Where to Find Places to Submit Your Work

Many of us toil in private for years before we are ready with both our skill level and emotional fortitude to submit work for publication. But where can we submit our precious pages? Depending on what you write and which audiences you’re trying to reach, the answer to that question differs.

For the scope of this article, I’m focusing (mainly) on publishing houses who will accept un-agented submissions, contests for works of all lengths and types, and literary journals looking for everything from essays to short stories to poetry. None of us have the time to search for these locations one by one. Instead, I advocate signing up for handy newsletters that provide lists of reputable publishers and journals. These are my favorites!!

Authors Publish – The Magazine for Writers

This has been one of my favorite weekly email magazines for a few years. They list the best places to submit fiction, non-fiction and poetry along with articles on publishers, writing advice, and more. They only feature legitimate publishers/magazines that are free to submit and open to all writers from around the world. For instance, this week’s email included “21 Themed Calls for Submissions.” They also produce free book-length submission lists like “182 Short Fiction Publishers” and “20 Literary Journals Always Open to Submissions.”

Subscribe HERE if you’d like to get access to these resources and the weekly newsletter. 

Writer’s Digest: Write Better, Get Published

Most writers have stumbled upon the Writer’s Digest website at one point or another. I’m encouraging you to make this a regular habit. They offer helpful articles on their “Publishing Insights” page, including writing craft advice, publishing industry info and—best of all—lists of publishers and agents open to submissions. They also sponsor a number of writing contests worthy of submission—see the full list HERE.
Here’s how they describe their mission:
“Writers helping writers improve their craft, achieve their goals and recognize their dreams—since 1920. Our mission is to help ignite writers’ creative vision and connect them with the community, education, and resources they need to bring it to life. From inspiring prompts, practical techniques, and insightful interviews, to instructional workshops, writing competitions and professional services—we help writers of all genres and formats develop their craft and hone their business skills at every stage of their career.”

I found Submittable’s weekly newsletter rather by accident because it isn’t that easy to find. Submittable is technically a submission software system used by many journals and publications to organize their submissions. I was submitting to a journal that required that I use this system, so I created an account HERE. 

On this same page (before you click the blue CREATE YOUR FREE ACCOUNT button), scroll down a bit and you’ll see a newsletter sign-up form that looks like this. Sign up! (But also don’t forget to create your free account—they are separate processes!)

Having an account allows you to log in at any time and discover opportunities for submission, using different search criteria like “no fees” or “no deadline” to narrow your search. But, I don’t always remember to do that, so it’s nice to have the newsletter emailed to me each week, listing new opportunities for submission. It’s called Submishmash Weekly and includes creative/publishing news as well as places to submit your work. They also include available arts/creative grants and residencies and other artistic opportunities beyond publication opportunities.

Hope Clark’s Funds for Writers Website and Newsletter

I learned about this website from fellow writer Amanda Zieba a few weeks ago and signed up immediately to receive the weekly newsletter delivered to my inbox (FOR FREE.)

Here’s how Funds for Writers describes their mission:

“FundsforWriters is an online resource for writers. You can be a thirty-year veteran or a part-time wannabe, but here at FundsforWriters (FFW), we consider you a writer none-the-less. We emphasize finding money to make writing a realistic career. Of course, you’d write anyway. That’s the way of a writer.

Other websites provide guidance on how to write, how to query, how to format manuscripts, and so on. We give you direction on the funding streams. We focus on markets, competitions, awards, grants, publishers, agents, and jobs for your writing abilities, with motivation chucked in.”

You can browse the website for handy lists on submissions of all types: https://fundsforwriters.com/

I definitely recommend signing up to have each week’s newsletter delivered to your inbox HERE.

Additionally, there are occasional articles on trusted blogs that include submission lists.

For instance this past month, the Writer Unboxed website featured a blog article “Fiction Writing Contests Worth Your Time in Fall 2019.” 

Are there others I missed that you rely on to find new places to submit your work?

Share the love and tell us about it in the comments below!