Creative Writing Magazines: Where to Submit and Why You Should

As creative writers, most of us want to share our stories and publish. I’m not gonna lie, I want to. Paradoxically, most of us are terrified to publish because of potential failure and rejection. What if I release my work to the world and they hate it? (By the way, remembering these 4 things when someone doesn’t like your writing may help with that fear.) Or, no one wants to read it? Or, no one knows about it and it goes unnoticed forever? Well, maybe you should start with a smaller audience.

As you develop your writing style and ideas, try writing short pieces of fiction to publish in magazines.

Doing so allows you to:

• Find out what you can work on to improve your writing.
• Get you used to working with the publishing process.
• Expose yourself little by little to more audiences.

I was only published in one magazine–in high school–

Hold on…in high school? That doesn’t even count!

Let me make my point! I was published in one magazine in high school. It was small and barely anyone read it. However, the teachers and students running it helped me to edit and revise my work to prep it for final publication after it was selected for its content. Then, I got a copy and felt so proud. It was out there, where anyone could read it–and some did. I was afraid because my name was on it and teens are cruel. Nevertheless, I did it. I think I still have the copy somewhere in a box.

It really did help me build the confidence to keep writing.

Now, I could come up with an awesome list of magazines that accept submissions for your creative writing. I was going to do that and enlighten you all but I was enlightened instead. As soon as I started my research, I found other blogs that compiled those lists for me. Why do extra work, right?

You’re so lazy!

Look, I’m not lazy, I’m using resources! Anyway, when I reviewed each list, I noticed some suggestion repetition across each. But, each also included a new one, too. You’ll find those lists below.

The blogs and articles listed are not sponsoring me, nor am I representing their views and work. I merely found their article helpful in developing my own. Find out more about my terms and conditions and each of theirs when you get to their sites.

Top 50 Literary Magazines from Every Writer Resource

9 Literary Magazines for New and Unpublished Writers from Aerogramme Writers’ Studio

A List of Creative Writing Journals Accepting Submissions from Almond Press

So many options, right?

Well, you can’t publish to them all–nor should you. Your writing may not fit for every magazine. Thus, it may go out to the wrong audience and get more backlash than it would have from the audience it was intended for. Before you start trying to decide which magazines to go with, check out the “7 Signs a Literary Magazine is a Good Fit for Your Creative Writing”; maybe it’ll help you narrow it down.

Have you ever published your work to a magazine? What was your experience like? Do you know of any other magazines that accept creative writing submissions? Let us know below and on social media. I recommend you also take a step further and sign up for bi-weekly Writer’s Wisdom for more writing tips, tricks, and topics.