Should I Send My Work In? Yes!

Being on the reviewing end of submissions to a literary magazine, I’ve learned that much of what decides each submissions’ fate is the reviewers themselves. Of course it is important to put forth your best work and to submit to magazines that you enjoy or ideologically align with, but the reader of your submission must like it as well. “All that will matter in the end is whether the reader is impressed by and drawn to your work,” says author Katie Chase.

That may sound discouraging, that you can try your best and just get unlucky. That’s true, but writing should be for the sake of writing, not publishing. Shouldn’t it?

Here is a more optimistic way to think about it –

Essentially, you’ve got nothing to lose. If you never send out a submission to a potential publisher, there is no way you can get published. Zero percent chance. If you do send out a submission, the worst that can happen is its not included where you were hoping to publish it, and you are still in the same place. There are no steps back. That I think, is encouraging.

It is important to remember that literary magazines are made up of submissions by everyday writers just like yourself. Without people who take the leap of faith and send out their work with the slim hope that they might fins some success, lit mags would not exist.

~Ciera