BUSINESS LETTERS
Business letters is what we've called this page, which is what your submissions to a literary magazine amount to, or should do. To be received favourably, make your accompanying letters friendly and to the point, as is expected of business letters these days.
Also make them individual. Business letters does not mean a corporation-speak communication built of clichés, but something that denotes professionalism, that an intelligent and well-read author has chosen this particular outlet and is applying to its editor.
The submitted work has also to be appropriate. Most literary magazines want poetry, but they want poetry of a type that fits in with their preconceptions as to what contemporary poetry is and should be doing. What those preconceptions are can be gauged by reading what is published, and by such policy statements as appear in the magazine or in directories of publishing outlets for poets. Sending a carefully-crafted sonnet to an avant garde magazine is a nonsense, and editors continually complain that two thirds of their time is wasted in reading material of the wrong style or content, wrong length, no covering letter addressed to them by name, no publishing history, no SAE for response, etc. Guidelines are given for a reason, and have to be read.
Indeed the whole magazine should be read before submission. Literary magazines are usually labours of love, perilously short of funds and subsisting on grants, competition receipts and the personal generosity of friends. It helps to first send for a trial copy, to read it carefully, and at least take out a year's subscription if the submission is accepted. Editors feel their efforts are truly rewarded if each issue contains a few poems that are really good, and what they ask in publishing your poetry is the financial means to continue providing a platform for new work.
Or the best ones do. Some unfortunately dream of publishing only nationally famous poets, and assess each submission by name rather than by work. Unless well-known on the poetry circuit — and editors are very knowledgeable here — your poetry goes into a slush pile, to be picked over if space unexpectedly appears when selections have been made from submissions by big names and personal friends. Some magazines accept practically everything, and follow up their flattering words of 'exceptional talent' etc. with offers of overpriced anthologies or conferences of 'selected poets'. Some magazines are the in-house journals of university English departments, and their young editors do not always have the reading and experience to tell the good from the merely fashionable.
You can develop a standard format for such letters, or purchase sample cover letters, but remember to modify for each case.
The well-known magazines are notoriously choosy, accepting only 5% or less of submissions. You can greatly shorten the odds by:
keeping scrupulously to the submission guidelines.
reading the publication carefully and sending exactly what is wanted.
presenting yourself as an old hand.
Unless instructed otherwise:
1. Type/laserprint each poem on quality white paper, double-spaced. In the top left hand corner put your name and address. In the top right hand corner put the rights for sale: usually first serial rights. Start each poem on a new page, and number the pages sequentially, each with name, address and rights for sale. Run off fresh copies for each submission.
2. Include a one-page covering letter, personally addressed to the editor by name. Phone to get that name if necessary. The covering letter should offer the poems for consideration (list them), say (subtly) why the poems are being submitted, and briefly mention your previous successes.
3. Include a stamped, self-addressed envelope (or self-addressed envelope and IRC if submitting from abroad).
You can kill your chances by:
1. Adding that your schoolteacher or Aunt Mildred thinks your poems are absolutely fantastic.
2. Including silly credits: vanity presses, senior citizen competitions, etc.
3. Insisting that these are just what the magazine needs (that's the editor's job).
4. Overdoing the compliments: I think this is one of the few magazines. . .
5. Including notice of copyright, which suggests only trouble.
6. Submitting in longhand.
7. Specifying payment (arranged later).
8. Including drawings or artwork (they're rarely useful).
9. Specifying a deadline for reply.
10. Submitting on coloured/non-standard size paper or with fancy fonts.
11. Pleading, or promising a subscription if accepted.
12. Threatening a personal visit/violence/suicide if not accepted.
13. Sending a follow-up letter a week later: I need to know because. . .
Remember that the book trade can be slow, especially in impoverished areas like poetry. Keep copies of everything sent. Allow a few months before sending the polite follow-ups, again as business letters. Be systematic in submissions, making them one of the regular chores of writing.