#0056 More Behind the Curtain of a Lit Journal

When you submit, what then?

For some reason, Toto is never included in those “Which character are you?” personality quizzes. (Source: Tom McKinnon on flickr.)

The 1939 film The Wizard of Oz is a classic. Does anyone else remember when it was shown annually on network television? The anticipation leading up to broadcast? The newspaper listing with the runtime padded because of commercial breaks?

I would sit close to the screen, eyes glued on the Technicolor yellow brick road leading to the Emerald City, always gleeful for Toto’s reveal of the Wizard hiding behind the curtain.

Last time (#0055) I wrote about (some of) what goes into putting together a call for submissions before the window opens. Let us now get into the importance of reading. Guidelines, that is. (And some etiquette.)

Guidelines

Where to submit

Almost every issue there is someone who asks about sending their submission via email. Sorry, no. The guidelines state Inlandia: A Literary Journey only accepts submissions via Submittable. Though the limitation seems obvious to me, it struck me this week that maybe it is not for all. 

We want to have a record of every submission. Emailed submissions could get lost in the shuffle. (Have you seen my 4 inboxes?!)  Using a third-party platform designed for submissions also lends a professionalism to our endeavor. Plus, at this point, Submittable is to submissions as kleenex is to tissue paper: most everyone knows it (and even uses the name as the generic).

Submission limits

This issue, for the first time ever, we capped the number of submissions for each category. The limits were right at the top of the guidelines. 

When we reached 100 poetry submissions September 16th, I removed the category as an option for submission on the Submittable form. Yet someone submitted a poem under fiction. Sure, it was a prose poem, but really? Kinda unfair, since the fiction category also had a cap. By September 22nd, we’d reached 50 fiction submissions, so I removed the category from the Submittable form. 

Wouldn’t you know it? Two poets tried to submit packets of poems, this time under the art category. The submissions didn’t even have artistic formatting.

Guidance and familiarity

We aren’t trying to be mysterious or hide what we want or trick submitters. Our editors enjoy submissions they can accept as much as any Halloween treat. 

Along with the rules and regs, our guidelines give submitters guidance. For instance, where we state fiction submissions should have a beginning, middle, and end? We mean what we say. In fact, in my guidelines for editors, it’s one of the tips I share when evaluating fiction submissions.

Unlike some other lit journals, our guidelines don’t mention reading previous issues. Since we have turnover in our editors, especially for the spring teen issue, the people choosing submissions for publication changes over time. But some familiarity is never a bad thing. Especially this issue for the person who submitted a parody that, unfortunately, the editors read as sincere? It was super funny, but Inlandia’s journal has never published parody/satire. We are not McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, sorry!

Etiquette

Not yet

Twice this issue I had folks submit too early. Not before the window opened. (Submittable’s automated system  doesn’t reveal submission forms until the “go live” date and time.) What I mean is they submitted something not quite ready to be reviewed for potential publication. 

Sometimes someone clicks version 5 instead of version 6 when uploading. Completely understandable. A quick and easy fix by withdrawing and resubmitting. Other times, the submitter realizes too late there is something wrong with the submission that needs fixing. I view this one as potentially a larger concern. Though we don’t explicitly state “submit your best work,” it’s kinda implied? But again, a quick withdrawal is the solution. In either case, what submitters may not understand. 

The volunteer team devotes much time and energy on every single submission. Speed (of withdrawal) is of the essence. 

Reply to an acceptance

My accept message to a submitter via Submittable has in bold at the top to reply to let us know we have permission to publish the submission. Usually a joyous time, right, reading how excited people are to be part of the issue? Definitely. Once I receive the permission, I tag the submission “Accepted,” and I move forward with proofreading and formatting the web page.

During this busy time, I try to circle back once a day for Submittable notifications to see if noncommunicative submitters have granted permission. Time spent checking that I could invest in getting the issue together.

An additional wrinkle in all this Submittable communications stuff is that Inlandia has multiple projects, so the default is a general Inlandia email, not my journal-specific email. What does that mean? When a submitter decides to initiate a new message, the notification doesn’t go to me. I can find the new message, but it takes some digging. Again, it’s time I could devote to proofreading and formatting. With more than 200 submissions, it’s a lot of my volunteer time.

One More Thing

A final tip about submitting. Did you know Submittable has a setting that sends you notifications whenever there’s a change in the status of your submission? Do confirm your setting allows this. (In the 12+ years I’ve had a free Submittable account for submitting, I’ve never received spam or promotional/marketing emails.) Please don’t miss an acceptance message from me! Or a decline message, often with specific constructive feedback from our editors! 

Next time: 🎶Lean on Me🎶