I’ve been purchasing copies of and subscribing to as many literary journals as I can afford.  This is research.  I’m trying to find good journals to send my fiction and essays to.  Because of a comment on my blog, I learned about Storyglossia, an online literary journal edited by Steven J. McDermott.  I spent my lunch hour reading stories from the latest issue.  The quality of the story (from this reader’s perspective) is not too far below what is found in the print literary journals.  Also, it appeared from the contributor bios, that the writers are not all spring chickens.

I have two (maybe three questions): (1) Are there very many of these online literary journals? (urls please) (2a) What’s their perceived status? (2b) Should beginning authors start by submitting to these journals or only after they have been rejected by the bigger name print lit journals?

I have a listing of links on my weblog sorted by online lit, although I sadly need to update this.  There’s another website that gives a more up-to-date listing as well as a semi-reference to “status” that I’ll try to dig up and find for you.  I’ve had a poem of mine published online, but I somehow still want to break into the big boys’ market, and when I submit, I start sending in groups of ten based on tiers, from the top (not necessarily meaning the best--since many of the new guys are even better--but rather the established names.  This thinking is of course based on obtaining credentials more quickly rather than starting from the bottom up.  And really, what do we mean by bottom anymore?  In some of the latest Ploughshares and Prairie Schooner issues, there are only five or six stories and thirty poems.  It’s obvious that that’s a tough market to penetrate when the likes of Munro and Oates are in there as well.

Another suggestion:  Before subscribing, check out their websites and the issues at your local library.  As noted in the above posts, you’ll see a trend or tendency of what they accept in fiction, essay, reviews, or poetry, and can spend money where it is more relative to your own style and form.

I am the Reviews Editor at Eclectica Magazine, and I think it is pretty wonderful. Eclectica (eclectica.org) is celebrating it’s 10th year online so I think that at least proves something, as far as its merits. It’s not a print journal because printing a lit mag costs money - lots of money - and going online is dirt cheap in comparison. I tried the print lit mag route for awhile and honestly, other than a few journals that have been around a long time and are very very respectable, I think most of them are just bratty grad students getting all of their frustrations out by being cruel to submitters. (And I say this a former grad student, albeit not one in a lit program. ha!)

Anyway, I suggest you check out Story South (storysouth.com) and see who they have awarded in the past and also check out the mags that have submitted stories. (Their awards are only for online magazines.)

As far as if it is as impressive to submit to an online journal as print, well, I have found that publishers just want good stories. If you submit online, at least you will be getting some feedback and the more people who read your stuff, the better. I’d say just do it - what do you have to lose?

Check out Duotrope’s Digest of Fiction Fields for current markets.  They list both print and online publications; it’s a very well-designed site, easy to navigate, and updated daily.

Thanks for the suggestions.  The Duotrope database is impressive.

I’ve found a wealth of online literary journals in the last week and am so convinced of their value to the literary community that I have decided to start publishing a literary journal myself.  It’s called: The Angler.  Submissions welcome.

Good for you! I hope it’s a great success! (And I really like that picture you have on your masthead - boats are so cool...........)

Colleen

Donavan, NewPages.com maintains a pretty thorough index of online lit journals:

http://www.newpages.com/npguides/litmags_online.htm

Donovan, I just went back and read your original post, which now makes me want to launch a lit journal for writers over the age of 40 (a group which includes me), using as motivation an imaginary but vast conspiracy amongst journal editors against older writers. The journal would be called No Spring Chickens.

Excellent idea, Pete.  I’ll be submitting work to “No Spring Chickens” myself in the not too distant future.

Add The Picolata Review ([url=http://www.picolatareview.org]http://www.picolatareview.org[/url]) to your list.

It’s new, and just started accepting submissions for Issue #1.

I’m checking out The Angler.  Hey, good luck! As an indie publisher, I know there’s a lot of work in it - but it’s always so satisfying in the end.  You won’t regret it a bit.

Do any of you feel like an online journal is in any way a somewhat “lesser” medium than a journal whose spine you can crack, whose pages you can leaf through and accidentally stain with coffee? If so, what do you think about PDF publishing versus HTML publishing? Is it an intermediary?

Anyone can be a publisher nowadays - that’s good news and that’s bad. Writing is not about publishing. It is about quality. So what we need are good editors. The bad news not everyone is a good editor. I agree however, I like the feel of the work in my hands. I like to see it on my coffee table, the cistern of my toilet, my bedside locker. But we have to accept that is changing and new readers will have different sensitivities.

If we are sending work out there, we need to be looking not to where it is most likely to get published but which editor has a journal bias I respect and would wish to be included within.

Dead Beat - 16 August 2006 10:12 AM

If we are sending work out there, we need to be looking not to where it is most likely to get published but which editor has a journal bias I respect and would wish to be included within.

But aren’t your own sensibilities a factor in all that? I mean, doesn’t it matter if your work will apepar in curly pink letters on a black web page or in a perfect-bound volume set in a sensible serif font? Isn’t the decision, and our respect, for online versus on-page printing ultimately an aesthetic call as well?

And are people’s sensibilities really shifting toward embracing online publishing? If so, are their attention spans changing with it? Are readers wanting writing that is easy to “surf” through, with hyperlinks (like a blog) and banner ads on the side? If so ... are we in trouble? culturally?