Takes Courage to Submit Work to Magazines
It does take courage to send one's work out to literary magazines. It's easy enough to stay within one's comfort zone, to keep submitting to magazines that have previously welcomed and published the poetry. To venture beyond that, to risk rejection is difficult, even for a seasoned author. I'm realizing this again as I prepare to submit a manuscript for the Southern Review.
I've begun the new poetry series, "Eating the New Species," and plan to submit the poems tomorrow. The editor, Jeanne Leiby, is a real editor--she has made thoughtful comments on my last two submissions. Both previous submissions were turned back, but the editor did find at least one poem to like in each batch, and she encouraged me to resubmit. What a class act! The writer feels encouraged, even as her work is being rejected. Now, that's art!
I've tried to hone the new poems to a fine sheen. Wish them luck (I don't say "wish me luck" because it's not me in the envelope, it's my work, which has a life of its own now.) And good luck to your writing as it makes its way into the world--Marilyn
- Login Or register To Post Comments
- Send To A Friend
RSS- Bookmark With:
Belle Yang says:
I'm curious how a poetry magazine
www.belleyang.com
editor comments and how you work with those comments. I know it's a broad question. Could you give specifics of a poem that was discussed in another post?
Thanks, Marilyn.
Marilyn Kallet says:
How a Great Editor Works
Hi Belle,
I'd be happy to do so. This evening I'll spend some time with this material. Thanks for your interest!
I watched one of your videos last night and was moved by your stories, the way you bore witness to discrimination, moved yourself out of harm's way, learned to see the larger picture.
All good wishes, Marilyn
Evie Shockley says:
the southern review
Jeanne Leiby is fabulous, as editor and as a writer of short fiction. (Check out her book Downriver!) Wishing you the best of luck (because you are the creator of the poems and can't help caring what happens to them!) with your submission there. : )
As for comfort zones, I've recently learned not to ever feel too comfortable. A wonderful journal that has published my work twice before recently rejected a submission of poems that I had very carefully selected with them in mind. I'd certainly submit work to them again, without a doubt, and I still feel like they've supported my writing to a point that my odds of being published in their pages are better than in "cold" submissions to journals likely to be unfamiliar with what I do. But it was definitely a reminder that one can't count on publication anywhere. : )
Peace.
Marilyn Kallet says:
Wonder about that Rejection, What the Variable Was
Well, damn! But you should try them again. Maybe you just got them at a bad time (too many submissions, too many promises).
It does hurt though. One of my friends says that we have to be like those carnival dolls that pop up out of the floor. The player with the mallet keeps knocking us down and we just have to pop up quickly somewhere else. That's the writer's life!
Good luck on the next round!! Try New Letters. Bob Stewart is another true editor. mk
Scott C. Holstad says:
Persistence, Not Courage...
I disagree that it takes courage to submit. I feel it merely takes persistence. My take on it is, everyone out there has been and does get rejected. Even the true "masters" were all rejected at one point or another. It's a part of the writing/publishing life. There's no courage necessary in finding what one thinks is a good fit for a particular journal. They'll either take it or they won't. Keeping one's chin up and continuing to send stuff out, over and over again, to journals all over the world -- now that'll pay off for most at some point, and that's what I believe in.
Over the past 20 years, I've been fortunate enough to have hundreds or more poems appear in hundreds of magazines in 26 countries and five languages. That wasn't courage -- that was me working my ass off -- persistence.
Feel free to disagree with my take on it. I just wanted to weigh in, and thanks for your perspective. Best wishes for the submission!
Marilyn Kallet says:
Stubbornness is definitely a virtue!
It does take persistence, absolutely. One of my friends compares us writers to the carnival dolls that people punch down with mallets. She says we have to keep popping back up again and again. Persistence and resilience. Getting hit on the head is a given.
Sometimes, though, when one really wants a particular publication, and there's hope (encouragement from the editor), but low odds (it's a high-class pub), I find that I'll stall a bit, fuss with the poems, second-guess myself, finally send them out. Getting them off the kitchen table and out into mail can be overcoming a hurdle. Nerve does come into play. mk