Most writers build up publishing credits in magazines or competition shortlists and prizes before approaching a publisher or literary agent to get a book published. It’s a tried-and-tested route for good reason: it helps the writer build a readership and provides the publisher/agent with confidence that it’s good quality writing.
Researching markets and finding opportunities feels time-consuming, but it’s a good investment if you intend to be more than a one hit wonder. In all cases, check the submission guidelines before considering submitting.
- Follow writers you like on social media. Most writers will share publication acceptances so you can see where they are getting published and investigate.
- Follow magazines and publishers on social media so you can see submission call outs and competition listings with very little effort.
- Check out listings sites for your genre (I’m not going to provide a list of links here) or sites such as Submittable and Duotrope.
- Read independent and small press magazines so you get a feel for what they are looking for in submissions.
- Read author and writers’ biographies either on their websites or in magazines so you can see where writers in your genre or writers your work stands comparison with are getting published.
- Where you can, subscribe, buy copies of magazines and books and share social media posts from independent publishers. Whether you subscribe or not shouldn’t influence the decision on your submission, but if you’re not supporting the literary ecosystem, why would publishers support you or readers buy your work?
- Consider joining a writers’ group where opportunities and publishing advice is shared between members.
- Be professional, a submission is like a job application so don’t sabotage your chances with a less than professional approach.
- Be wary of search engines results pages. Sometimes the top results are sponsored adverts or publishers with a less than stellar reputation.
Always check the submission guidelines and follow them: your aim is to have your work remembered, not yourself – editors will overlook one-off mistakes but will remember those who blatantly disregarded the submissions procedure.
Red flags or things to watch out for when finding places to submit writing:
- How clear are the submission guidelines?
- Is there a masthead/list of the editorial team? If the editorial team aren’t named or don’t have short biographies on the website, how can you judge whether to trust them with your work?
- Who else do they publish? Don’t just look at the submission guidelines, but see what work they have published and consider whether that’s company you want to be seen in.
- Check social media, how many followers and what engagement do they have on social media? A good publisher/magazine editor builds a community, by sharing and promoting the magazine contents or books published or other publications/events by writers they’ve published. It’s not just about numbers though. A new magazine may still be building a following. A magazine with 20 followers and a last status update in 2020 has probably folded.
- Are you being asked to pay? Some magazines do charge a small amount (e.g. $3) to cover the costs of the submissions software package they use or will offer an expedited process or chance for feedback on your submission for a fee, which are all valid and you have the chance to decide whether to pay or not. But magazines, publishers or agents who ask submitters to contribute larger amounts or who charge a ‘reading fee’, particularly if it’s not explained what the fee is for or if there are no concessions, are probably not worth your while.
For competitions:
- Check the ratio of entry fee to prize amounts. Competition income needs to cover the costs of running the competition and pay the judge(s), however, if entrants are charged £10 for one entry, and the first prize is £100, it looks as if the organisers don’t have confidence in their ability to attract entries. Even competitions run as fund-raisers should still offer reasonable prizes.
- Check who the judges are and whether they are sole judges or if filter judges are used. Competition organisers will disqualify entries that don’t conform to the rules. Filter judges select a set number of top entries for the judge to decide the winners from. Sole judges read all the entries.
- Check the rules carefully, particularly around copyright. A competition should reserve the right to use entries/winners in publicity and marketing or ask for first publication rights if the organisers are producing an anthology from shortlisted or winning works. But the copyright should remain with the author, so the author can still perform the work or publish it elsewhere. Never enter a competition where the copyright is taken by the organisers because you could lose the rights to your own work.
- Check you understand the rules. Entry to a competition is generally seen as the entrants accepting the terms and conditions of the competition.
Contributed by Emma Lee
leicesterwritersclub.com 