Tips for Submitting Your Creative Writing

Advice from the Editor of Hot Dish Magazine













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1. Before you submit have a friend or family member peer-review your work. 
- It’s also good to have a second pair of eyes to point out grammar and spelling mistakes. 

2. Research the magazine you are submitting to. 
- For example, Hot Dish Magazine is a literary magazine in the Midwest, however if you have been researching us you would see that this year we are going National. 

3. Read what the submission guidelines are. 
- Hot Dish Magazine is only for High schoolers 9-12. Therefore, if you aren’t considered in grades 9-12 then your work won’t be reviewed by us. Just like Hot Dish many magazines have guidelines that highlight who can submit, what you can submit, and when you can submit. 

4. Be mindful of entry fees 
- Paying to submit isn’t all that bad. However, if you are newer to the literary world or simply money poor there are plenty of magazines you can submit to for free. Sites such as submitable.com even make it easier for writers to find these magazines and submit to them. 

5. Include a brief cover letter that covers who you are and why you wrote this piece. 
- As an editor myself I know that I won’t always look at someone’s cover letter first. However, it is still important to include one that gives an author bio and in our case something that inspired this piece. 

6. Don’t be disheartened by rejection. 
- We all get rejections; it’s just how the literary world is. As a writer it hurts to be rejected repeatedly, but as an editor it still difficult to decide which works to accept to thier magazine. So, while you may be sad about being rejected keep pressing forward and know that the editor is also sad about having to reject work.  

7. Ask for feedback from the editor. 
- Not all editors will have time to give feedback, but some like Hot Dish Magazine will immediately give you feedback. So, if an editor gives feedback to some writing of yours and asks for revisions give them a response. If not, it is always alright to email the editor to see if they had some feedback to give you. 

8. Keep records of failure as well as success. 
- Not only does this give you a sense of being proactive, it will also help you later down the road when you need to know where your poems have been published before. 

9. Continue to submit material year-long 
- Whether you are a new writer or well published writer you still need to constantly be submitting material to magazines. This is how you get published as well as build up relationships with a multitude of editors. Whether or not you get accepted, continuing to submit is still getting you something. 
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10. Be mindful of your simultaneous submissions (submitting the same poem to different magazines) 
- While simultaneous submissions are a good way to get your poems out, some magazines do not permit simultaneous submissions. This may be the case for some magazines you submit for, but many will allow simultaneous submissions. If one of your simultaneous submissions get accepted, be sure to let the other magazine you submitted the same piece to know. It will be a great help to them and doesn’t lead to the awkward conversation that you already got it accepted elsewhere.

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