No Greater Feeling

While there are many elements and tasks needed to prepare and run a literary magazine or journal, the most important will be the submission process. This is where you will find work to publish. There will be much reading and tough decisions along the way, but there is no greater feeling as an editor than helping champion another author’s writing.

And throughout this publishing process, there is the reminder that we as humans must tell stories to stay connected. 

While thinking about how you will receive and organize submissions may seem overwhelming, I find the best place to start is to look back on your own submission process. Were there any submission experiences that frustrated you? Was there an exceptional editor able to offer kind feedback in a rejection? 

As I walk through each step, it might be helpful to note those successes and near misses you’ve experienced. 

1.) How will you receive submissions?

In my time submitting, I have encountered a multitude of ways to submit my work. The three most common are email, Submittable, and online form.

Email may be the easiest option for you to use upon just starting this creative endeavor. It puts the work on the author up front to email their submission to you. You can set-up a free Gmail account under your magazine name and in five minutes or less, you’re ready to begin. 

The time and ease of using an email platform made this a strong contender when I considered my submission process. However, one thing I know about human error is how unavoidable it can be. 

Using email means your submitting authors will need to follow your submission guidelines for the correct email, subject line, word count, category, author bio or photo, etc. The more items needed, the greater the chance of imperative items being missing. 

For myself, I am incredibly thorough when I submit my work. I keep a spreadsheet which tracks deadlines, submission process, emails, category, etc. I would hate to lose out on being considered because I didn’t properly follow the guidelines. 

And while you can and should add in a note to your submission guidelines about what happens when authors DO NOT follow your requirements, many times these may be mistakenly forgotten. Email may seem easy for set-up, but I do find it leaves bigger room for error.

Submittable is a site familiar to most writers, which allows submissions to be uploaded, tracked, and updated from one system. Those submitting can add a cover letter, attach their work, and fulfill the payment requirement as well. The functionality is easy to use for writers and allows for discovery and exploration of open calls for submissions. Many places I have submitted to have been found this way. 

Sounds great, right? Why wouldn’t we want to make the submission process as easy as possible for our writers? For many editors or creatives, recognizing the financial resources you can input into a project is key to your overall success. 

While I loved Submittable and the way it allows for collaboration between a team of editors for each submission, ultimately, I knew I could not afford to use this platform. Long running magazines may have the financial backing from donations or from the press itself.

As I knew all proceeds from my collectives would be donated, there wasn’t wiggle room in my own budget to justify this price. For a basic plan, it is $99 per month or $999 when billed annually. This give you 3 team seats, 1 project, 300 submissions per year Autolabels, Payment processing, Yes/no voting, Team assignment, Batch email and templates, In-app messaging, as well as Dashboard and data exports. These resources are immense, but making sure you can financially support this platform will be key to your launch. If you have a team of editors splitting this cost, it might be less of a restriction. 

While I’ve encountered a myriad of online forms, including self-hosting on websites, one that has become most common is Google Forms. Like most things, Google’s functionality is user-friendly, adaptable, and customizable. And for these reasons, I chose to use a Google Form for both Pages Penned in Pandemic and The Elpis Pages. This was especially key during the first collective when I had more than a dozen questions for the interview series that needed to be answered. 

What I continue to love about this platform in this current submission process is the way it guides writers to every answer needed and allows me consistent places to look for that information such as author email, category of submission, word count, and the attached work. 

2.) How will you organize submissions?

Once you know how you want to receive submissions, the next step will be discovering how you want to organize submissions. Much of this process will be informed by whether you are using email, Submittable, or online form. 

For email, you may want to have separate folders to organize between genres such as poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction. If you have separate editors for each genre, maybe you will want to create separate emails for each category to eliminate confusion in your inbox.

For Submittable, the system will organize submissions for you, though even with the basic plan, there will be options for assigning to your teams, and tracking. In both instances, you may also want to keep a spreadsheet to track submissions, as this allows for all info to be in one place. 

While I use Google Forms to collect my data, I do not use this for tracking or review purposes. Instead I use a combination of Trello and Google Sheets. As mentioned above, I find great value in having an overview of all submissions, which is why I track on a spreadsheet in addition to Trello. 

For submissions, I use Trello to track from the initial read to final decision all the way up through organizing my publishing timeline, and final order of the collective before publication. 

3.) How will you review submissions?

After you’ve decided how you’re going to organize submissions, it will be helpful to have a plan for reviewing submissions. Depending on whether you are working solo or with a team may affect this process. 

For Pages Penned in Pandemic, I worked with my best friend, Justin Maher. We used Trello as a means to communicate. Most times, we would review submissions separately, making notes in the document. We would then have editorial calls to discuss our decisions, work through any edits, and assign emails to ensure we could personally respond to every author. 

This time around, I am working solo, but am still following the same steps. When I receive a submission, I add it to Trello. Most often, I do not review the submission at the time  it’s added, which is why it’s helpful to have the link to the document. 

When I review, I do an initial read through. Sometimes, I will know instantly if I am going to accept a submission. Other times, I might go back and make comments or edits. There are instances, when I feel a piece needs to be placed on the fence, allowing me extra time to review. And as is the case with all submissions, there might be work that doesn’t fit with my preferred style or the overall theme. 

For these cases, I do find having a theme can help guide decision making. We didn’t have a theme for Pages Penned in Pandemic, though we find many authors writing about the same things. The Elpis Pages requires submissions be about womanhood, though this is a broad topic. 

4.) How will you send decisions?

Once you know which pieces you will accept and which you won’t, it is time to send decisions to writers. While there are many ways to do this, especially if you use Submittable and have the option for batch responses, I do find that my preferred way is kindest.

As a writer, receiving rejections is never fun. However, in creating my submission process for the collectives, I looked at rejections where I felt excited to keep submitting as a guide. 

I always love receiving feedback and a personalized rejection. Now this might not be feasible for your project, but for myself, I knew I wanted to personalize every email. 

Also, while you can announce your contributors on social media or send a rejection email with all others CC’d, I personally would not recommend this. It doesn’t recognize the courage or hard work of every submitting author. And without those submissions and brave souls, you wouldn’t have work to publish or supporters to keep the dream of this creative endeavor alive. 

Don’t be a jerk, even if a piece isn’t right for your project. Do not respond if work violates your submission guidelines, threatens you or your authors, or includes content that is harmful, violent, or inappropriate. 

I have been lucky this time around to not receive those kind of submissions. With Pages Penned in Pandemic, we did receive some submissions of that nature and we did not respond.  

For this part of the process, you will also want to note if you are accepting simultaneous submissions or charging for submissions. As a writer, I think it is imperative to allow simultaneous submissions. This is a personal opinion, but knowing this, I also understand, writers might need to withdraw work, sometimes during the deliberation process, sometimes before you’ve gotten a chance to review the work. 

Since proceeds from both collectives were being donated, we did not pay authors, but we also didn’t charge for submissions. 

If you are looking for a way to further support your magazine or journal, a great option I have found is charging a small fee for expedited submissions or receiving feedback. Perhappened Mag does this extremely well. Charging fees for this allows monetary support to your journal to either pay your editorial staff or even more exciting, to pay your authors! Also, the fee for feedback or faster turnaround really cuts to most writers not wanting to wait months for a response. 

Here is where I note that many, if not most, editors do this for free with only the love of literature as a reward for the time, dedication, and willingness to provide a platform for authors. 

Once you’ve figured out these key elements, you will be ready to launch and open your submissions! 

That’s all for part two of the Editor Diaries. I hope you’ll join me for the next part of this series while I dive into branding and social media.

Don’t forget to like and subscribe on Youtube! And remember, no matter where the day takes you, dream big!

What It takes

After wishing for years and talking about it for months, I’ve officially joined YouTube, and more specifically Authortube with the Newbie Tag! Taking the time to look back at my writing journey, inspirations, and dreams for the future allowed me to reaffirm why I love life as a writer.

1.) How did you find out about Authortube?

After grad school, I missed the community I’d formed with other writers. Well before this time, I was already watching book review videos, and especially loved watching Christine Riccio. Somewhere in that time, I started watching more authors talking about their work, and specifically loved Kim Chance, Alexa Donne, and most recently Lindsay Puckett. 

As a writer, what I loved most was seeing an author’s journey much like my own, the endless days of writing before getting to the finished book. And it wasn’t until watching the book tour video for Again, But Better that I realized how personally connected I felt to that moment. I’d been watching all the way through Christine’s early days of writing to the title reveal, cover reveal, etc. Seeing her publication journey made me feel proud of her and served as a reminder that it was possible for me as well. 

2.) What genres do you write in?

For this question, I will focus on my fiction, though I do write poetry as well. My current WIP is a YA speculative novel. My next project will be a YA fantasy series. I find even when I’m working on realistic fiction in a short story, magic creeps onto the page.

3.) What is your preferred writing tense, point of view, and category of story?

For poetry, I prefer second person point of view, which addresses the narration to “You.” This compliments the stream-of-consciousness style that in most of my poems. 

For fiction, I prefer past tense, close third person point of view. While I have plans to write adult fiction in the future, my current passion remains Young Adult literature. 

4.) Are you a plotter, panster, or plantser?

Before the pandemic, I was consistently a plotter. However, the ethereal way time seemed to move during quarantine invited me back to the magic of writing, which is often those places of unknown.

I won’t say I was a panster, though, because I did have a basic roadmap of where I was going. I prefer to use the term discovery writing. I allowed myself to live with the characters, to write with a loose destination, but making room for pit stops along the way. 

5.) Are you a self-published, published, or yet-to-be published author?

I suppose I’m a little bit of all these things. My debut micro-collection of poetry, These Are the Women We Write About was published in 2018 by The Poetry Annals. Four of my poems were self-published in a collective this year. As the founder and editor-in-chief of Pages Penned in Pandemic, I knew I wanted to add my writing to this time capsule of 2020. This is currently available for purchase and all proceeds are donated to 826 National to support young writers. 

For my WIP, a YA speculative novel about dreams, I will be pursuing traditional publishing. The last time I was in the query trenches with this novel was 2018. I took a step back in February of 2019 to overhaul this manuscript. This is the book of my heart, and I can’t wait to finish line edits and prepare to head back into the query trenches with you by my side. 

6.) If you’re not yet published, what is your dream publishing house and / or literary agent?

From experience, I know how disappointing it can be to receive a rejection from a “dream agent.”

Approaching the query trenches this time around, I do not have a dream agent or dream publishing house. I am looking for someone who will love this book and champion this book and support my writing career. 

When compiling lists, I think we can get close to finding people we might work well with, but ultimately, the magic comes from having conversations, and seeing how well you might pair with an agent or editor.

I will say that I have so many people in my life who support my writing. However, there is one individual who understands the importance of this sometimes dark and often unusual book. If I could clone him as my agent or editor, that would be a dream come true. 

7.) What Authortube related videos can we expect to find on your channel?

For my channel, I will be creating a combination of the videos I love to watch on Authortube with videos I am always searching for. What does this mean? 

I love videos on writing craft as well as personal process videos. I also enjoy watching writing vlogs, and of course, bookish content always brightens my day. You can expect this content from my channel as well! 

As I’ve taken on different challenges and opportunities in my creative life, I found myself searching for videos to help guide me through. 

While there are fantastic videos on querying, traditional publishing, self-publishing, and indie author journeys, I craved more videos about literary magazines. How to organize submissions, how to submit to journals and find reputable magazines to entrust your work.

Last year when I founded Pages Penned in Pandemic, I wanted more videos walking through the process of starting a press and publishing work. 

All this to say, I will be walking you through the process of my next creative endeavor. After the events in Texas this week, I promised to support women by using my art to speak up. 

How will I be accomplishing this? My new collective, The Elpis Pages, will feature work about womanhood by self-identifying women. Upon publication, all proceeds will be donated to the Planned Parenthood Action Fund to support access to safe and legal abortions and reproductive rights. 

If you currently have writing that sounds like it might be a fit for this print publication, let me know in the comments below. 

As we near publication, I will take you through the process of starting a press or magazine, organizing submissions, cover design, marketing, and final publication. 

8.) When did you start writing?

I have a few stories from elementary school, all signed in crayon. But I suppose the moment I really started writing was in seventh grade during our poetry unit. 

It wasn’t until my senior year of high school, taking an experimental writing class, when I fell in love with fiction, and I’ve been writing ever since!

9.) What was the first story you ever wrote?

In that experimental writing class, I’d worked on poetry and satire and flash fiction. But my first story was called “Through.” 

For our final project, we were able to work on whatever we wanted. My best friend suggested I write a story about fairytales, or rather, fairytale characters. This was well before Once Upon a Time.

I loved that story. And I still love this story. I went into grad school with that manuscript and I have plans to return to that series after my current WIP. 

10.) What authors have inspired your writing most?

There are so many that it would be difficult to name them all. 

I’ll start with J.K. Rowling. After reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone at the age of eight, I knew I wanted to write stories of my own. 

For this current WIP, my early inspiration came from Sylvia Plath, both The Bell Jar and Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams. I also owe much of the darkness and human authenticity in my book to Fell of Dark and Ten Miles One Way by Patrick Downes, Away We Go by Emil Ostrovoski, and We Are Okay by Nina LaCour. Others include the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld, The Wicker King by Kayla Ancrum, The Riverman series by Aaron Starmer, Wild Awake by Hilary T Smith, The Giver by Lois Lowry, On Immunity by Eula Biss, Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl, and both The Song of Achilles and Circe by Madeline Miller. Greek mythology plays a large role in this WIP. 

11.) Do you schedule your writing sessions or simply get to writing whenever you can find the time?

While I am a very organized person, it has become increasingly difficult to schedule writing time. I always know I have thirty minutes or so to work on my writing during my lunch break, and most of my weekends are spent either writing content for my blog or working on line edits. 

However, as I take on this next creative endeavor with The Elpis Pages, I know how important it is going to be to schedule in this time to make sure I can write every day. And this doesn’t mean whole pages or cutting 2,000 + words, as thinning down my WIP is the current goal of line edits. Sometimes this means writing a poem, or a few lines of dialogue. 

I do have a full-time day job, which has become more demanding in the past few months. Though time can be fleeting, I know I need a moment of writing to maintain my mental health. 

12.) Do you type on a computer, typewriter, or write everything out by hand, or use a blend of both?

I would say 90% of my writing happens on my computer. But if I’m writing a poem or dialogue between characters (this often happens to me at the grocery store or on the road), I will use my phone. 

For poetry, I solely write in the Bear app. When working on chapter notes or scene ideas, I write these in the Notes app on my phone or if I’m driving, I will use Voice Memos. I do keep a written journal, which is more for brainstorming. No concrete writing really happens here. 

13.) What are you most looking forward to now that you’re part of Authortube?

First and foremost, I would say community. So much of writing is solitary, but my time in grad school, in writing group, and in collecting Pages Penned in Pandemic, these experiences have all taught me the value of staying connected, of finding a community to offer and receive support, and to feel understood. 

I am also looking forward to having a tangible record of this next year as I work on The Elpis Pages and prepare my WIP to reenter the query trenches. There are so many milestones and roadblocks on the way to my dreams, and I don’t want to forget what it takes to get there.

Don’t forget to like and subscribe on Youtube! And remember, no matter where the day takes you, dream big!