Friday Five: writer, editor, and Lit Mag News creator Becky Tuch

If you want to keep up on what’s happening in the world of literary magazines, you should be reading Becky Tuch‘s Substack newsletter, Lit Mag News. This bi-weekly newsletter lives up to its billing as “a resource for all things lit mag,” and in a sector awash in newsletters about the writing craft, Lit Mag News is a must-read.

Each issue features “the latest goings-on in the world of literary magazines,” Becky explains on her about page. Those goings-on include information about new magazines, calls for submissions, contests, job and fellowship opportunities, grant opportunities, trends in lit mag publishing, and “controversies, scams, and the occasional smidge of lit mag gossip.” The writing is always conversational, often entertaining, and delivered in a breezy and easily digestible manner.

In addition to regular round-up newsletters that cover four or five newsy topics, often with headlines that reference a song title (Becky seems to have been on a Bill Withers kick lately), Becky also writes about more focused topics, like writers’ rejection letter pet peeves, the etiquette for withdrawing work from a lit mag, and the controversy surrounding one longstanding literary magazine’s decision to not award any winners in its writing contest, which cost $27 to enter. She also interviews writers and editors pretty frequently and posts them on Lit Mag News and on her YouTube channel. In short, she cranks out a lot of great content for anyone interested in the lit mag world. One of my favorite features of Becky’s Substack is her monthly “lit mag brag,” in which she invites writers to share their latest publishing wins. The monthly brag is not only a great way to share our works with other writers, but also a portal to discovering other terrific writing–and other lit mags we may not have heard of.

Becky is a Philadelphia-based writer of fiction and nonfiction, editor, and teacher whose work has appeared in Salon, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and a variety of literary magazines and anthologies including Gulf Coast, Salt Hill, Literary Mama and Best of the Net.
She has earned awards from Moment Magazine, The MacDowell Colony, and the Somerville, Massachusetts, Arts Council. Her interest in writing about lit mag trends dates back to 2008, when she founded The Review Review, the forerunner to Lit Mag News. A passionate advocate for writers, she teaches workshops and fosters community through her writing and editorial work.

1. You launched Lit Mag News as a Substack newsletter to cover the latest developments in literary magazine publishing, building on your earlier work with The Review Review. What was the primary purpose behind starting this newsletter, and how do you hope it shapes the literary community’s understanding of the lit mag world?

The primary purpose of Lit Mag News, just like The Review Review before it, is to help writers navigate the world of literary magazines. This means providing writers with as much information as possible so they can manage and even feel empowered throughout the submission process. Such information includes what should go in a cover letter, how to find the best magazines for one’s work, how to interpret rejection letters, and other practical information that sometimes feels hard to come by. It also means keeping writers informed about what’s happening in the world of lit mags more broadly–changes, trends, controversies, scams.

I wanted to create a literary space that is informative yet also entertaining, and a place where writers at all stages of their careers can speak openly, ask questions, learn from one another and have some laughs along the way. Lit Mag News differs from The Review Review in that there is an active comments section and so there is a real sense of community, with writers and editors often gathering to discuss various issues.

I also wanted to support literary magazines and the often unrecognized work that editors do to sustain them. I consider lit mags a crucial part of our cultural ecosystem, an important alternative to the often limited selections in most bookstores. Someone recently described Lit Mag News as a place that both celebrates literary magazines and holds them accountable, and that’s exactly my mission.

2. The monthly “Lit Mag Brag” feature in Lit Mag News highlights writers’ successes in getting published. What inspired you to create this celebratory space, and how has it impacted the community of writers and editors who engage with your newsletter?

One of the challenges with publishing work in lit mags is that the readership is typically small. A writer can spend six months or longer working on a story, another six months or longer trying to get it published, another few months to a year waiting for the issue to come out…Then in most cases not much happens. The work is published but it doesn’t always feel public. 

The Lit Mag Brag was created in order to give writers a place to share–and brag about!–their work. It is a space for writers to actually connect with readers and celebrate their publishing wins.

It’s also a place for writers to tell the story behind the publication–how many places they sent the piece to before it landed, whether the editor helped with revisions, if they’re happy with the final result. I’ve heard from so many newer writers how inspiring it is to read that someone got published after submitting a piece thirty times, or that someone submitted to a magazine for years before finally getting an acceptance. 

I hadn’t realized it at the time I created this column, but this has also become a resource for people to find places to send their work. I’ve even discovered markets there and gotten work published thanks to my readers! It is so helpful to see where people are getting published, how they’re getting published, which editors are quick to respond, and also to see that the very competitive journals do take work from the general submissions queue and it is indeed possible to break into these magazines.

Some people have said the monthly brags are their favorite part of Lit Mag News. They get to see what their peers are working on, learn about other people’s paths to publication, find new magazines, read new kinds of writing, and have a space to celebrate.

3. You’ve recently taken a strong stance against high submission fees and scams in literary magazines, even setting a policy not to interview editors of magazines charging over $5. What prompted this focus, and what specific issues or trends in the lit mag world are you aiming to address with this position?

Someone sent me word about a lit mag that is now charging $10 per submission. I also recently encountered a lit mag that has come off hiatus and is now charging $15 per submission. Writing these words, I almost want to laugh. This is just so outrageous it seems ridiculous! I know of no other industry where the laborer has to pay for the chance to provide labor, often free labor at that, since many of the fee-charging lit mags do not pay writers or pay a pittance.

Once I started looking into it, I saw that the rise in fees is happening across the board. Contest fees are also rising. This is a trend that needs to be stopped. Writers are encouraged to submit to about ten magazines for each piece that they write. If submitting to lit mags costs a writer $50 to $100 or more for each work, a vast number of writers will be excluded from submitting anything at all. This is completely unconscionable. Frankly, it’s also hypocritical, given that many of these lit mags also talk about the importance of “inclusivity.”

I’ve adopted a new policy at Lit Mag News that I will not interview an editor that charges more than $5 for a submission. Even that is a lot for many people, and some writers object to submission fees, period. I’m willing to compromise, but I see $5 as the limit. Refusing to give promotion to magazines that charge more than that is one small way I can try to stop this trend. 

My interest in scams came from discovering how rampant they were in the lit mag world and the fact that there is absolutely zero oversight or accountability. Several lit mags operate in deceptive or unscrupulous ways yet are able to continue to do so because writers are so hungry to be published and much of the information about publishing in lit mags is opaque or not taught to young writers at all. No organization provides comprehensive oversight of these magazines. Submittable, which provides software for many of these journals, couldn’t care less. So I’ve taken up covering these scammy lit mags myself.

4. In your view, literary magazines today face challenges like declining readership and financial struggles, with many moving online or closing entirely. What are your thoughts on the current state of literary magazines, and do you see any promising developments or opportunities for their future?

I honestly don’t know what the current state of literary magazines is. There’s no doubt that lit mags are struggling now. Many lost grant funding this year, on top of the fact that many universities have ended financial support for lit mags and/or shuttered their MFA programs entirely. Sadly, in the past few years, several universities have decided that lit mags are simply not an asset, which could not be further from the truth.

But lit mags are not a monolith. Many longstanding lit mags are continuing to operate perfectly well, either through continued university support or independent means. As lit mags shutter, new lit mags also open, so the arena is constantly in flux. 

An additional challenge lit mags have begun to face is the surge in AI-generated submissions. This creates more work for editors, who are already often over-extended, and slows down the submissions queue which leads to longer wait times for writers. It’s also profoundly demoralizing and depressing.

My hope is that editors might create criteria for work that they select which will somehow verify authentic human creation. I’m not quite sure what this criteria would be. I suppose it will be different for each magazine. But I think the positive development here will be in the opportunity to think about and clearly articulate what makes good writing. What makes surprising writing? What are the elements that make a truly powerful, unique, startling story, poem or essay, one which could not possibly be created by a machine programemd to find average and predictable outcomes?

I don’t have the answers, but I’m fascinated to see how editors will tackle this issue, and I hope it might actually lead to some creative and exciting solutions.

5. For writers aspiring to publish in literary magazines, what practical advice would you offer to navigate the submission process effectively, especially given the competitive nature of the slush pile and the evolving dynamics of the publishing landscape?

It really depends on the writer and what stage of their career they’re in. Writers have different goals, needs and skill levels, at different points in their development.

I suppose acknowledging this would be the first bit of advice. Decide what you, specifically, want to get out of publishing in lit mags. Are you simply seeking a place so you can share your published work? Are you hoping to land a literary agent? Are you trying to build a career that will involve grants, teaching, residencies, advanced degrees? Do you want to be paid for your writing? 

If your answer is that you simply want to publish your work so you can have a platform to share it, you may want to target online magazines that have a fast turnaround time (under four months, or however long you are willing to wait). If your goals are to find an agent for a longer work or to build your career, it would be wise to target the top-tier magazines. Those are far more competitive, generally have a longer response time, typically charge a fee, but are also more likely to open professional doors.

There’s no one-size-fits-all advice I can offer, except to say to decide for yourself what matters to you. Prestige? Recognition? Validation? Career credentials? All of the above?

Once you have a general idea of what your publishing goals are, then you can narrow down the market for where you should be submitting work. Take some time to get to know the magazines. Don’t assume they are all the same. They’re definitely not! Read samples that are available. If you encounter a writer you love, read their bio to see where else they’ve been publishing. If you are brand new to submitting, be patient! You don’t need to be an expert in lit mags overnight. If you can have a working knowledge of a handful of lit mags you’d like to be published in, that’s a great start. Follow them on social media. Subscribe to their newsletters. Read their issues and support them so they stick around.

Also, of course, sign up for Lit Mag News and join the wonderful community there. Don’t be shy–all writers are welcome. We have monthly Lit Mag Chat sessions for people to come and ask all sorts of questions (and vent, tell stories, have fun), and weekend discussion threads that are always engaging, plus many ways to get to know editors and meet other writers.

Finally, no matter where you are in your career, go easy on yourself. Don’t be deterred by rejection. Trust your voice, trust your passion, and find a community that supports you and your work. 

Follow Becky Tuch on X/Twitter at @BeckyLTuch. Find more of her work or contact her at www.BeckyTuch.com.