List of Journals

Overview

It can be a long process to figure out where your writing might find a home. This quarter-long assignment asks you to start or continue that process now, even if you have no stories or essays that are ready for publication. By the end of the quarter, you will have a list of at least 20 literary journals you have good cause to believe would be open to your work. Even if you already have such a list, I’ll expect at least 20 new items added to it. I think it’s a good idea to have a final list that includes at least 50 journals!

The aim here is to develop a list of places where publication of your work is a real possibility, and so this list will need to include more than just the “best” journals or the ones that pay the most. By creating this list, you will also develop good habits that will help you add to or change the journals on your list in the future.

The rest of this page will guide through developing and using such a list and include instructions for how to share your list with me.

Instructions

You should use whatever record keeping method will work best for you. Some options are:

• Index cards in a file box
• Table in Word
• Spreadsheet
• Google doc table or spreadsheet

No matter which method you use, each entry should include the following:

• Name of the journal
• Name of the appropriate editor
• Address (probably just the web site but physical too if it seems necessary for any reason)
• Submission period
• Length of work accepted
• Accept simultaneous submissions?
• Blind submissions or not?
• Payment offered
• Brief note about why this journal is on your list

Sharing your list with me

Every Monday by the time class starts, I will expect to see at least two new journals added to your list.

• Index cards—take photos or scan your cards and upload them here in the Google Drive folder Links to an external site. with your name on it. You will have to enter Google Drive through your UW account in order to have access to it. If you don't know how to set that up, there are instructions at the very bottom of this assignment.
• Table or Spreadsheet—add new lines and upload the document every week. I am not an Apple person so you will need to use Word or a spreadsheet like Excel that I can read. You can also create PDFs and upload those, or create and share through Google docs.

Developing Your List

Your list must contain journals that you think will be likely homes for your work. It may contain journals for other reasons as well (prestige, $$$) but should focus on places you think will actually publish your writing.

1. Start your list with journals you enjoy reading and that seem to publish work that shares qualities with your own and with journals recommended by peers or teachers as good publication spots for your work.
2. Add to your list through story or essay collections by writers whose work shares qualities with your own and/or yearly story/essay collections (O.Henry Awards, Pushcart Prize, Best American). Most story or essay collections will include a list of where the individual pieces were originally published. The yearly collections always note where individual pieces were first published as well.
3. Make sure each journal is a good fit. Every week, do some further research to make sure you have two journals to add to your list. Read/skim the 2-3 most recent issues of each journal. You might find the journal online or track down a hard copy in the CW lounge, the UW library, or Bulldog News on the Ave or Big Little News on Capitol Hill (Pike St). Even journals that mostly exist as hard copies usually have websites that publish samples of work. You’re looking for a good overall match with you own writing.
4. Once you decide that a journal is indeed a good fit, go ahead and add it to your list, making sure each entry includes all the items listed above. Also include a brief note about why you’re adding this to your list.
5. Add more items to your list by following a web of connections. Let’s say you think your work shares qualities with Eula Biss’s essays and find several journals in which she’s published. In reading through those to make sure they are actually good fits for your work, you discover another writer you’ve never read before but whose work also shares qualities with your own. You can then track them down and see where else they’ve published. Literary journals may also list other journals on their websites; you can check those out and see if they’re a good fit. Visit authors’ websites and see where else they have published. Each of these has the potential to introduce you to new journals to research.

Using Your List

By December 9, I will expect you to submit three more things:

1. Your list broken into ranked groups of journals. The groups do not all need to be the same size, and if you would truly feel equally happy about having your work appear in any of them, you could skip this step. I’m pretty sure, however, that you will find some journals more desirable homes for your work than others. Include a brief rationale for why you’ve created your groupings and ranking.
2. A method to keep track of your submissions, even if you have nothing ready to submit yet. Again, you can use index cards, a table, a spreadsheet, or any other method you think will be most useful. Whatever method you use, you should include space to record these things:
   Title of your piece
   Title of journal
   Date of submission (along with any fees paid)
   Date of response (along with room for any notes)
3. A sample cover letter. I've just found this great piece about cover letters Links to an external site. if you want some guidance! If you are planning to write a query or pitch instead of a cover letter, you can find guidance through links on this publication tips doc Download this publication tips doc.

You will need to log on to Google Drive with your UW netID/ UW G suite account in order to access our Google Drive course material. If you try to log on with a different account you will not gain access. Permissions are set to NOT allow non-UW access for privacy purposes.

It will be easier to do this on a computer than a phone. You can switch between Google accounts on the upper right hand profile pic.

Instructions are here if you haven't activated your UW gmail account yet:
https://itconnect.uw.edu/connect/productivity-platforms/google-productivity-platformLinks to an external site.

1. If you're having any trouble, here's how to Connect to Google through UW email:
2. Sign in to your MyUW
3. Go to accounts
4. Under “UW NetID” click “Manage UW NetID Account”
5. Click “UW G Suite”
6. Then it’s pretty self-explanatory: you’ll accept the terms and link the account and then after that, it’ll tell you the next steps to take to access the account.
7. If you are using a phone rather than a computer, it is important that you download the Drive app (the desktop version on the phone is crap).