nicola koh

For those interested in publishing in journals, here's a brief guide to publishing in journals.

1. Only submit when you're absolutely satisfied with the piece

To me, this is crucial for a happy publishing career-- and too often ignored amidst the pressure to publish to prove your writerly worth

In the euphoria of finishing a piece, it's easy to believe that after a few edits, the piece is ready to fly the coop. In my earlier publishing days, I sent piece after piece, and when I got the inevitable rejection, I was always sour about it until I looked at the piece again and realised there was a lot that needed fixing (beyond just typos). Eventually it struck me that I'd be more unhappy to see a piece get published in an unfinished state than if it were never published at all. Since then, I've made a practice of stretching out my process to make sure a week or more passes between each editing session. I also force myself not to rush each stage, only upgrading a piece from the drafting stage until I feel happy that it has its shape and major components in place, from the revising stage when I no longer feel the need to make any substantive alterations, from the editing stage when I'm starting to futz with word choice/order rather than actually changing much, and then giving it at least two sweeps before I consider it sufficiently cleaned up. (Note that it's virtually impossible to eliminate all mistakes by yourself, so it's always a good idea to have another person check it. But unless there are a lot of glaring errors, most editors are willing to extend grace.)

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2. Always be professional

Editors talk, and so it's never a good idea to piss one off. Some no-no’s (all committed a lot more than you’d think)

• Challenging a rejection

• Yelling at the editors because of a long wait to hear back.

  • It *is* appropriate to follow up if it’s been substantially longer than the period a journal says it tries to get back to submitters—something a long the lines of: 
    Dear Editors,
    I submitted [ piece ] on [ date ], and I’m checking to see if it’s still in consideration.
    Thank you,
    Me​​

  • If you do decide to withdraw the piece and have to write to the journal to inform them, keep it short and polite.

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• Demanding special treatment. For example: "You have to publish me because I'm [insert title, appellation, reputation, etc]."

• Ridiculous cover letters (more on that later)​

• Not withdrawing a piece if it’s accepted elsewhere. Few things piss off editors more than accepting a piece only to find out it’s not available anymore, unless maybe it's finding out a writer backtracked on a publishing agreement because a more prestigious journal accepted the piece. (And since editors talk, it's highly likely they'll find out.) 

For those in the back: Once you agree to publish with a journal, you have to withdraw it from everywhere else.

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​3. Follow Submission Guidelines

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Every journal has its own ways of doing things, almost always detailed on the submission page, and it's important that you follow them. Some editors automatically disqualify submissions that break the guidelines, and even if your submission is still considered, the breaches are almost certainly going to be counted against you.

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Mistakes do happen however, so make sure that you at the very least adhere to these:

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1. If a journal says not to include identifying information, absolutely make sure you don't, or your piece will almost certainly be disqualified. (Also make sure the filename doesn't contain your name.) 
   When it comes to nonfiction that includes your name or names that could identify you, you may be asked to redact that information. If you're submitting a piece that includes real names, it's worth having a version on hand that has that redacted just in case you run into a journal that wants this.

2. Follow length restrictions. Generally there's a little bit of wiggle room, and 10% too long is usually looked past, but there are journals were this would be a deal breaker. This is especially true the smaller the word count is.

3. Adhere to document requirements. If a journal asks for only .docx, pdf, for example, it's important to comply. Often it's because they have software that only works with certain formats, and if an editor can't open your file, 95% won't bother. In general it's a good idea to avoid anything outside of pdfs or Microsoft Word. If you're using a different word processor (like pages or Open Office), there will be options to Save As or Export to these formats. In a pinch, you could also use Google docs.
   Poets and writers of flash/micro pieces might be told to include all pieces in one document or, conversely, in multiple. While editors might let a failure to do so slide more than if they can't access your piece, it's not a good look.

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Things that are not usually fatal to a submission but you should be mindful of:

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• ​Use standard fort and format. Times New Romans 12pt double spaced or Arial 11pt double spaced are always safe bets. Stick with default page margins of 1 inch all around.

• Include any information that is asked for. Some journals want the title of the piece and page numbers in the header. Some might also ask that you include your name, though messing up on that is nowhere near as catastrophic as the reverse (as per above).​

• Here's a good guide on how to format your submission from Janelle Drumwright at Carve magazine.

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4. Keep your cover letters simple

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You may be tempted to put a lot into your cover letter, but the truth is editors barely pay attention to it, and when they do it's rarely a good thing. In a way you can gain nothing by your cover letter, but you can lose by them.​​​

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This is a template I use for fiction submissions:​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​