700+ Lit Mags Accepting 5+ Poems at a Time

Increase your chances with multi-poem submissions.

Nov 22, 2023

∙ Paid

OK, it’s Thanksgiving on Thursday so we’re taking a little break on this week’s Friday list. Need to set aside some time for food, family, and therapy. To make up for it, today’s list is extra big. 730 magazines accepting 5 or more poems in a single submission.

When I am preparing to submit poetry, I package my poems into documents of 3, 5, and 7. These are the most common poem-counts magazines will accept at one time. There aren’t many publications that ask for only one poem. Split Lip is one off the top of my head. But most ask for multiple.

I will more often submit 3 as a bundle of related poems or 7 if the magazine seems fairly scattershot in what they publish. But I usually have 5 poems I am reasonably proud of at any given time.

Some advice with submitting poem bundles.

Unless an editor asks, I don’t title a bundle “5 poems” because, first, it becomes harder for editors to organize (picture 300 submissions all titled “5 poems”). And second, it makes it difficult for me to organize in my files and on my submittable page. If I am submitting three packets of five poems and title them all 5 poems, how the heck do I know which is which? My poems tend to have long titles so I use keywords. One word for each poem. Just my preference.
Submit the max number of poems if you have the max number of quality poems. I get asked this fairly often. “Should I submit the max number of poems?” And I always say yes. Because, OK, if an editor says they want 3-7 poems and they hold it against the person who submits 7 poems, is that the kind of person you want publishing your work? This shit is complex enough without playing mind games.
Start each poem on a fresh page. Some magazines explicitly ask for poems to be tossed in one after another, but most want each poem to start on a new page.
Unless an editor asks for related collections, I don’t think it matters if the poems relate to one another. I have submitted packets of 5 and had 4 unrelated ones pulled and published. And I’ve submitted 5 then had one pulled and published. With poetry, a lot of time editors will be pretty specific if they want something done a certain way. If they don’t, 5 poems of any variety in a single document has never steered me wrong. Really, I think it’s the best bang for your buck time wise. It’s like having 5 chances to get accepted for one submission. Yes, please, thank you.

OK, so, those are my scattershot thoughts on submitting poem bundles. Now, let’s take a look at an extra huge list of 700 magazines accepting 5 poem bundles. I’ve also organized them by their popularity on Chill Subs which I’ve found is a decent metric for finding writer-friendly competitive magazines.

Here we go.