The Possibly Impossible Task of Ranking Literary Journals

Writer and Founder of Submitit shares method for ranking lit mags

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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I wrote a post not long ago about how I evaluate literary journals, focusing mostly on smaller and usually newer ones. These journals are important, especially for the second rounds of submissions, because they give writers the best chance of finding homes for their work.

But what about the “better” journals in my database? How do I decide that a journal belongs in my top tier? What about the next tier down?