Please read through the little lecture - there is a very fine offer at the end of it.
Literary journals. They are frequently where authors of literary writing first publish. Think about it. You pick up a book by a first time author and read the notes beneath his or her photo. They frequently mention having published stories, poems or essays in two or three journals, the names of which you recognize. Recognize, but perhaps have not ever read, or even seen.
Why not? Why have you not read any issues of Kenyon Review or Ploughshares or any number of other literary journals? Maybe your local bookseller doesn't stock some (or most) of the titles you read or hear of. Maybe you find the price (typical range from $7 to $15 for a single issue) a bit much considering you can find a book in the store for only a little more?
Well, the fact that these journals are out there and able to sustain themselves is very important to the writing world. Like I mentioned, first publishings, which often lead to an agent or publisher contacting writers out of the blue, requesting more of their work. While many journals have some form of donors, and even might be getting grants, they all have detailed in the plethora of Lit Journal Editor E-Panels held last year that having a solid subscriber base is immensely important to them.
This in mind, I've done some work behind the scenes, and the Editors and/or Managing Editors of the following 24 Literary Journals have agreed to give EWN members (and readers of this post) discounts on subscriptions to their journals, so long as multiple (minimum of 3) journals are subscribed to.
The offer is simple - pay for one less journal than you order. Subscribe to 3? Pay for 2. Subscribe to 4? Pay for 3. And so on, right on to those truly dedicated souls out there who subscribe to all 23, but only have to pay for 22 of them! In all cases, simply remove the price of the lowest priced journal and you have your total cost.
So, peruse the list below (there are links to the journal websites) and decide who you'd like to subscribe to (again, you must subscribe to at least 3 of the journals to get the price reduction deal). Determine what you believe the price to be and email me at wickettd at yahoo dot com the journals and price. I will reply with the address to send a check to. I will in turn be breaking down the price between the involved journals based on a percentage formula the journals have agreed upon, and sending the money out to them, along with your address information.
The EWN and I personally will not profit from this AT ALL (in fact, I am covering check costs and postage to the journals). The journals are giving up that percentage of their typical subscription rates in order to get more subscribers and truly believe that the EWN audience is one they'd like to have. To be truly up front, I must admit that a couple of the journals who have agreed to play along with this project do comp. my subscriptions, but were doing so before this idea ever came around.
The literary journals, along with their subscription rates and website links are as follows:
A Public Space www.apublicspace.org
4 issues per year
1 year $36
Absinthe: New European Writing www.absinthenew.com
2 issues per year
1 year $12 2 years $20
Agni www.bu.edu/agni/
2 issues per year
1 year $17 2 years $31 3 years $44
Arts & Letters http://al.gcsu.edu
2 issues per year
1 year $15 2 years $27 3 years $40 4 years $52
Cincinnati Review www.asweb.artsci.uc.edu/collegeDepts/cincyReview/
2 issues per year
1 year $15 2 years $28
Colorado Review www.coloradoreview.com
3 issues per year
1 year $24
Georgia Review www.uga.edu/garev
4 issues per year
1 year $24 2 years $40
Harvard Review http://hcl.harvard.edu/harvardreview/
2 issues per year
1 year $16
Hobart www.hobartpulp.com
2 issues per year
1 year $17 2 years $32
Idaho Review www.english.boisestate.edu/idahoreview/
1 issue per year
1 year $10.95 3 years $18
Kenyon Review www.kenyonreview.org
4 issues per year
1 year $30
LIT www.nsu.newschool.edu/writing/lit/
2 issues per year
1 year $14 2 years $25
Michigan Quarterly Review www.umich.edu/~mqr/
4 issues per year
1 year $25
Orchid www.orchidlit.org
2 issues per year
1 year $16 2 years $30
Other Voices www.othervoicesmagazine.org
2 issues per year
2 years $26
Ploughshares www.pshares.org
3 issues per year
1 year $24
Prairie Schooner www.unl.edu/schooner/psmain.htm
4 issues per year
1 year $26 2 years $45 3 years $60
Rainbow Curve www.rainbowcurve.com
2 issues per year
1 year $16 2 years $24
Rosebud www.rsbd.net
3 issues per year
1 year $20 2 years $35
Salt Flats Annual www.saltflastsannual.com
1 issue per year
1 year $10 2 years $18 3 years $26
Small Spiral Notebook www.smallspiralnotebook.com
2 issues per year
1 year $18
Storyquarterly www.storyquarterly.com
1 issue per year
1 year $9 2 years $16 5 years $40
The Journal www.english.osu.edu/journals/The_Journal/
2 issues per year
1 year $12
The Laurel Review http://info.nwmissouri.edu/~m500025/laurel/
2 issues per year
1 year $6
The Southern Review www.lsu.edu/thesouthernreview/
4 issues per year
1 year $20
I can only assume the emails will start flooding in.
Other journals out there wanting to play along - email me and I'll get you in on the list. There is currenly no deadline on placing an order. if a journal ever decides they've had enough of giving discounts, they will honor whatever has been placed and they'll be removed from the list.
Update - 1/9/06 Other journals to add to list:
Iowa Review www.iowareview.org
3 issues per year
1 year $24
Land Grant College Review http://www.land-grantcollegereview.com/
2 issues per year
1 year $22
Update - 1/10/06 Other journals to add to list:
Barrelhouse Magazine www.barrelhousemag.com
2 issues per year
1 year $17
Update - 1/19/06 Other journals to add to list:
American Short Fiction www.americanshortfiction.org
4 issues per year
$30 per year
Cautionary Tale www.cautionarytale.com
1 issue per year
$12.50 per year
Chattahoochee Review www.chattahoochee-review.org
4 issues per year
$20 per year
Missouri Review www.missourireview.com
4 issues per year
$24 for one year, $39 for two years, $48 for four years
Thereby Hangs a Tale www.therebyhangsatale.com
4 issues over two years
$15 for two years
Ballyhoo Stories www.ballyhoostories.com
2 issues per year
$16 per year
This is an incredible offer. I wonder if you would have any success if you approached Canadian literary journals about it?
Posted by: Ostro | January 08, 2006 at 10:19 PM
The journals I initially contacted for this project were those that participated in the Lit Journal Editor E-Panels during 2005. Since Saturday's posting, 3 more journals have requested to be added and have. If others are interested, they only need to contact me.
Posted by: Dan Wickett | January 09, 2006 at 06:22 AM
I'll be picking my journals over the next couple days. This is a terrific and saintly idea, Dan.
Posted by: TJ | January 09, 2006 at 09:59 PM
As writers we should be more supportive of the hands that feed us. Thanks for bringing it to everyone's attention.
Posted by: Em | January 11, 2006 at 01:41 PM
do you think it's possible for literary magazines to get more of a broad audience? how can we make these magazines reach people who AREN'T writers--people who read for the sake of reading...are they just not marketed properly?
Posted by: SS | April 20, 2006 at 02:00 PM
I would like to purchase one copy each of several journals. I can't find a bookstore that carries them (Pasadena CA) nor can I find a place to order them on the internet.
Posted by: Marie Shield | May 08, 2006 at 04:22 PM
Hi, Dan.
I submitted to a magazine recently and received an auto-response that linked to this post. Is your offer still good? Or: Are you planning to put together a new offer in the new year?
Thanks.
Posted by: Chad | November 17, 2006 at 10:35 PM
West Goes South, an independent literary journal, seeks submissions of poetry, flash fiction, non-fiction, and art for its first issue. Submissions should follow the theme "the longest day" and invoke interesting illustrations while holding a sense of the past. Please see website for details: www.westgoessouth.com.
Thank you,
The Editors.
Posted by: Amanda McQuade | July 27, 2008 at 02:18 PM
May I put a good word in for Butler's Quarterly, an online literary journal, looking for talented writers?
http://www.geocities.com/butlersquarterly
Posted by: f.w. butler | August 31, 2008 at 02:50 PM
Feeling discouraged? Wishing you could share your creative work with a broader audience? Interested in travel?
Visit www.ExPatLit.com - A Literary Review for Writers Abroad. Check out our contest for a chance to earn some money in celebration of your creative stories, essays, and poetry.
Posted by: Joe Dugan | November 23, 2008 at 10:09 PM
As a fiction editor at Agni magazine, where we publish many award-winning stories, one of my greatest thrills is finding and publishing first time writers. But even more thrilling, perhaps, is the freedom I have to publish stories without regard to the story’s salability factor (whatever that really means). When I read for Agni, I focus on the writing, the voice, and vision of the piece as it is defined by the writer’s own, unique creative terms. What joy!
Posted by: Jessica Keener | March 19, 2009 at 10:54 AM
Tav is looking for submissions for its second issue. Tav is a multi-media periodical featuring The Canda Verses, full-color art works, Character Bank, and other creative works, accepting submissions for art, writing, music, and film. Check out the website for more details.
Posted by: Sonja | June 09, 2009 at 03:26 PM