Kelly Chastain - The Rogue MFA

Kelly ChastainJanuary 29, 2026

How to Keep Track of Magazine Submissions

It’s right up there with eating liver and onions on purpose. I’m not suggesting this goal for the fun of it. I’ve actually hit it a few times. But why on earth would I do that to myself?

Because Publishing Requires Resilience

Most of the time, rejections have nothing to do with the author. Think about it. Most of the things you say no to in your real life have nothing to do with the person asking. You say no because you don’t have time, you don’t want to go, you don’t need what they’re selling, and on and on.

Publication is a long game. Getting good at rejection is a big part of that. I’ve known some brilliant writers whose egos couldn’t handle a no. And it’s a real shame because if they’d have stuck it out, I’m sure they’d have published a lot of great stuff.

Just to show you how arbitrary it can be, here are a few reasons why magazines reject pieces:

The magazine was full by the time they got to your piece and the editors bulk rejected everything left in the queue.
You didn’t do your research and your piece was a terrible fit for the magazine.
You did do your research and it still wasn’t a good fit for the magazine.
They say they take submissions, but they never actually read any of them, and instead solicit pieces from writers they know. cough, cough The New Yorker

Will 100 Rejections Per Year Fix Any Of This?

It will not fix the million reasons lit mags reject work. What it will fix is your ability to weather the seas of rejection. Here, you’ve set up a goal paradox, where either way you win. And there’s something about that that works.

I don’t say any of this to discourage you from ever submitting your work. Hardly. I say it so you don’t feel obligated to take a rejection personally, or think it says something about you as a writer. It doesn’t.

So. Submit Work and Track Your Submissions

Tracking submissions helps you with submission etiquette. Most magazines allow simultaneous submissions, meaning you can submit your piece to several magazines at the same time. A few holdouts still request exclusive submissions.

Back in the snail mail days, you would photo copy your submission, mail it to the magazine with a self addressed stamped envelope so they could mail the outcome back. In that system, it made sense to send pieces one at a time.

Because when one magazine accepts your work for publication, it’s your job to then inform everyone else you’ve submitted to, and withdraw your piece from their consideration. Nowadays, most of that is handled quickly online. No donkey cart full of snail mail required.

Tracking where you’ve sent a piece is vital. Since I’ve been tracking submissions for at least a thousand years, I made a template that you can use for free. No, these aren’t real magazines or story titles, but how fun would it be if they were?

You’ll track the story title, the magazine you sent it to, when you submitted the work, how you submitted, the contact info in case it was an email (which is rare, so often I use that field for general notes), the outcome: accepted, rejected, or withdrawn, and the submission fee.

This helps you remember who to contact and how, and how much you’ve spent on a submission fees. The average cost is about $3.00, but there are still a lot of magazines that let you submit for free or for reduced fees based on identity, ability, or student status.

You’ve learned how to format your writing for submissions, how to find magazines to submit to, how to write your author bio, and now how to track the submissions. All that’s left is getting out there and doing it.

Kelly ChastainJanuary 22, 2026

How to Write an Author’s Bio

When you set out to publish, especially for the first time, the steps can feel a little daunting. We’ve covered how to format your writing for literary magazines, and how to find magazines to submit to. Once you upload your .doc, the lit mag will ask you for your author bio.

If they choose to publish your work, they’re going to publish your bio in the back of the magazine. That way, readers who liked your piece can learn more about you, and possibly where to read more of your stuff.

First, we start with the boring English Teacher babble.

Formatting Guidelines

Just like formatting your writing submission, bios have rules too.

All bios are written in 3rd person. Yes, you will feel like a psychopath writing about yourself like this at first, but remember, strangers are reading it and probably a bunch of bios back-to-back.
The same formatting applies from our story submission. 12pt font, Times New Roman, or a sexy equivalent like Georgia or Garamond.
You will create different versions, depending on where it’s posted.
- A single line for social media profiles. Sometimes people call this their personal logline. 15-30 words.
- The standard version for submitting work, for book jackets, and for websites. 50 – 200 words. For literary magazines, aim for 50 – 100. This is what we’re focusing on here.
- For press kits and About pages – 250+ words. These are designed to be copied and pasted into articles or interviews, and are usually (not always) a touch more formal.

What Do I Write?

There are no requirements for content, but typically, writers go about this in three different ways. You can focus on establishing some kind of authority with relevant credentials, you can keep it purely personal, or you can mix up the two. I’ll use my friend, Elizabeth, as an example, and show you what it could look like all three ways.

Each one of these focuses on Elizabeth’s story about her wallflower, book-loving protagonist, whose small book-tock account goes mega viral overnight.

Relevant Credentials – Elizabeth’s livelihood is based in the book-tock/book lover world:

For the past ten years, Elizabeth Smith has owned and operated an independent bookstore, Spine Tinglers. She loves leading the store’s monthly book club, and has founded an online community for book lovers, where she teaches members how to format, post, and market their book-centric social media accounts.

Personal – Elizabeth is a devout reader, something that also aligns with her protagonist. Plus, she’s kinda quirky, which makes her memorable:

Since she was old enough to read, Elizabeth Smith has never been out of arm’s reach of a book. In her off time, you can find her curled up on the couch with her favorite classic, or the year’s must-read novel according to her community book club. She was born and raised in Boston, but now lives on a hobby farm outside of Amherst with her three rescue dogs and a donkey named Matilda.

The mash-up – We get a sense that Elizabeth knows the book-tock space, and that she’s also a super interesting person:

For the past ten years, Elizabeth Smith has owned and operated an independent bookstore, Spine Tinglers. In her off time, you can find her curled up on the couch with her favorite classic, or teaching in her online community for book lovers. She lives on a hobby farm outside of Amherst with her three rescue dogs and a donkey named Matilda.

This Is An Evolving Blurb

As you begin to publish, you’ll want to list the names of the magazines in your bio. Other additions can include nominations, long and short listed pieces, and if you’ve won prizes or contests. Degrees and certificates can also be listed, but they aren’t a requirement for publication.

When you have several publications, you may want to create your own website. Or a place online where people can read all of your work. Listing your web address in your bio is a great way to get people back to your site.

Most importantly, don’t overcomplicate it. If you want readers to remember you as an authority on a subject, go for a credentials based bio. If you want your quirkiness front and center, keep it personal. If you’re not 100% sure, go for the mash-up.

Kelly ChastainJanuary 15, 2026

How to Find Literary Magazines

Last week we talked about submitting more to literary magazines and how to format our work like we know what we’re doing. Lucky for us, literary magazines aren’t all dedicated to capital L literature. There are several that shut the door to genre writing entirely, but there are also many who publish it exclusively.

Submitting to lit mags isn’t the same as pitching a story to a magazine. Pitching is when you submit an idea for a story, and if it’s accepted, you then write it. This is more typical for non-fiction work. Lit mags are looking for completed works that are ready to go for publication.

How to Find Magazines

There are a bajillion places to find lists of magazines to submit to, but these are the most helpful:

Submittable. This platform is also where most magazines house their submission portal – the form that you fill out to attach your work and send it to them. Here, you can search by genre, open calls for submissions, calls that are closing soon, contests, and more. You’ll need to sign up for a free submittable account to use this database. You’ll also need an account if you submit to a magazine that uses this platform as their portal.
Poets & Writers. You can sort by sub-genre like Historical, Speculative, Horror, etc. They also have a Small Press database if you’re looking to publish book-length work.
New Pages. Their listings include calls for submissions, contests, and they even have a list of Alternative Magazines.
Clifford Garstang puts out a list every year of the top literary magazines, and has a comprehensive ranking system based on pushcart nominations and prizes, anthologies, etc… He also provides his full methodology. If your work skews more mainstream (Historical Fiction can often fall into this category), you can give his lists a try.

How to Submit

Once you’ve found a magazine that you like, make sure they publish the kind of work that you write. I know that sounds elementary, but as someone who has ran a magazine, I cannot tell you how many authors crop dust the literary market with their story just hoping that it will stick somewhere. It’s a massive waste of time and money.

Before you do anything, make sure that this draft is as polished as you can possibly make it. Run it past a few people for clarity, if anything. Then…
Ready your document per the guidelines if you haven’t already. If you’ve forgotten some of the terms, we’ve got you covered.
Determine a budget you’re willing to spend on submissions per piece or per month. Submission costs usually range from 3-5 US Dollars. More for contests or if you choose the option for feedback. Some are still free.
You’ll likely be redirected to a Submittable form or an in house Submission Manager. The steps are pretty straightforward at that point. You’ll upload your work, following their guidelines.
You’ll also need an author bio.

Next week, we’re going to cover how to write that pesky author bio, and what to write if you’ve never published before. Later, we’ll cover how to track your lit mag submissions and why you definitely want to do that.