Beginning writers are always afraid of the cover letter. It can be a scary task. My advice is to keep it simple. Most editors don't hunker over cover letters with a magnifying glass determined to find fault - they don't have the time! Let your writing you submitted do the work. That said, cover letters are a necessary piece with almost all submissions. Always follow the publication's guidelines. My cover letters change all the time. This is just one variation.

Writers often ask what to read into rejection letters. Most of the time it's impossible to know how close you were to getting out of the slush pile. I wish all my rejection letters made me as happy as this one did. Dear Kim, Although this submission isn't quite right for us, we enjoy your writing and would love to see more of it. Please submit again to JOURNAL. Best of luck in placing this one elsewhere. Sincerely, EDITOR JOURNAL #rejection #submissionsprocess #submitting #ed

1. Write a kickass short story, creative nonfiction, or 4-5 poems. Revise! Have a couple of your writer friends read it and critique it. Revise again! Revise until you are sick of looking at it and have started deleting a word here and there, just to go back and add it again in the next revision. It is as ready as it'll ever be (until you look at it a year later). 2. Research the markets, but give yourself a timeframe. Do not attempt to read every issue of every journal ever

I ended my last post advising you to pick a group of journals that are all relatively the same quality level. This is important because you should send your work to multiple journals at the same time, simultaneous submissions. And, the first one that accepts it - gets it! There are no negotiations. No, I'll get back to you as soon as I hear from the other 15 I sent this piece to. No. You are not famous. You have sent your baby into the cold hard world and some one is willing

I've had several people ask me for tips on how to submit to literary journals. First, remember not to be intimidated. There are currently 5,006 markets listed on Duotrope.com (a submission tracker service website). Most of these publications are in need of fresh writers. All of these publications should have started because they love writing and promoting writers. With that many markets you have a wide range of quality and styles. You can find a fit for your work. And, you sh