The Creative Writer's Guide To Publishing

Submitting work for publication is scary. Believe me, I know. There are a lot of rules, many of them unspoken, and it is easy to get wrapped up what you don't know or can't control. So I made this guide, to help aspiring creative writers take the plunge and submit their work for consideration.

Good luck -- and don't be afraid of rejection!

A few rules to keep in mind...

1. Read the submission guidelines - all of them! - of any site, journal, or magazine to which you wish to submit your work. Follow those guidelines, every single one, as exactly as you can. If possible, read some past issues, to get a feel for what kind of work they typically accept.
2. Only submit a single work to more than one journal if each journal accepts simultaneous submissions. If they do not say that simultaneous submissions are okay, you must wait for rejection before submitting it elsewhere.
3. Similarly, do not submit multiple stories to the same journal at the same time. Wait to hear back on the first before you submit a second piece to them. That said, even if they reject your first piece, you are always welcome to submit a new work to them!
4. Keep track of what you have submitted and where. You can use a spreadsheet, a Google doc, or websites like Duotropes to help keep your stories organized.
5. If one work is accepted by multiple journals, you should accept the journal that responded first. But be polite in telling other journals, and let them know you have other work you wish to submit for their consideration.

Duotrope is an award-winning, free resource for fiction writers and poets that offers:

• a fully searchable database of over 4,125 active publishers
• statistics on publishers' response times, acceptance-rejection ratios, etc.
• the ability to track all your submissions in your own submissions tracker.

The Top 50 Literary Magazines list is compiled by Every Writer's Resource.com.