Improving Your Writing and Submitting to Magazines & Book Publishers

Sharpen your writing skills to increase your chances of getting acceptances from literary magazines, online journals, and book editors at publishing companies. Over four sessions, author and editor Max Talley takes you step by step through processes and procedures that give your submissions a fighting chance at publication, while avoiding pitfalls that lead to instant rejection.

Participants are shown how to draft a “do no harm” cover letter that addresses the correct person and includes a brief bio. We explore the benefits of simultaneous versus sole submissions, targeting your writing to the correct markets, reworking your piece after ten rejections, and joining a writers’ group to gain feedback from people outside of friends and family. We also review manuscript formatting rules and learn how to submit work through online portals like Submittable and Duotrope.

Most important, we engage in supportive group critiques of the first three pages of participants’ stories, essays, or novels, with the goal of ensuring that an editor keeps reading. After getting to know each individual writer’s style, Max draws on his years of experience to suggest appropriate outlets for their work, from journals that pay for accepted submissions to agents and publishers.

You come away with an improved draft of an existing piece plus the know-how and assurance to submit it for publication.