Tag: VIDA Count

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SUBMIT 1: 10th Annual Submission Drive

SUBMIT 1 is the one day out of the year WWS encourages woman-identifying and non-binary writers across the globe to send one of their most beloved pieces of writing to tier-one journals as one community. This is an act of solidarity, not only with our writers, but with editors and publishers as well. SUBMIT 1 dares to connect the literary publishing community as a whole.

Promotions flyer for 2023 SUBMIT 1. Big green #1 foam hand in the middle surrounded by the tag line: one community, one day, one submission at a time.

September 2014 was the first time we called on our WWS community to submit to tier-one literary journals en masse. Inspired by the 2009 VIDA Count from VIDA, Women in Literary Arts, which published quantitative evidence of the dearth of women’s voices in top tier publications, this submission drive became our annual call to action for equity and wider representation in publishing. In 2014, a group of writers gathered at Hermosillo Bar in Highland Park, CA for a day of beers, cheers, and literary submissions. Since then, we’ve hosted an annual submission drive at public places across Los Angeles, but when the pandemic hit in 2020, we pushed to think of a creative solution to gathering, and the @WomenWhoSubmit Instagram Live programming was born.

Eight women with laptops sit on either side of a long table, smiling at the camera
1st Annual Submission Drive – September, 2014

WWS is excited to announce that our 10th annual SUBMIT 1 will be hybrid! Join us on Instagram Live @WomenWhoSubmit for special one-hour hosts from 9am-9pm or in-person at Pocha LA in Highland Park from 2pm-5pm. You can find us on the back patio with live hosts Tisha Marie Reichle-Aguilera and Ryane Nicole Granados. We thank Pocha LA for hosting us!

How to Participate:

1. Before September 9th, study THIS LIST of “Top Ranked Journals of 2023” with current open calls to find a good fit for your work. Links to guidelines are included. BE SURE TO READ AND FOLLOW THE GUIDELINES. 

2. On September 9th, submit one of your most beloved pieces of writing to at least one tier one magazine from wherever you are in the world at any time of day.

3. Notify us on Twitter or IG. Be sure to tag us @womenwhosubmit, so we can celebrate you with lots of claps, cheers, and funny gifs.

4. Hang with us on IG Live at @WomenWhoSubmit from 9am to 9pm PACIFIC for a full day special guests, support, and resources. Here is where you can ask WWS members for tips on submitting, get encouragement, or receive LIVE claps for when you hit send.

SUBMIT 1 IG Live Schedule (all times are PACIFIC):

9am-10am: Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo (@xochitljulisa), WWS Director 

10am-11am: Joy Notoma (@joywriteshermedicine), WWS-Europe Chapter Lead 

11am-12pm: Carrie Finch, WWS-Bay Area Chapter Lead 

12pm-1pm: Lunch break!

1pm-2pm: Luivette Resto (@lulubell.96), Board Member, LIVE from Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultura (@tiachuchas)

2pm-3pm: Melissa Chadburn (@mchadburn), WWS Board Member

3pm-4pm: Kate Maruyama (@katemaruyama), Board Member interviewing WritLarge Projects (@writlargeprojects)

4pm-5pm: Cocktail hour with live check-ins from Pocha LA (@pocha_losangeles)

5pm-6pm: Dinner break!

6pm-7pm: Jane Muschenenetz & Karla Cordero (@karlaflaka13), WWS-San Diego Chapter Leads 

7pm-8pm: Lucy Rodriguez-Hanley (@lucyrodriguezhanley), WWS-Long Beach Chapter Lead & WWS Chapter Liaison

8pm-9pm: Traci Kato-Kiriyama (@traciakemi1) LIVE from Little Tokyo

5. After submitting, fill out THIS FORM to help us track how many submissions were sent out, which will help us in our continued mission towards gender parity and wider representation of marginalized voices in literary publishing.

How to Support:

If you don’t plan to submit with us, but would like to support our efforts, please consider making a donation at our Paypal account in the name of your favorite WWS member or underrepresented writer.

DONATE HERE!

SUBMIT 1 Budget:

Submit 1 Coordinator – $500

IG Coordinator – $500

IG Guest Speakers – $1,350 (9 people x $150)

La Pocha Live Hosts – $500 (2 people x $250)

Refreshments – $350

Stickers, signs, and materials – $300

Total – $3,500

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7 Steps to Submitting

Our 7th Annual Submission Blitz is coming Saturday, September 12th. This online event is our annual drive to submit to tier one journals as an action for gender parity in publishing.

In the summer of 2011 a group of women met together in a kitchen to share food, literary journals, and submission goals to encourage each other to submit work for publication. The idea for this first submission party came from WWS cofounder, Alyss Dixson as a response to the Vida Count. We began the Submission Blitz in the summer of 2014 to honor our beginnings and continue to push for gender parity in top tier publishing.

We’ve come to understand that submitting to tier one journals is no easy ask, so to help, check out the 7 Steps to Submitting below. And consider joining us on September 12th. It’s as easy as marking yourself going to the event, submitting to a journal, notifying us know on FB, Twitter, or IG, and letting us shower you in claps and cheers.

Images from our 2019 Submission Blitz LA meet-up at the Faculty Bar in East Hollywood.

7 Steps to Submitting:

by Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo

1. Select a Manuscript – When selecting a piece (for poetry this may be 5-7 poems) to submit, be sure sure to choose a story, essay, or poems you absolutely love or need to see in the world. These are top tier magazines, so if you don’t love the work and need to see it published, why would you expect the editors to?

2. Research & Pick a Journal – Begin by looking through this list of tier one journals with links to guidelines curated by Tisha Marie Reichle-Aguilera. Some things to look into: Who’s on the editorial team? Who’s been published? What’s their mission statement? Do you like what’s been published? Does your work fit within their guidelines?

3. Read & Follow the Guidelines – the fastest way to get your work rejected is to not follow guidelines. Don’t make it easy for an editor to say no to you. 

4. Prepare your Manuscript – be sure to adjust your manuscript according to the guidelines, give it to a friend read through for any last minute notes, and read through it out loud before sending to catch any typos. 

5. Write a cover letter – be sure to personalize a cover letter with the name of the editor and a sentence about why you’ve chosen to send your work to them. Though it’s up for debate if cover letters are even read, this is a good practice for keeping open communications with editors you hope to create a working relationship with. See more about cover letters here.

6. Submit – once you’re ready, HIT SEND! And then be sure to let us know on our social media accounts so we can clap and cheer for you!

7. Record your Submission – a submission tracker is a spreadsheet and a great tool for keeping your submissions in order. What you put on the tracker is up to you, but the name of journal, name of submission, and date it was submitted is a good place to start. This is helpful for checking back on submissions that have been out for three, six, or more months, as well as keeping up communications when practicing simultaneous submissions (see the link in point 5 for more information on this). 

This is image represents the first six months of my personal 2019 submission tracker.

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It’s Time for Submission Blitz 2020!

We, Women Who Submit, want to celebrate the last eight years of submissions, rejections, and acceptances with one giant nationwide online submission party.

We are inviting all women and non-binary writers around the country to submit to at least one tier-one journal (Or maybe five!) on September 12, 2020. Let’s inundate these top journals with our best work and shake up their slush piles!

How to Participate:

  1. Mark yourself as going on Submission Blitz Facebook Event Page.
  2. Before the day, study this list of tier-one journals with links to submission guidelines curated by Tisha Marie Reichle-Aguilera
  3. On September 12, 2020 submit to at least one tier one magazines from where ever you are in the world
  4. Notify us on Facebook Event Page in the comments, on Twitter, or Instagram (@womenwhosubmit), so we can celebrate you with lots of claps and cheers
  5. Follow the stories on Instagram throughout the day for encouraging words and tips from members
Continue reading “It’s Time for Submission Blitz 2020!”
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Building Our Community

A woman standing before a room of women writers speaking.

By Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo

Let me begin by saying that we currently have an IndieGoGo Campaign to raise funds for our 2020 programming. Please consider donating and help us fight for gender parity in publishing. For those new to WWS, allow me to share some of our history and how we’ve arrived at our first ever fundraising drive.

In June 2011, Alyss Dixson and Ashaki M. Jackson invited me to help plan and host our first submission party. Our mission was to empower women writers to submit to journals in hopes of changing the gender disparity recorded by the first Vida Count. At this first party, I made quiche to share, we created a lending library of journals, and we set up a moving office with printer, paper, envelopes, and stamps. About six women met that day to set goals and submit work. Every time a person submitted the room cheered. With the exception of the moving office (since most journals now accept online submissions), these details have become the essential characteristics of any Women Who Submit event.

Over the years we continued to meet. One year we met about an average of once a season, and at one meeting we only had three participants, but we never stopped meeting.

In the summer of 2014, Writ Large Press launched their first #90for90 series, where they hosted 90 literary events in 90 days. Excited by the series, I reached out to then WLP partner, Jessica Ceballos and asked if there was room for a Women Who Submit event. She said yes, and we decided to host a panel on publishing a first book called “It’s a Book!” with author of Remedy for a Broken Angel, Toni Ann Johnson, author of Codeswitch: Fires from Mi Corazón, Iris de Anda, author of Harrowgate, Kate Maruyama, author of Spent, Antonia Crane, and hosted by Tisha Marie Reichle-Aguilera. This was our first official public event.

That same summer Tisha, Ashaki, Ramona Gonzales, and myself got together to write our first grant proposal. We had several meetings where we parsed out duties and fined-tuned our narrative. In that grant we proposed a professional development workshop series. We weren’t awarded the grant, but since we’d done the work to create the program, we decided to move forward with implementing it.

In 2016 I invited small group of writers to create a leadership team, along with those already involved to help manage our growing community.

Over the last few years we’ve had workshops on contest strategies, mothering and writing, building a website, finding an agent, self-care, applying to workshops, residencies and fellowships, writing an essay, and so forth. We went from hosting events at different literary and cultural spaces around Los Angeles to now having an ongoing residency at the Exposition Park Regional Library, thanks to literary community advocate and librarian Eugene Owens. And we’ve presented at AWP, Binder Con, Lambda Lit Fest, Macondo Writers Workshop, among others.

In 2017 we were awarded our first programming grant from CCI Arts, which allowed us to make our workshops a regular bimonthly event, pay our guest speakers, gift small grants to our members to offset submission fees, livestream workshops for accessibility, and publish our first anthology (to be released at AWP 2020).

In 2019, thanks to a generous donation from Kit Reed’s family, we were able to offer three writers travel grants to attend writing workshops out of state, and we were awarded our second grant, a matching Local Impact grant from the California Arts Council.

To have this community continue we need your help! All this programming is offered for free, and it’s part of our mission to continue to offer impactful resources to women and non-binary writers for free, but it’s not free to build and manage.

Check out our IndieGoGo campaign, and help us empower writers submit and fight for gender parity in publishing.

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Strategies for Submitting to Tier One Journals

Eight women with laptops sit on either side of a long table, smiling at the camera

by Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo

The 6th Annual WWS Submission Blitz on Saturday, September 14th is when we call on women and nonbinary writers across the country (and world) to submit to tier one journals en masse as an annual call to action for gender parity in literary publishing. Though we find it important to support and empower each writer in finding her/their own submission and publication goals, sending work to whichever publications, contests, workshops, residencies, and the like are fitting to the individual, we ask our communities to join us in submitting to top tier journals on this one day of the year in honor of WWS’s history and mission and our shared fight for equitable representation, pay, and career opportunities.

In 2009, Vida, Women in Literary Arts counted how many women were published in tier one journals in comparison to how many men. The numbers of the first Vida Count showed unequivocal evidence of a great gender disparity in these publications. When the organization began asking the editors of these journals why the numbers were so, the most common answer from editors was that women don’t submit as often or resubmit as aggressively as men. 

In 2011, Women Who Submit was created in response to this conversation. WWS cofounder, Alyss Dixson, who worked with Vida at the time, had the idea to create a submission party–a co-working space for women to share resources, journals, and food, and to submit in real time–to help skew the numbers. 

With many barriers to consider when submitting to tier one journals, the following five steps are shared with your success in mind. And remember, the act of sending your work into the world is its own success.

STEP ONE: PREPARE A PIECE TO SUBMIT

FAQ: How do I know what to send? 

One of the first workshops WWS hosted was in early 2016 on contest strategies with Tammy De La Torre. Her strategy is to choose work that is an absolute favorite, work that you as the writer want to see in the world. Contests and tier one journals are similar in that they are highly competitive. Sometimes you may write a new piece and choose to submit it to a couple of journals as a way of throwing it against the wall to see what sticks. When submitting to tier one, it’s best to pick pieces that have been tested and fine-tuned. If not that, then pieces that are personally urgent or essential.  

FAQ: How do I know when it’s ready?

For most writers, it’s normal to find elements to tweak or fix even after publication. A piece may never be “perfect,” but it’s your job as a writer to send your best work. You can do this through revisions and by utilizing friends and colleagues for first and second read throughs. It’s not always easy to find someone with time or interest to read your work, so invite another writer to do an exchange. This way you’re both benefitting as well as building bonds with a peer. In general, avoid sending work before having another set of eyes on it. 

STEP TWO: SELECT A JOURNAL

FAQ: How do I know where to send? 

For this project, WWS encourages women and nonbinary writers to submit to tier one journals in honor of the VIDA Count and the creation of the first Submission Party in 2011. A tier one journal typically has large distribution and readership, many awards, and pays its readers. Check out the Clifford Garstang blog for annual lists of tier one journals in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.

Below is a list top tier journals with current open submissions curated by Tisha Marie Reichle-Aguilera (find links and descriptions for each on our FB page):

Poetry

Kenyon Review

American Poetry Journal

Threepenny Review

New England Review

Southern Review

Gettysburg Review

Ploughshares

The Sun

One Story

Conjunctions

Paris Review

Ecotone

American Short Fiction

Georgia Review

Granta

New Letters

Agni

Almagundi

The Point

Fourth Genre

FAQ: What if I can’t buy all the magazines?

Every magazine will ask you to read past issues before submitting to ensure your work is a good fit. Reading the issue will also help with adding one specific detail about the journal in your cover letter. This is important for building communication and relationships with editors. But print journals are expensive, so pull resources with friends. Swap old copies. Share subscriptions. Or find past issues in libraries and in the creative writing departments on college campuses.

STEP THREE: WRITE A COVER LETTER

FAQ: What should I put in a cover letter? 

  1. Address the editor directly by finding specific editors’ names on the journal masthead. The easiest way to find the masthead is to Google “[journal name] masthead.” If you still can’t find the editor’s name, address the letter as “Dear [specific genre] editors.”
  2. Name the title of your piece or pieces
  3. Give one reason why you have chosen to send your work to this particular journal. This is where you can let the editor know you’ve done your homework by reading past issues. Make it short. Make it specific. 
  4. Write a short bio with your related credits. 

For an example, check out “Your Perfect Cover Letter” at the review review.

FAQ: What if I have no credits?

If you haven’t been published, it’s ok to say so. You can also include writing classes, workshops, or memberships, but don’t make up credits, and don’t fill space with cuties details. 

STEP FOUR: HIT SEND

FAQ: How important are guidelines?

The quickest way to be rejected is to not follow a journal’s guidelines. Thoroughly read the guidelines and be sure your submission is adhering to what the journal asks for. Every journal is different, so do one last check before you send. 

FAQ: Can I send the same work to multiple places?

If a journal does not specify otherwise, the answer is yes. Be sure to track (see step five) where you’re sending work because if a journal accepts a piece (YAY!), it’s your job to notify the other journals and withdraw. If a journal says they don’t take “simultaneous submissions” follow the guidelines and decide if you want to submit knowing they may not respond for a long stretch of time.

 FAQ: Who will help me celebrate when I hit send?

WWS will be submitting en masse to tier one journals on Saturday, September 14th from 12am-11:59pm. No matter where in the country (or world) you live, we encourage you to gather a few friends and have your own submission party. A typical WWS submission party will include shared copies of journals, wifi, computers, and plenty of snacks. And of course, don’t forget to audibly cheer anytime anyone hits send! 

If you are unable to gather with others, be sure to @womenwhosubmit on Twitter or Instagram, and we’ll send you plenty of claps and cheers from afar. 

If you’re in Los Angeles, you can meet us at The Faculty (707 N Heliotrope Dr, Los Angeles, California 90029) with your laptop on September 14th from 12:30pm-4pm. 

STEP FIVE: TRACK SUBMISSIONS

FAQ: What do I do after I “hit send”? 

Once you’ve celebrated, be sure to record the submission in your submission tracker. A tracker is a spreadsheet with columns for journal name, date submitted, title of piece submitted, etc. No two trackers are the same, but what’s most important is for you to know who has your work and for how long. This will help with building relationships with journals and self-advocating. 

FAQ: How long should I wait before sending a query?

Many journals will tell you how long to wait before checking in, and what they say should be followed. Some journals may respond within two months, but for many of the larger journals a reply can take 6-12 months. If a journal doesn’t specify, I typically wait six months before querying, but it’s not uncommon to wait two or three.

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Getting into the Top Tier

Illustration of a woman sitting in an orange floating tub in an overflowing bathtub.

by Désirée Zamorano

First off, you can’t get into a top-tier magazine unless you submit. You can’t submit unless you’ve got work, and you won’t have the work unless you sit down to write. Let’s talk about this.

My bookshelves are filled with texts, some popular, some academic, on how to be a better person, partner, parent, educator, writer. To help you close the gap, I’m not going to talk about all those writerly texts, as marvelous as they all can be. (Personal favorites: Making a Literary Life by Carolyn See, and Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass). I’m going to go old school here, and talk about The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

Yes, I realize Stephen Covey turned into an industry himself. But I’m going to talk about the two habits that I have carried forward once I read this classic. The first habit involves a Venn diagram with one circle labeled “Area of concern” and the other circle labeled “Area of influence.”

Concerned about your writing? (You should be)

Do you have influence over your writing? (You are the only one).

Where those two circles overlap is where you have your most powerful impact. Continue reading “Getting into the Top Tier”

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It’s Blitzing Time!

by Ramona Pilar

With August gone and September already begun, we’ve reached the time of year for Women Who Submit’s annual SUBMISSION BLITZ (*pewpew*)! For the fourth year in a row, women across the country – nay, all over the world – are encouraged to flood top-tier journals with their fiction and nonfiction prose and poems.

The annual Submission Blitz is one of a plethora of actions Women Who Submit takes to work towards equity in the publishing world. These in-person gatherings give us a chance to celebrate each other and our commitment to our work, and ourselves because writing is hard. And discipline is hard. Staying the course against outer and inner obstacles is hard. So what better way to honor making it another whole trip around the sun as a writer, than to get together around food and drink, and WOO-HOO each other as we send out best work out to the mero-meros, the crème de la crème, the top-tier journals and shake up their slush pile! Continue reading “It’s Blitzing Time!”

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WWS Poetry Submission Blitz

A coaster emblazoned with a brewery logo is propped up against a pint of stout in front of large, silver brewing kettles in the background

By Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo

In honor of National Poetry Month, Women Who Submit is hosting a Poetry Submission Blitz on April 9, 2017 from 12pm-3pm at the Arts District Brewing Company. A submission blitz is a call to writers to submit their well-crafted and cared for work en masse to tier one literary journals that historically have shown gender disparities in their publications. A submission blitz is a call to action.

Continue reading “WWS Poetry Submission Blitz”

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A WWS PUBLICATION ROUND UP FOR DECEMBER

A laptop computer with an article titled "Submissions Made Simple" on the screen and a stack of literary journals sits on top of the laptop base, titles facing out

An eventful year finally winds down as we all look forward to a fresh start in 2017. Congratulations to all the Women Who Submit members who have had work published in 2016 and to those who sent their work into the world in December.

From Tisha Marie Reichle‘s “An Argument Against Old Cheese” in Ghost Town:

“What did you do to your hair?” Mother exclaimed, sorry she’d sent Beth to the neighborhood salon alone. “What about your graduation pictures?”

Beth fingered the brightly colored stripes that corrupted her freshly-cropped, light-brown hair. “That’s why I did it! The green and orange match the Ducks!” She was ecstatic about leaving her isolated desert home for the lush consciousness of Oregon in August. Until then, she had other problems to worry about. She kissed her mother on the cheek and ran out the door.

Continue reading “A WWS PUBLICATION ROUND UP FOR DECEMBER”

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Highlight on WWS-San Francisco: An Interview with Chapter Co-Lead, Dominica Phetteplace

12 women with laptops sit around a long, wooden table in a small room with a long, wide window

Women Who Submit: Where does the San Francisco chapter meet?

Dominica Phetteplace: Our chapter meets every other month at Borderlands Café in the Mission District of San Francisco, which is adjacent to Borderlands Bookstore, one of my favorite independent bookstores in the world. Borderlands Bookstore specializes in Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Mystery fiction. They also have a great magazine section with lots of cool literary journals for sale. I draw a lot of inspiration from this place. The café has been very supportive of our mission. They set aside tables just for us! Look for us in the back, we’re the group of hardworking women with laptops. Continue reading “Highlight on WWS-San Francisco: An Interview with Chapter Co-Lead, Dominica Phetteplace”