Want Attention on Social Media? Submit to These 22 Literary Magazines.
Who doesn't love attention? - a guest post from Chill Subs' social media director.
I’m going to give you a look behind the scenes of what happens when we promote a writer’s work on Write or Die’s Instagram page to support my case that submitting to literary magazines is an underrated way to play the social media game.
Now, not every writer gives a shit about social media. A big reason for that is because when they’ve tried promoting themselves there in the past, the results have been underwhelming. When factoring in the amount of time and stress that it takes - they arrive at “why bother?” and honestly? They’re right.
The truth is, social media isn’t a good opportunity for writers. Rather, there are good opportunities for writers on social media.
Literary magazines with a strong socials presence are a big one. They've done the work and made a bed of followers and simply by submitting to them, you can go lay in it.
Here is what happened when we shared Jon’s piece:
His writing reached an additional 8,000 people.
It got quite a few likes, saves, and comments, though these are vanity metrics.
The metrics that matter most for writers are link clicks and shares. Here is why:
Link clicks = 70 super fans of Jon. Its annoying to click a link and get redirected out of an app, these people are invested in his work.
Shares = 93 additional people were introduced to his work. When something is shared directly from human to human, trust reinforces the recommendation, so a these are a good 93 additional people.
Noteworthy = Unfortunately instagram doesn't tell us how many people click on a writer’s username when they're tagged in a post, but it does tell you this in stories and its A LOT. (people like to creep)
I know myself that when I read something I like and the writer is tagged I always go stalk them, so I’d add that as an extra exposure category that we can’t prove with a screenshot but know it’s there. Good reason to have a complete profile with examples of your work and contact information.
The art of finding magazines with social media promotion payoff
Not all magazines are active on socials.
Some are but don’t post consistently.
Some only use their feed to promote the things they’re selling.
Also, just because an account has a high following doesn't mean all those people will actually see your post.
Let’s talk about engagement
If gaining exposure via socials is part of your submitting strategy, you’ll benefit more from being published and promoted by a magazine with 1000 engaged followers than you will with one that has 200,0000 followers who can’t be fucked.
Also, chances are the mags with 200,000+ followers are nearly impossible to snag an acceptance from anyway.
This is because the algorithm prioritizes content that is engaged with and buries content that isn't. It’s why sometimes accounts with massive followings only get a few likes.
You can use an engagement calculator, but honestly a quick look will tell you what you need to know:
An account with 200,000 followers has posts with 30 likes = not an engaged audience
An account with 500 followers has posts with 30 likes = engaged audience
Diversifying your submission stock
Of course, the perfect scenario would be to target magazines with high followings and high engagement, but as someone who spends all day every day on litmag social media I can tell you - there aren’t many.
Where I see the most opportunity for exposure is actually with the highly active smaller outlets with devout communities. That’s why just as you would with your stocks, you should diversify your subs.
The list I’ve created below is an example of a diversified submitting strategy with a target on social media exposure.
Here I focused on 5 key components; engagement rate, follower count, posts about writers & their work, beautiful presentation, and accounts that I’ve witnessed grow exponentially over the last 1.5 years that I’ve been in this space.
I’ve also included a bit about what sets each magazine apart, just little things I’ve noticed about along the way that are taking up space in my brain so might as well put them on the page.
There is an outrageous amount of info in today’s list. Descriptions, founding country, and date. Genre details. Fee, pay. Notable tags, social followings, submission notes, AND a little quote from Shelby on what she likes about how each of these lit mags handles their social media.
This is one of our paid subscriber lists this month. Our paid subscriptions are what give us the ability to gather all of this information and maintain our database. If you have the means, you can upgrade here.
Of course, we are always happy to comp those in need, just let us know.