By Bacopa Literary Review Managing Editor T. Walters
At the beginning of this submissions period, I wrote a blog post about our internal submissions process and how it works. Now, I’ll get a little personal… Prior to joining Bacopa Literary Review, I felt intimidated by the process of submitting to magazines and literary journals. At Bacopa, I gained confidence in submitting my work by getting an intimate look into how the submissions process works and the standards for acceptance.
I’ve learned that acceptance is contingent on multiple factors: technical/grammatical errors, strength of voice, stylistic elements, plot (for prose) as well as an editor’s personal preferences. Sometimes, a piece just needs an extra bit of work before it is published. Often, acceptance is subject to logistical or monetary constraints. Since our team receives more than a thousand submissions each year, some pieces are declined because we simply don’t have the room. If we, as a board of volunteers, accepted one piece from each of our submitters, the journal would be over a thousand pages long!
For me, knowing the limitations of a magazine or journal helps soothe the sting of rejection. As writers, we often have to develop a thick skin to withstand the submissions process, dealing with the inevitable “No’s” in order to finally receive that “Yes!” When I now look back on some of the pieces I’ve submitted, I understand why they weren’t accepted. In fact, with the assistance of our 2024 Poetry Co-Editor J. Nishida, I edited a previously-rejected poem to submit to an anthology and it became my first publication! I completely reformatted the poem, made drastic cuts (then added some stanzas back in) and refined the voice and stylistic features I included. The published version was the fifth edition of said poem, one I edited over multiple years.
All this to say: becoming published is a process and it might take a while. Support from your fellow writers can help you along your journey, providing feedback and suggesting edits to strengthen your piece. Bacopa Literary Review, itself, is a project run by the Writers Alliance of Gainesville (WAG), a grassroots nonprofit organization that “promotes, encourages and supports aspiring and experienced regional writers”. WAG is a clear example of writers-helping-writers, as well as a resource for local folks!
If you’d like to join WAG, you can visit the link here to join online or by mail -- annual dues are $40. Membership benefits include but are not limited to: a free copy of Bacopa Literary Review, participation in a genre-specific critique pod, a bi-monthly newsletter, and free admission to special events.
For those of you who are well-seasoned in submitting, what advice would you give to first-time or less-seasoned submitters? What is something you wished you’d known when you first started submitting pieces to magazines and reviews?
Managing Editor T. Walters is a writer, embroiderer, and musician living among the orange trees. Their work appears in The Sapphic Sun and Nymeria Publishing’s Descendants of Medusa. Tea lives to connect, create, and marvel at nature’s many wonders.
