Literary Magazine

It’s time to get back on schedule, and one of my favorite things to do is to share stories from other writers.

The selection this week comes from the SmokeLong Quarterly – “an online literary magazine dedicated to flash fiction.”

An interesting fact about SmokeLong Quarterly is how they came up with the name.

Founded in 2003 by Dave Clapper, the name “Smoke-long” comes from the Chinese – “who noted that reading flash takes the same length of time to smoke a cigarette.” According to the staff, all the work they accept for publication is “precisely a smoke long.”

Never having smoked, the amount of time its takes to smoke a cigarette, is not a time frame familiar to me. So, I’ll stick to word counts. Whichever method you prefer, SmokeLong Quarterly publishes great stories. Here are three of my favorites:

Interested in submitting to SmokeLong?

They publish flash fiction of 1000 words or less. Never charge a reading fee, and submissions are open 365 days a year. You can check out the guidelines here.

Good luck and let me know what you think about today’s stories. More importantly, let the authors know what you thought – stories are meant to be shared.

I’d love to hear your comments. Talk to me. Tell me your story and look for me on Facebook at SheilaMGood, Pinterest, Bloglovin, Twitter@sheilamgood, and Contently.

Welcome to another, You Asked, the Experts Answer, segment. This week ‘s question is: Is there a secret to getting published in literary magazines?

Well yeah, sort of. Lincoln Michel, a Buzzfeed contributor, takes us behind the scenes in his two-part article, The Ultimate Guide To Getting Published in a Literary Magazine.

This is one of the most in-depth articles on getting published I have ever read. We’ve all heard the tips :

Submit often
Read the magazines
Follow the guidelines
Proofread

But, we’ve never understood what happens behind the scenes or how literary magazines actually select those they choose to print. Well, now you will. Lincoln goes into great detail about editors, readers, the slush pile, solicited and non-solicited work, and even “carpet bombing.”

“Most editors would probably consider at least 60% of the slush pile to be unpublishable, period. Twenty percent shows promise but needs some work, and 10% is publishable but not in the journal being submitted to. That leaves 10% of work that might deserve real consideration.”

Here’s a few important things I gleaned from the article, but I still encourage each of you to read it in its entirety.

Submissions go first to the slush pile.
60 % of those in the slush pile are unpublishable.
Acceptance rates are about 1% for good magazines.
Submissions are sometimes solicited by editors or through agents (I had no idea).
20-100% of works published come from the slush pile.
Connections are important.
Editors are not the first to read your work, readers are (typically 2).
Readers are volunteers, or students.
The first paragraph and page is important in making it past the readers.
Persistence in submitting is one of the main keys to success.
Know the Cover letter No-No’s (see the article).
Selective your top 3 to 5 magazines and go for it; again & again.

Where to Find the Right Market for Your Story?

Many sites offer information on Magazines open for submission. Here are my top five resources.

I’ve only given you the teasers from the article, but I can tell you it’s one worth keeping for the files. What do you think? Are you seeing submission success? Do you have a favorite market site?

I’d love to hear your comments. Talk to me. Tell me your story. And as always, you can follow me on Facebook at SheilaMGood, Pinterest, Bloglovin, Twitter@sheilagood, and Contently.