The first step in publishing short stories and essays is…you guessed it, submitting your work to literary magazines! But how? And how, and when, and what, and to whom, and at which litmags? In this weekly class, we’ll help you build a solid submission strategy and process that you can use immediately and well into the foreseeable future, based on time-proven techniques to maximize your success.

Here’s what we’ll cover each week:

• Week 1: The Basics. We’ll cover reasons to publish, what you should submit, when to submit, formatting your submission, and cover letters… and then we’ll submit to our first literary magazine together! If we have time, we’ll end the class with Help Desk time until the clock runs out. During Help Desk time, you can stay online and submit work, asking questions as they pop up.

• Week 2: Strategic Submitting. During the first part of the class, we’ll work on navigating writers guidelines, creating our own lists of literary magazines, and tracking our submissions. If we have time, we’ll end the class with Help Desk time until the clock runs out. 

• Week 3: Your First Words. During the first part of the class, we’ll look at our titles and first paragraphs (sharing optional), with suggestions for hooking our readers and editors from our very first words. We’ll end the class with Help Desk time until the clock runs out.

• Week 4: Rejections and Successes. During the first part of the class, we’ll cover strategies to deal with the inevitable rejections (everyone gets those!), as well as ways to promote and maximize your successes, followed by Help Desk time until the clock runs out. 

To get the most out of the class, have a short story or essay of any size ready to submit (but if you don’t, that’s 100% okay, too). Note: this class is only for submitting short stories and essays to literary magazines, NOT for submitting novels, memoirs, and book-length work to agents and editors.