/.docx, in that order, is best. Anyone can open a PDF, Word, while industry standard, is a paid program that not every journal will be using it. Your manuscript should be written in a 12 point, readable font, double spaced, and paragraphs should be indented (suggested 0.5in). Title and name can go in the header and footer.

Remember that any stated guidelines overrule these standards. As an example, many prefer no names on the manuscript to allow blind reading. 

Writing Your Cover Letter

Unlike a query letter to an agent where you are selling your book, when you write a cover letter for a short story you are more selling yourself with a quick introduction to your short story; in this case the story should be selling itself.

Of course, check the guidelines before writing it. They may ask for something specific to be included (or even no cover letter at all! Maybe a bio in its stead). 

The basic formula for a submissions cover letter is to state your name, the title of your piece and its word count. If the journal accepts more than one type of writing (poetry, short stories, essay) be sure to include this as well. These facts should be stated succinctly in one or two sentences.

Following this you can include a bit more about why you chose this journal, who you are, and your qualifications as an author. To stand out, do a little poking around and find the masthead for the journal and address your letter to the best option on there (like the acquiring editor for short stories)

As an example, I might send something like:

Hello (Editor’s name(s)/ Fiction Editors), 

My name is Jerrica Black and I am submitting “Giggling Trolls” a short story of 1842 words for consideration at the Journal of Whimsy. I believe this is a great fit for your journal because of its lighthearted voice and fresh take on troll folklore. 

I am a queer woman from Ottawa who graduated from Algonquin’s Professional Writing program in May 2025 and am published in the Shattered Reflections anthology with the story “Flames to Remember.” I now work with aspiring writers as an editor and with small businesses on copy and content. I curate a blog and videos on writing, editing, and reading.

Thank you for taking the opportunity to read “Giggling Trolls,” and I look forward to hearing from you.

Best,

Jerrica Black.

It’s a good idea to track your submissions

Tracking your submissions can be a very important step in all of this. Especially if you are submitting many large batches and/or multiple stories. Tracking where you’ve submitted and when can stop you from accidentally double submitting, tracking when you can submit to a new journal (in the case of simultaneous submissions which we’re about to get into), and allow you to communicate with journals in the case of long wait times (checking in to make sure you didn't get lost in the mail) and other journal acceptances.

Tracking can be as simple as three columns in a spreadsheet: Journal, date, and result.

If you are tracking more than one story you can add a column or use two different sheets. You may want to begin your tracking earlier in the process where you start filling out the journals you want to submit to and using this sheet as a to-do list, marking off when you’ve formatted to guidelines, written a cover letter, and then when you’ve submitted.

This tracking will also come in handy when guidelines have rules about submitting new stories. Some will ask you to not submit anything, regardless of acceptance, for a certain amount of time, others will require you to wait only after acceptance, and others still may not have rules about this at all!

Simultaneous subs

Some journals do not allow simultaneous submissions. That means, if you submit to them, you must wait to hear back before submitting to another journal. Many others however have no problem with you submitting to many publications at once. There is still some general etiquette you should know in this instance.

If a journal asks for no simultaneous submissions and you still want to submit, I suggest you submit to them first but go ahead and batch write your cover letters for your other 9 (or however many) journals just to be efficient. This is where that tracking we were talking about becomes important. Many of these journals will have an estimated response time, if they don’t it’s suggested you wait a minimum of three months before submitting to another journal. Absolute best practices would say that you send an email stating your intentions to start submitting elsewhere; clear, caring communication means you’re not burning bridges.

As far as submitting to journals without this limitation, the etiquette to be aware of is simply that should another journal accept your submission, you send an email withdrawing your submission to anyone that hasn’t already responded so they can remove your submission from the “to read” pile.

In Summary…

Finding journals that are open to submissions and are accepting stories of your genre and style can be overwhelming but using curated lists can take some of that work off. You should choose journals that meet your goals and abilities which might include finances, prestige, and values. Your cover letter is not a query letter; it’s a quick introduction with just the facts rather than a sales pitch. Tracking your submissions can help streamline your process and keep you organized to follow the best practices of etiquette. You should be aware of all submission guidelines including, but not limited to, formatting, simultaneous submission, process of submission, word count and genre, publication rights, and timelines.

You’ve already done the hard part of finishing and polishing the story, this is just the labour intensive, hurry up and wait process. Maybe equally as daunting as beginning your story, but so worth it to see your story in print! Good luck with your story, essay, or poem in your journey of submitting to a literary magazine!

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Jerrica is a writer and editor who inspires up-and-coming writers to create compelling fiction and creative nonfiction works while providing them with the confidence to do it themselves or ask for a helping hand when they need it. She enjoys speculative fiction, horror and gut-wrenching emotion with a side of food & drink and the cozier things in life.