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Launch Your Writing Career with the Snowball Strategy

Writer shares her personal publishing strategy

Bethany Jarmul's avatar
Bethany Jarmul
Oct 26, 2023
∙ Paid

Welcome to our weekly column offering perspectives on lit mag publishing, with contributions from readers, writers and editors around the world.


I’ve received hundreds, maybe thousands, of rejections from literary magazines, but when it came to publishing my chapbooks and poetry collection—I had a wonderful, surprising experience. Both my chapbooks were accepted by the first presses I sent them to. Zero rejections. Later, after only a month of submitting my poetry collection, I received two rejections and three offers of publication. What was going on? How was that possible?

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Bethany Jarmul's avatar
A guest post by
Bethany Jarmul
Bethany Jarmul is a poet and writer. She's the author of two chapbooks and a poetry collection. Her writing was selected for Best Spiritual Literature and nominated for Pushcart & Best of the Net. She lives near Pittsburgh. bethanyjarmul.com
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