We started accepting submissions only eight weeks ago. And since then we’ve been receiving many and wonderful submissions.
We dedicated ourselves to making LitMag a meaningful addition to the literary landscape, and to do this we need writers who can make it meaningful. And you have, and you are.
We dedicated ourselves to charging no fee for submissions to our print and online journals. We dedicated ourselves to paying our writers, and paying them well (and fast), in the belief that fine writing deserves remuneration. We dedicated ourselves to the hard work and splendor of the slush pile (which we think of as a grand opportunity with no negative connotations). Every day, in many journals, unknown writers are found. But we believe we are making a special effort with our slush pile. It has been only eight weeks, and you – our submitters, our community – have responded in the way we had hoped when we launched.
We are delighted by the number, quality, and breadth of the submissions we receive. We have been receiving submissions from all over the world, though mostly from the US, from writers with and without MFAs, from writers working in the literary world or at universities, and from writers with day jobs that make writing hard but that much more urgent. We’ve received submissions from multiple Pushcart winners (and yes, from far more nominees), from O. Henry winners, from writers with stories in and distinguished by Best American Short Stories; from writers who have won The Iowa Short Fiction Award, the Mary McCarthy Prize in short fiction, and numerous others awards; from poet laureates, from writers published in The New Yorker and many other literary magazines of distinction. And we have received many submissions from writers who are unpublished, or have only one or a couple of publications, and we have been amazed.
Publication in any literary magazine is always a numbers game. LitMag, in this respect, can be no different. The world is now a numbers game. There are so many more submissions than slots, so many more deserving works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry than there will be room enough for in our pages.
Persistence is the chief requirement for any writer, because writing worth a reader’s attention never comes easy. And persistence, above all, is necessary in the submissions process.
For all of you who have submitted, our appreciation could not be greater. We thank you. We thank you. We thank you. Keep those submissions coming. This is just the beginning. With you, we look forward, to the rest of the beginning, and thereafter.