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How to Submit Poetry Electronically for Publication

The Internet has greatly increased access for amateurs to read, write and submit poetry. Submitting poetry online can be daunting, however, with thousands of journals, each with unique submission guidelines, response times, and publication formats. Fortunately, there are a number of resources to help organize and streamline the entire process. Using those resources, along with following a few simple tips, can make submitting your poetry a more enjoyable and rewarding experience.

Instructions

    • 1

      Make and organize electronic copies of your poems. Copies should be in plain text, using a program such as Notepad, MS Word, or Open Office. Each poem should have its own file, be named in a clearly identifiable way (such as by title or first line), and be in the same folder as the rest of your work. By keeping your electronic records organized, you won't run the risk of losing track of any poems.

    • 2

      Register an account at Duotrope's Digest, a free listing of more than 3200 current fiction and poetry publications. Duotrope's Digest provides a searchable directory of poetry journals, with statistics on response times, acceptance rates, and submission guidelines at a glance. For registered users, it also provides the ability to keep track of your submissions.

    • 3

      Search through the listings at Duotrope for journals that accept electronic submissions. Check out the "Curious?" page for reports of journals by statistics such as highest and lowest acceptance rates, or fastest and slowest response times.

    • 4

      Explore the journals' websites once you've found a few journals in which you're interested. Read a few past issues and if you think your poem fits in with the samples that you read, submit. Read and follow the submission guidelines, some journals use online submission managers such as Submishmash. Many use e-mails, and ask that the poems be pasted in the body of the e-mail. Make sure to follow whatever submission guidelines the editors post as editors often will not read submissions that do not follow their guidelines.

Poetry

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