Journals/Magazines you read... and submit to

bigsmokewriting

Just something that came up in the office today - for those of you regularly (or semi-regularly) submitting to literary journals, magazines etc, how many of those journals do you read anyway, and how many do you only encounter as 'places to submit to' (only looking at them as writers but not readers)?

Chick_chick

Personally, I wouldn't submit to something unless I was really familiar with the publication. It's a waste otherwise, because a person won't know editorial taste. I doubt that there's a large rate of success with just firing things out blankly.

bigsmokewriting

Chick_chick wrote: »

Personally, I wouldn't submit to something unless I was really familiar with the publication. It's a waste otherwise, because a person won't know editorial taste. I doubt that there's a large rate of success with just firing things out blankly.

Very very true - yet certainly people do it! As you're saying, though, the more tailored your submission process is, the more effective it tends to be...

Chick_chick

I've only been submitting to journals since January, but I had been reading them for a few years beforehand. I've a fairly small output, but submissions I've sent out that haven't been 100% considered have been rejected. It's the long game really. It's very tempting to submit to competitions because of the buzz from winning or having your work commended, so it's hard to knuckle down and plod away with submissions to journals to develop a track record of publications. In the long run, if a person is working towards a collection, the slow build is probably better. The old dog for the long road, as they say.