Searching for Publication Opportunities

"searching is vital in a writer’s life"

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

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To pursue the career of writing is not solely about writing. It involves the hard reality of getting published. And between these two is a bridge of searching. The action of searching is both time-consuming and enervating. A writer might opt to use the time for writing and reading. But then what? For to keep work for a writer is the same as a river keeping all its waves from moving forward. Should this happen, no civilization would flourish.

So, searching is vital in a writer’s life. Searching is not limited to sending out written or audio-visual but also to find opportunities beyond these two popular genres associated with a writer’s profession. For example, to find upcoming retreats, grants, or the open call for readers or assistant editors.

As I am just a writer who inadvertently bumped into writing I would like to share with you how I have done and still do my industry of searching for the open writing calls.

The obvious question in a person’s mind who is new in the field of sending out submissions from where to begin. I too had this dilemma and without being part of any community my journey was more difficult than many who are part of poetry groups in the real and reel world.

When I began I had no knowledge and I seldom found markets to send my writings. I began with Google searches. The results were very vast and subjective. Most of the results that popped out were not relevant. Either the submission timeline had passed or were forthcoming in a few months. I discovered my time was getting wasted. So I certainly began to avoid this mode of searching.

With time I learned about Submittable’s Discover feature, Poets and Writer classifieds and New Pages listings. Duotrope is also a passageway helping to get through both searching and sending submissions.

The submission calls are also announced by the magazines in the social handles such as Instagram, X, Bluesky and Facebook. Those who follow these magazines get the timely news of their open periods. These calls are not just for written work but also for editorial positions, readers or for visual artists to name a few.

Once upon a time I stayed on social handles and used them for sharing my personal life events with my friends. There I saw several international journals having their own pages. Slowly I began to follow one after another. This apparently overfilled my home page and I was getting both tired and irritated. Looking out for more and more opportunities became an impediment for my creative process. I decided to leave the platforms and subscribed to a few magazines which I loved and still do.

In between I also learned about Trish Hopkinson’s A Selfish Poet webpage. She used to post submission calls and I found my life was eased a bit. This was the best lesson I learned about searching for writing markets, to look for places that compile lists.

This lesson helped me to find more newsletters who pile submission calls for the upcoming month and beyond. There are maybe more than that I am naming but these are the channels I use. I stay on the radar of a few newsletters like Authors Publish Magazine, Erika Dreifus, Hope Clark. They don’t ask for paid subscriptions and this makes them within the reach of every writer regardless of their monetary status. These newsletters are great places to find opportunities and are very much to the point and consume minimal time.

These newsletters are in reality the algebra questions I take the initiative to solve. The way every road is not for every foot, every call too isn’t for me. For example, I don't have much technology knowledge, so I remove markets that require some kind of expertise from the list of probable markets for my work, thus saving myself from extra stress.

I never missed my online life until I read a post about X being a great place for writers. It has a commendable writing community. I got inspired and finally decided to join it.

Staying there for a while I understood submission opportunities can be found there too. Several magazines post and also share the submission calls on behalf of other journals. This was like finding a pot of good luck not one but in a pair. On X I discovered Erica Verrillo’s account. She too does a great job about posting the upcoming submission calls on a monthly basis. She is super sweet because she thanks her new followers at the end of each week for joining her.

Still I don’t and can’t login now and then, to look for opportunities. I try to be disciplined with my writings and hence I am sometimes behind time. This comes out pricey at times as I recently didn’t know about the short open window of Griffith and WaxWing Review. I just missed the opportunities and this was frustrating as sending out work is a moment of celebration that drags behind it a bright scarf of hope. I pick it up and wrap it around my being. And wait with patience for the cosmos to do what it is intent on doing with my endeavors.

Not a long time back Chill Subs came into existence. They work as a medium for finding submission calls and also have many more features helpful for writers and artists. They have an ever-growing list of magazines and journals, the latest being the freelance market entry. They give case-by-case results and it is very easy to use. The themes are highlighted and hence it eats less time. They have subscription plans and some of their newsletters stay behind paywalls.

Please know whichever newsletters I have mentioned are the ones I use along with Chill Subs to find work for me. I wait for Erika’s newsletter before the month ends to write down which magazine is open along with its theme if applicable. She even posts each Monday for new and sudden submission opportunities. They are very helpful as if I forget to send out something they act as reminders and I do it at the earliest convenience. It was through Hope Clark’s newsletter I learned about freelance markets. Freelance markets are not just about political and economic essays. They have much more within themselves. Some of them accept poetry. It was through Hope’s newsletter I discovered Logic(s) Magazine and fortunately they accepted one of my poems “Antonym of do the needful and forget the rest.”

This month a column of Erika Dreifus’ newsletter caught my attention: a writer who shared their success story of the yearly Iron Horse Literary Review’s Photo Finish Contest. I too had sent my entry and became a finalist in this contest. I have always unintentionally or due to lack of time overlooked this section and didn’t feel any connection to it. This time it was different. I have made up my mind if I get an acceptance in the future through her Submission call alerts I too would share and send my warm thanks for helping me find a home for my work. A kind of bond that was there but beyond my scape of realizations.

My true journey from being a writer whose writings stayed limited to her own self began after finding these resources. Though my Submittable acceptances bar is still on the first page, I have by God’s grace received more acceptances through emails. Without doubt these newsletters have played a poignant role in my writing endeavors.

These are the methods I pursue to send out my submissions to the different magazines. You can try them out like me.

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