You have been crafting verse for years now, and you would like to share it with the world. But there are thousands of poets and only a smattering of literary magazines, so how can you get your work into print? First, you need to define your market. After learning key terms used in the submission process, you will need to research market listings. Once you have chosen your potential markets, obtain and carefully follow submission guidelines before sending off your work. Mail or e-mail your submission along with a professional cover letter. When you’ve done all that, it is time to practice two virtues crucial to successful publication: patience and persistence.

Define Your Market

Hundreds of literary magazines exist to cater to diverse and often specialized audiences. Before you submit a single poem, be sure to define your market. Do you write for traditional literary magazines, or is your poetry generally avant garde? Do you want to reach children or adults? Does your poetry contain special themes, such as nature, politics, religion, or healing?

You may need to define different markets for different poems. Perhaps you write haikus, free verse, and sonnets. You will find some literary magazines specialize in publishing only sonnets, while others would never consider publishing a formal poem of any kind. Defining your market is an essential first step because it will help you to locate appropriate literary magazines. You can use the subject index in the back of most market references to find magazines that publish your particular genre of poetry.