Good Fit or No Chance?

Reader Q: What's an appropriate level journal for my work?

Photo by Marten Newhall on Unsplash

Here’s a great follow up question from the community: After reading your Poet to Poet post about where to publish [individual poems]. How does one know what the appropriate level of journal is?

This is tough question to answer but it’s worth considering because there are so many journals. So. Many. Journals. And we have limited time and a finite amount of finished work to send out. Plus, who wants to wait six, ten, eighteen months for a response from a journal that is very unlikely to consider your work? To throw submission fees at a no-chance journal?

Although I have an idea of what “appropriate level” means to me, I think the term is a bit misleading. Does “level” mean the level of the work, the level of the journal, or both? What level is my work? "Level" suggests a measurable progression of quality or some kind of author hierarchy. 

So I vote to throw out “level” and recommend that, instead, we start by looking closely at the specifics, at who and what journals tend to publish, starting with where the journal’s contributors tend to be in their outward-facing writer’s journey—a.k.a. their publishing journey. Are they … ?

1. New to publishing

2. Have publishing credits but haven't published a longer work 

3. Have published one or more longer works (chapbooks, books), received fellowships, awards, etc.

4. Are well published, hold prestigious academic or other public literary positions, and are highly regarded by major outlets (NYTimes, The Poetry Foundation, etc.)

Where are you in your outward-facing journey? Does the journal regularly publish authors who are in a similar place? Have your peers published in the journal?

Keep in mind that prior publishing credentials may not be a determining factor. Aesthetic preferences, geographic considerations, themes, and other criteria may be more important in editorial decisions. Start by reading the journal's submission guidelines, but don’t stop there. Read recent issues and scan the contributor bios. Bios can give you a sense for geographic and other demographic diversity (or lack thereof). 

It’s no small project to make a list of good-fit potential outlets. Because journals constantly change criteria and themes—and your own work has its own evolution and stylistic variation—it’s a good idea to continually reassess and refresh your list.

This logic can be applied to book publishers as well. In fact, it may be even more critical to selecting where to send a manuscript.

What are your criteria? How do you determine a journal’s fit? What do you consider most when looking at potential outlets for your work?

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I’m delighted to announce that in Fall 2022 I’ll be launching the Poet to Poet Community and opportunity to gather with like-minded writers. Just like this newsletter, it is for poets working on books (or who are book-curious).

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