#0002 To Get Published, You Need To Submit
But where, oh where, do you go to find out where to submit?
In your inbox one day, you may receive an email from a community nonprofit sharing an open call for submissions for its literary journal. (Inlandia Institute, for instance, sends email announcements when our online journal, Inlandia: A Literary Journey, has calls.)
Perhaps at the end of an artist weekend, the leaders encourage you to pull together a portfolio for possible publication. Maybe you see a social media posting about a submissions call that a friend shared. Or you’re part of an ongoing writing workshop, and the members have given you the confidence to spread your words wider.
That might be the spark that intrigues you to just maybe put your creative self-expression out in the world.
Once you’ve decided you want to get published, you need to figure out how to find the places that are available to receive your prose, poetry, or art. Some people run a google search? But that’s not efficient (and can lead you down some peculiar rabbit holes). Others use word of mouth. While occasionally useful — if the recommender knows what the reviewers like — you’ll probably only have a handful of opportunities.
I’ve dabbled in different ways to search for literary journals and anthologies. A few years ago, I stumbled on Erica Verillo’s monthly newsletter, Welcome to the Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity Newsletter!, which promotes her blogspot (still named in the url as Published to Death). She focuses exclusively on paying markets that do not charge submission fees. Though Erica has accumulated a truly humongous list, some months I read through all her accumulated open calls and still don’t find the just-right place to submit a weirdo written work.
But where, oh where… to submit?
As a member of Inlandia Institute’s 100 Rejections Club, I have access to the club’s group account on Duotrope, a subscriber-only website. The About page says it “offers an extensive, searchable database of current fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and visual art publishers and agents, a calendar of upcoming deadlines, a personal submission tracker, and useful statistics compiled from the millions of data points we've gathered on the publishers and agents we list.” Phew! Maybe using Duotrope I’ll find some calls that are good matches for that weirdo work?
I’ve set an individual goal on our member-only Trello board to try to find three places to submit by the end of the weekend. Yikes! (Nothing better than a shared, written deadline to commit to a task, am I right?)
After I dip into Duotrope, I’ll report back here.