Yeah, OK. Kailey roped me into doing a course on How to Submit to Literary Magazines. Except I’m calling it: Sorry for the Inconvenience - A Submitter’s Guide to Lit Mags. Because, of course.
Look, I really don’t like long-winded explanations on the web of all the different aspects of submitting. Somewhere out there is a six-page breakdown of what ‘Simultaneous Submissions’ means that, legend has it, kills anyone who finishes the thing.
And there is a lot of bad info flying around. So, I’m going to do my best to give a fully comprehensive no-bullshit breakdown of the entire process over 12 lessons with tons of data, lit mag examples, and resources I’ve created or found. There will be guides, exercises, discussions, and maybe some videos if I get a haircut in time. I’ll also have some guest content from folks who know some things better than me. And it’s free for everyone here.
This will be part of a new experimental workshop program we’ve developed called Write or Die 101. It’s here on Substack and each month we will have a new workshop by a new instructor. We’re trying to make writing workshops more affordable for folks so it’s going to be just $10 per month. Here’s how it will work.
First two weeks of every course - free for everyone.
Final two weeks of every course - for paid subscribers.
Read the full introduction for my course here
And explore our full calendar of 2024 courses here:
So, you can get the first month with my course for free here:
or if you want to sign up for the whole year, we’re offering a launch promotion with 10% off the yearly price. Yeah, so that’s $90 for 12 month-long workshops.
Here is how it will all work (pasting these details from our about for clarity)
Each month, a different highly-qualified instructor will take over WoD101 to teach a full workshop to our subscribers. Some workshops will be info-dense with downloadable spreadsheets and tons of resource links. Others will more generative with exercises and prompts. Others will be sexy.
Lessons will come as emails 2-3 times weekly (depending on the instructor)
They will include self-paced elements, discussions, and whatever else our instructors come up with.
All interactions will be conducted on the Substack portal here.
There, you can find all of the lessons and information about every workshop as they come out.
At any time, you can learn about upcoming workshop on our calendar.
You do not need to sign up or resubscribe to participate in workshops. Once you're subscribed, you're in until you choose to leave us.
This is definitely an experiment! There will be hiccups. Never hesitate to reach out if you need help or clarification.
Paid vs. Free
Weeks 1 & 2 will always be free.
Weeks 3 & 4 are available to our paid subscribers ($10 per month).
There will be a minimum of 8 lessons per workshop — lectures, readings, discussions, exercises, and maybe even some video lessons.
Ben, what a lovely idea.
Just wanted to add this tip - - which has worked for me.
When deciding what to send to zines, if you feel the material you're working on now has book potential, then always submit FIRST to those literary journal editors who also helm a book publishing company. This will introduce your material in bite-size form and establish the connection(s) that will enable your WIP to leap-frog to the next logical step.