Tips for Writers: Target your Submissions

You've written a story/poem/essay and now you want to get itpublished. There are a lot of literary magazines out there. Most of them you'venever even heard of. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of them. So how doyou decide where to submit your work?
Good question. The answer depends on your priorities. Ifmaking money is important to you, then you might want to limit your submissionsonly to contests or magazines that pay for work they publish. To get thatinformation, I recommend Duotrope.com.If money isn't so important, and all you want to do is get your work up on theInternet so you can share a link with family and friends, Duotrope.com can alsopoint the way to even the most obscure online magazines. NewPages.com is another resource that canbe helpful in finding magazines that you might not already know about.
But many writers want to have their work appear in themagazines that publish the best work. That alone constitutes recognition thatsome of us crave, and suggests that your work is worthy of attention by a wideraudience. That's my theory, anyway. I want my fiction to be in the bestmagazines possible. For me, it's a career issue. The best magazines (generallyin print, although not all) will get the work noticed, even though it is alsotrue that online (generally less highly regarded) magazines may be more widelyread.
So, how to find the best magazines. My very own PerpetualFolly Pushcart Prize Ranking (Fiction) is a great place to start. (There'sa separate list for Nonfiction,and I'm in the process of developing one for Poetry.) This list ranks literarymagazines by how many Pushcart Prizes and Special Mentions each has won overthe last ten years. This is recognition by respected writers and editors whodetermine the awards. So, using this methodology, I aim my own submissions highon that list, and work my way down until they stick. Because the list also haslinks to the websites of the magazines, it's a good way to explore submissionguidelines, obtain sample copies, and subscribe to magazines that are ofinterest.
Because, after all, the best way to get an idea of whereyour work will fit is to read the magazines where you might want it to appear.It's pointless to send the same story to every magazine on the list, becauseeach magazine has a different sensibility. That's what we mean by targeting,but you can't target without knowing something about the magazines.[image error]