How to Submit Poetry to Literary Magazines: What I’ve Learned From Years of Submitting

A guide to submissions, cover letters, and etiquette

You've written a poem. You've worked hard on it, developed it, polished it, now it's ready to be submitted. But how do you actually do that? I've done lots and lots of submissions over the course of my writing career, and this is how it's done.

Respect is key. The editors of literary magazines are people too after all, so treat them with courtesy. If you make a bad impression and come off as rude to begin with, then you don't do yourself any favours. No matter how good your work is, no publisher is obliged to work with someone who is discourteous to them. It's very easy to be polite, so take the time to show some basic respect, then the editor will know that you're a good egg to work with. Here's how you do it:

1. Include a brief cover letter with a greeting and sign off, don't just attach a file and send it.

Including a cover letter shows that you're taking the time to acknowledge the editor, (who will, after all, be taking their time to read and consider your work) rather than spamming anywhere with an open submission call. If you don't include a cover letter, it's a sign that you're just scatter-gunning magazines until one says yes, and that shows that you don't value the editor's publication or their time, or your work for that matter. Editors receive lots of submissions like that and it's very tiresome.

In fact, don't take a spam or scatter-gun approach in the first place. Do some research to find the most suitable places to submit your work. For one thing, your work is not going to be an appropriate fit for every publication (many have themes and genres, or only publish work by a specific demographic), and that's a waste of the editor's time. Another thing, it's a waste of your time as well. There's no point submitting to a publication that was never going to accept you in the first place, and you may end up black-listed as a nuisance for trying.

2. And I mean brief.

Literary magazines receive a lot of submissions, hundreds, thousands of submissions. The editors don't have time to read lengthy cover letters, and they're not interested in reading any either. Writing to say how much you like their publication is nice but it won't change their decision about your work. They're interested in the quality of your work and in how well it fits with their publication and the issue they're assembling. Equally, they don't want to hear you go on about what a good writer you are and why they ought to publish you, it won't effect their decision at all, and if anything it's likely to put them off.

3. Attach your work as a file in .pdf, .doc or .docx format and give it a sensible file name.

Your name and the title of the work is perfect for a file name. Do not paste your work into the body of the email. A lot of publications will specify this in their Submission Guidelines. Processing submissions is admin-heavy, there's a lot of sorting and filing that has to go on. You make it very hard for the editorial team if you use file types they can't open or vague file names they can't use, or if you make them copy and paste your text into a new file themselves. It's just more hard work, so help them out, it only takes a few seconds.

4. Every publication will have Submission Guidelines, take the time to find them, read them, and follow them to the letter.

There's no one set of Submission Guidelines that all publications use, they all have their own way of doing things, so find out what those things are rather than making assumptions, and be sure to do them. It'll be stuff like: 'submit using our submissions portal', 'submit a maximum of 3 poems only', 'put the title of your submission in the subject line of your email', 'use Times New Roman, 12pt font, single-spaced', 'generative AI is prohibited'.

You can always find a publication's Submission Guidelines on their website. Publications put their Submissions Guidelines up for a reason; the best way to show your respect is to heed them. It will mean some extra work and time spent for you, but it's worth it to make the right impression and to give your work the best chance.

Template Cover Letter

This is the template cover letter that I use when submitting:

Dear Editors,*

Please consider the following poems for publication in [magazine title]:

1. [poem title 1]

2. [poem title 2]

3. [poem title 3]...

Bio:* [enter a short biographical statement about yourself as a writer]

Thank you for your time.

Best wishes,

[name]

*If you know the name of the editor, use it. You can often find the editor's name on the magazine's About page. If there are several editors, you can address your cover letter: Dear Editorial Team.

*In many cases, a bio isn't necessary. If the publisher wants to see a bio, they'll ask for one as part of their Submission Guidelines. If you're not sure, write instead, 'Bio available on request'. That way, if your work is accepted, you can submit a bio after the fact.

5. A note on bios.

A 'bio' is a brief biographical statement that tells readers who you are and your writing credentials. A bio can be anything you want it to be really, but some common things to include are: where you're from or where you live; when you were born; what kind of things you write; where your work has been published before; prizes you have won; relevant qualifications or experience. A bio is always written in the third person and should generally be no more that three lines long, or four at a push. This is the bio I used for my pamphlet Sueño del Alma in 2025.

'Cat Woodward was born in Lancashire in 1990. Cat holds a PhD in lyric poetics from the University of East Anglia. In 2018 she won the Ivan Juritz Prize for Creative Experiment. Cat mentors and teaches Creative Writing. Her full length collection Strange Shape (Gatehouse, 2024) was shortlisted for The East Anglian Book Awards 2024.'

You'll need to update your bio periodically as your publishing record lengthens, as you achieve new things, or just when you want to refresh your image.

After the submission

6. Keep a record of what you submitted where and when.

An Excel spread sheet is ideal if you've made lots of submissions. It's easy to forget what you've submitted where and when, so it's a good idea to keep a record somewhere. If you keep a record, then you can review it to see when you can expect responses from who, and chase up late responses. You can make sure you don't accidentally submit the same piece to multiple places, or if you do plan to simultaneously submit, you can withdraw your other submissions when a piece gets accepted.

7. Don't send anything else to the publisher until you hear back.

Processing hundreds and thousands of submissions takes a very long time, response times are measured in months. So, be patient. Don't send emails asking about your submission, the editor will get to it in time. Some publishers give an indication of when you can expect to hear back in their Submission Guidelines. Query your submission briefly and politely only after this time has passed.

If you redraft or make changes to your submission after you've sent it off, don't send the publisher revised versions. It's very hard to keep track of lots of versions all floating about and it's a lot of extra, unnecessary work for the editor. Consider your submission locked in until you get a response. If you get accepted, then there may be an opportunity to make small edits, but not before.

If you need to withdraw your submission for whatever reason, just send a brief, polite email askng for it to be withdrawn. Give your name, the title of the poem, and the date of submission to help them find it so they can withdraw it. You're not obliged to say why you're withdrawing, so don't waste your time or theirs with lengthy explanations or apologies.

8. When you are rejected, take it gracefully.

This is the fastest way to get black-listed into the 'absolutely never publish' dungeon. Every publisher who's been around long enough has horror stories about rancorous rejectees who've sent abusive or just snotty emails. I know getting rejected hurts, it can even make you angry, but keep your lid on. It does no good to lash out but it seriously hurts your reputation. And I say 'when' you get rejected, not 'if', because rejection is a big part of being a writer. You'll get a lot more rejections than acceptances, whoever you are. So, tough as it is, you need to emotionally prepare yourself to bite that bullet, because it's coming.

9. If you are accepted, take it gratefully.

It's an achievement and an honour to have your work selected for publication, so if you do get an acceptance, be sure to send a brief response to say thank you. It's pretty miserable to accept someone and then get nothing in response. The editors will have spent a lot of time and energy carefully considering your work, so let them know you appreciate it. And, practically speaking, they do need to know if you're still happy to publish, so shoot them an email to say so.

Were these tips helpful? Drop me a comment, I'm always open to chat.

Are you preparing to submit your poetry for publication? You might be interested in my professional critique services. I provide expert feedback on your poems, helping you to edit and improve. Receive feedback on a single poem for only £25 with Single Poem Feedback. Or, if you're submitting multiple poems, you might be more interested in my Mentoring service.

If you're interested to read some poems of my own, these days I publish all of my new work for free on my Substack, Solarion, along with criticism and some other bits.