What If I Were to Tell You About a Place I'd Been Published?

What if I were to say to you that I’ve been published in The Cincinnati Review? Or what if I told you that I had been published in The Yale Review? Sounds incredible, right?

Well, I wasn’t published in either of those places. Not yet, anyway. Also, maybe not ever. But the point is, it sounds amazing. More so than saying I’ve been published in some other places, right? Little bit? But why?

Let’s start with this. There are thousands of literary publications in the world. There might be millions, I don’t know. Getting published in any of them is difficult. Getting published in any of them is an incredible feat, and once you’ve been published places you can write that in your bio when pitching to people, attempting to get published elsewhere, etc. Being published in publications and being able to list those publications sounds great. It sounds professional. For me, if I’m trying to get an agent or a manager I can tell them about the places I’ve been published like Sci-Fi Shorts and The Fifth Di… and Clever Fox Lit.

However, they may not be aware of those publications. They may not be the biggest or most popular, that doesn’t take away from their credibility one ounce, but again, there’s so many damn publications in the world. How is everyone supposed to know all of them? If you get published in The New Yorker, then yeah, everyone knows The New Yorker. Remember how I said it’s difficult to get published in any publication? For The New Yorker, multiply the chances you were already envisioning by a number that’s so large that you can’t even envision it. Yeah, try to get published in The New Yorker. Attempt it. But it’s beyond difficult. The English language hasn’t created a word yet to represent the monumental feat that this is… so I’ll try to create one for these purposes.

Bignormous-diffihard.

Remember, it’s a hyphenated word.

So, you can keep submitting to publications that you’ll have better chances with, and it will be a credit to you if you achieve that, no doubt. But you run the risk of people not knowing who they are. Then, you have the option of trying to get published in places like The New Yorker which is bignormous-diffihard. So, what do you do?

Everyone already knows The New Yorker but I realized one reason why it just sounds important is the fact that it has the state name in it. New York. There’s only so many variations of names that could be used to create a literary publication and involve the words New York. Same goes for other states and cities. Same goes for colleges and universities. And I realized something. I’ve found a handful of publications already that had state or city names in them. I’m not a person who was already well aware of the most prestigious publications and the next most prestigious and so on. In fact, a lot of publications that I submit to are in the speculative arena. I do write some stories that don’t fit those genres and could be submitted to more traditional literary publications, and I have done that. But I realized how official and important and prestigious some of them sounded without me knowing how big they were. The Florida Review, The Missouri Review, The Wisconsin Review.

Without even looking into how big they were, I could already tell. And of the publications I had found, some were affiliated with colleges and universities, some were not. But the names made them sound important. And then I realized just how much better my bio would sound if I could get a state or a city… or a university in there. If other people saw I was published in The Cincinnati Review or The Yale Review there’s a chance they’d already know about them and know how big they are, but again, THERE’S SO MANY PUBLICATIONS, they might not. What if I said I was published in The Blue Mesa Review when trying to see if an agent would take me on and they looked it up and realized, oh wow, that publication is affiliated with The University of New Mexico. That is no small feat. Maybe this guy knows words and how to write them.

Or something slightly more verbose.

But there's a lot of publications like that. The Blue Earth Review is a publication of Minnesota State University. The Helix Literary Magazine is affiliated with Central Connecticut State College. The Black Warrior Review is a publication put out by The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. LandLocked Literary Magazine comes from The University of Kansas. See what I mean?

So, I made it my mission. My new mission… alongside other missions. I decided that this is what I would do.

Find all the literary publications with the states in their names.

Find all the literary publications with cities in their names.

Find all the literary publications affiliated with colleges and universities across the U.S.

Oh, this led me to realize, I need to not stop there, how about doing the same with provinces, cities, and universities in other countries like Canada, England, Australia, and so on?

Now, I have all these publications of varying levels of credibility and difficulty to get published in, but all highly credible, and most importantly, all sound highly credible.

Next, determine which ones allow simultaneous submissions. This way, if I submit a story to them, I don’t have to wait around for their reply, I can submit the story elsewhere.

Figure out word count restrictions, submission windows, all of that.

OK, lastly, what stories do I have written that fit the mood for these literary publications? OK, I got some. Not the bulk of my work. I got several. However, I just usually feel more inclined to write a sci-fi story or fantasy story, but it doesn’t mean I don’t come up with traditional story ideas. So…

Double lastly, come up with a few more story ideas! Write them! Write stories of varying lengths so that I can fit into the varying word count restrictions of these journals and publications.

The Minnesota Review has a maximum of 4,000 words. But The Harvard Review allows up to 7,000. The Georgia Review allows up to 9,000. There’s plenty of differences among them, so I can fit different stories into the restrictions of different publications.

Full disclosure, I write all of this like this is what I need to do… I’ve already done it.

But then next is… was… well, I’m in the middle of it… make a chart detailing all of this. What stories fit where, which publications are open and when? I had found some open in May and June that I’ve been submitting to. Some open in July and then I will submit to them. But August and September are the big boom months… with some more also in October and November. I’m finishing up some other stories, going to polish them up, and then I’m putting together the mega plan. Deciding where to send these stories out to, sending them to multiple places. Dozens of places. Seriously, I think I got over 70… over 70 that allow simultaneous submissions. And I’ll probably have somewhere between 10 and 15 stories to submit to these 70+ publications, which is great, they will all get sent to several places. And that’s what I want.

I feel confident that all the stories I have prepared to send, and the ones that I am finishing, are all great… at a minimum. I think they’re excellent. I’m hoping they’re phenomenal. A lot of that distinction can be subjective, right? What if one of my stories turns out to be clearly the best? And to me it’s phenomenal. But I send it to Publication A and B and C and D and they all think it’s good, it’s great, not great enough. Not their style exactly. But to Publication E, it is incredible, it is just their style, it hits in an emotion near and dear to what they’re searching for. And they want to publish it. That’s what submitting to these publications can be about oftentimes… finding the right match. I’m hoping this process allows me to find a right match for one or more of these stories. The simultaneous submissions are so helpful because I can get one story out to a dozen publications and get another story out to six more, get another out to five more, and another out to four more. I just need one of them to be a match.

I’m going to get turned down… a lot. It’s inevitable. I might get turned down by 100% of these attempts. And that’s OK. Because I’ll try again when they reopen their submission windows. I have multiple stories, I’m just hoping I can find a match with one of these publications. And yes, I’m going to get turned down so many times. It’s going to be amazing. So many more “No’s” to add to my ever-growing list. I’m close to breaking 300 altogether. This endeavor will see me clear that number like a pole vaulter. The “No’s” are good, they show that I’m trying. The only way to succeed is by trying, so the “No’s” just prove I am taking a necessary first step towards success.

But after all the “No’s” if I can sift through the rubble and find a “Yes” then that would be exactly what I wanted. One “Yes.” Missouri, Montana, Mississippi, Alaska… wherever. If I can add that to the bio then I’ll be happy.

And if not, whatever. It’s not like I’m not submitting elsewhere.

But it’s a new goal of mine. Along with some day going to all 50 states (I’ve been to 32 so far) I want to also get a state… or a city… or a college… added to the bio. I’d also like my writing to travel. So, here’s to hoping my writing can expand geographically.