Nearly all venues require a cover letter. Literary cover letters are about simplicity. Include:

1) Editor’s name

2) Your piece’s title(s)

3) Notification if your piece is a simultaneous submission

4) 1-3 sentence biography

Here’s a sample short story cover letter:

Dear William Chaucer,

I would like to submit my short story, “Calvin’s Cheese,” (3,100 words) for publication in Great Stories Journal. This is a simultaneous submission.

My work has previously appeared in The Spark, Perspectives, and Dialogue. When not writing, I wear wooden shoes and research genetically modified corn.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely, Writing Writer

Here are a few other resources for cover letter composition:

http://www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/literary-journal-submissions-101 http://www.missourireview.com/tmr-blog/2012/09/the-art-of-the-literary-magazine-cover-letter/ http://www.thereviewreview.net/publishing-tips/your-perfect-cover-letter

More sample cover letters are available at:

http://www.writehabit.org/sample_cover_letters.pdf

No single formatting style fits all journals. Read each venue’s preferences. In general, though, a few practices are common. William Shunn provides a fantastic, in-depth example and explanation of proper manuscript format, as does Scribophile. Some basic points from their explanations include:

1) In the top left-hand corner, put your name, address, phone number, and email (single spaced).

2) In the top right-hand corner, put an approximate word count (rounded to the nearest 50).

3) Begin your story halfway down the page, starting with your title centered on the first line, your byline centered on the second line, and the then rest of your manuscript (double-spaced and non-justified).

4) Put a header on every page after the first one, with your last name, one or two key words from your title, and the page number.

5) If your piece includes a line break, use a “#” centered on a line by itself to indicate that. It stands out more than an empty line, especially for line breaks that occur at the top or bottom of a page.

Online submission manager

Most journals use Submittable or a similar submission manager. Make a free account, add your personal information, and follow the submission manager’s prompts.  You can return to the manager at any time to check the status of your submission.

Email submissions

Some journals want specific subject lines, others leave it up to you. If given no subject-line guidelines, put the genre, title, and your name. One example: Fiction Submission: “Calvin’s Cheese” by Writing Writer. Some journals want both the cover letter and the manuscript in the email, others wan the manuscript as an attachment.

Physical mail

Include:

1) Cover letter

2) Copy of your manuscript

3) Self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) – the venue will use the SASE to notify you when you piece is accepted or rejected

Put all these materials into an envelope large enough for everything to fit without folding. Do not use resume paper; standard computer paper is preferred. Print on only one side. Do not staple or paperclip.

x months have passed” period. Obey it, but if those months have passed, sending a polite inquiry email is more than acceptable. Sometimes, a submission gets misplaced or sorted into the wrong file, and your email can put your poems back on the table.

Note: If you submit simultaneously and one venue accepts your work, immediately notify the other journals and withdraw your work. Very few things irritate an editor as much as accepting an already-claimed piece.

A journal will respond in one of three ways: a form rejection, a personalized rejection, or an acceptance. You will most likely get rejected. Top-tier journals publish about 0.1% of all the submissions they receive, and many of their submissions come from established writers with MFAs or PhDs. More accessible journals have higher acceptance rates—some as high as 20 percent—but even there, you are competing with accomplished writers. Expect rejection. Expect a form letter, impersonal and blunt. As Professor Vande Kopple would say, “It’s a tough world.”

If you manage to receive a personalized rejection letter, one that addresses your work specifically and points out its strengths and flaws, consider it a victory. It shows that an editor has enough faith in your writing to give specific, constructive comments—a gift they usually give to just a fraction of their submissions. Take those comments to heart, and celebrate. To view rejection letters through an editor’s perspective, check out this guide.

There is still hope for acceptance, though. Every writer begins unknown. Some journals try to publish one or two new or emerging writers each issue, and a few are devoted to publishing exclusively new writers (check out Calvin Writers Recommend for such venues) So collect rejections, and if you receive an acceptance letter, consider yourself very fortunate. Alos, it is necessary to not equate publication with success. That mistake, Professor Rienstra warns, “is the road either to depression or complacency. Establish your own definition of success and remind yourself of it constantly.”