Literary magazines, both online and in print, are such an important means of supporting creative work—for writers, readers, and the staff of those publications—and they’ve proved to be a great resource to me as a literary agent. Writers are often advised to place stories or essays in lit mags as a first step toward finding an agent or publishing a book, but landing a piece in one of these outlets can be a long and difficult process, and to what extent agents place importance on a writer’s lit mag credentials and scout from these publications varies widely. Given the range of opinions on this subject, I want to stress that the thoughts and recommendations I’m sharing here are based on my own experience, and other agents might think differently.
When I’m reviewing a query letter, I tend to weigh the significance of lit mag publications depending on the genre of your manuscript. In fiction, if you’re writing in a more commercial, plot-driven space—for example, you’re querying a rom-com or a domestic suspense novel—I’d say placing work in lit mags is less important, since literary magazines, as the name would suggest, tend to lean in a more literary, voice-driven direction. If you’re writing a sci-fi/fantasy novel, a piece in genre-focused publications like Clarkesworld, Locus, or Reactor could be a nice feather in your cap when sending to agents who rep books in that slice of the market. If you’re writing a more upmarket or literary novel, it can be an asset to have lit mag credentials, since you’ve proved that your short-form work has been deemed worthy of publication by an editor at a respected outlet, and hopefully a book editor at a publishing house will see the same publishable quality in your long-form work. That said, having pieces featured in lit mags is still by no means necessary to landing an agent or a book deal—it’s an indication of work quality that could compel an agent or book editor to move past your query letter and read your writing sample more readily, but your manuscript can (must, in fact) speak for itself.
In nonfiction, if you’re writing something journalistic or prescriptive (like a how-to or pop-science book), lit mag placements certainly don’t hurt, but publications in newspapers and other more widely circulated periodicals might provide a broader, more compelling platform for you as an author. Nonfiction editors are often looking for writers who have published articles in national outlets like the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal; those who’ve had features in big magazines like New York magazine, GQ, or Vanity Fair; or academics who’ve published extensively in journals or periodicals relevant to their fields of study, like the New England Journal of Medicine or Scientific American. The readership of these news outlets is larger than those of lit mags, and the pieces they publish have a greater tendency to “go viral,” as it were. This range of readers makes it easier for agents to prove to editors that there’s a big base of consumers ready and willing to pay thirty dollars or so for a hardcover nonfiction book by that writer.
The three genres where writers benefit most from literary magazine credentials are short story collections, essay collections, and noncelebrity memoirs. These kinds of books, which don’t follow a typical narrative arc, are canonically some of the most challenging to sell—both on the agenting side to publishers and on the publishing side to readers. If you’re hoping to publish in these spaces, placements in literary magazines can act as a solid proof of concept, a great way to show that there’s a built-in audience for your work, when you may not have a platform at the level of someone like Khloé Kardashian or Greta Thunberg. To put it more bluntly, getting publications in these kinds of outlets signals to agents and editors that people care about what you have to say.
One caveat: If you’re looking to sell a collection, be wary of placing too many excerpts from your work-in-progress in lit mags before you query, since agents will often want to make sure that at least 40 to 50 percent of the collection is new material not already available to read. I would say this applies to poetry as well, though most agents don’t often represent poets, and when they do, it’s usually after that poet has won a prize or published one or more collections with a small press.
In addition to beefing up your bio, literary magazines often provide a fertile hunting ground for agents looking for new writers. I personally still mourn the loss of Twitter, now X, which used to be a fantastic resource for me when I was on the lookout for fresh voices—especially when I was a young agent not yet open to submissions. (Many agencies don’t feature their assistants on their websites or submission pages, so we often have to rely on dogged outreach to start building our client lists.) I followed the accounts of many lit mags on Twitter, and I’d scroll through my feed looking for pieces to read. Now that Twitter (X) has entered its holding pattern/death spiral, and (in my opinion) no effective pseudo-professional social platform has arisen in its place, I typically rely on e-mail newsletters from lit mags as reminders to check out their latest issues. Agents have a massive pile of reading at any given time, including but not limited to client work, queries, referrals, conference assignments, and reading for their boss(es), so research and outreach often fall down the to-do list. These e-mail newsletters help me remember to look at these mags for potential new writers. Among the ones I subscribe to are Joyland, the Drift, Guernica, the Rumpus, and the Paris Review, and I want to add more.
In terms of which lit mags carry weight with agents, this is a totally subjective question. No agent worth their salt will expect you to have published something in the New Yorker in order to consider you legitimate. Some lit mags tend to be more selective than others, especially if they’ve been around for a long time (i.e., Harper’s) or are run by a university (i.e., the Common or the Kenyon Review), and that selectivity does carry weight with many agents because it shows that your work stands out. A newer, online-only lit mag with little name recognition might not catch an agent’s eye so readily. So when you’re submitting work to magazines, I’d recommend starting with your reaches, then going to somewhat less selective mags in successive rounds—especially since you’ll likely be expected to accept the first offer of publication you receive. A great rule of thumb is to look at the bios of recently published debut authors you admire to see which outlets they’ve been published in, and add some of those mags to your submission list. Many outlets also run prizes or fellowships, so it’s worth keeping a special eye out for those opportunities to submit.
Regardless of where you choose to submit, you should expect to wait quite a while to hear back from these outlets. It’s not uncommon for lit mags to take three to six months (or longer) to get through their huge backlog of submissions, and some mags only consider work seasonally while they’re putting their next issues into production. Some lit mags select themes for their issues, so a situation may arise where the editors like one of your pieces, but it’s not a thematic fit for the subsequent edition, and they may opt to consider it at a later time.
One big piece of advice (which applies to submitting manuscripts to agents as well) is this: Follow these magazines’ submission instructions to the letter. If you want to give your work the best chance at thoughtful consideration, you must submit it in the desired format and through the right vehicle. While there may be a handful of lit mags out there that still insist on physical submissions, e-mail and Submittable are the most common avenues. It really cannot be stressed enough: Make sure you read the submission instructions carefully and send your work in the preferred mode.
The staff at these magazines varies widely by publication; some are paid employees, others are volunteers, and some are students. Working on staff or as a reader for a lit mag can be a great résumé item for a writer and can help you feel better connected to the writing community at large. Many of my clients have worked or read for literary magazines, including the Rumpus, the Michigan Quarterly Review, the Chicago Review of Books, Narrative, and Zoetrope, and their work on the editorial and production sides of those mags definitely caught my attention when I was considering their projects. Agents also love to get referrals from existing clients, so I always get excited when one of my authors flags a piece they’re editing/publishing in the lit mag where they’re on staff, so I might be able to reach out to that writer before another agent sees their work.
I think it’s also important to note that submitting to lit mags doesn’t stop once you have an agent. If you land a book deal, agents and editors may want you to coordinate with your publishing team about sending out stories, essays, or excerpts from to-be-published work, and agents and publicists often help in submitting those pieces to lit mags. Many agents are open to sending out short-form work prior to or in tandem with sending your manuscript to editors, to try to increase your credentials. However, not all agents offer this option as part of their services, so when you’re speaking to an agent about possible representation, it’s a totally fair question to ask whether they’re willing and able to submit to magazines and periodicals on your behalf, and what kinds of contacts they may have in the lit mag scene.
While a strong list of lit mag publications in an author’s bio is apt to catch my eye, it’s not an absolute requirement for me in considering whether I want to sign a writer. I feel similarly about folks who have MFAs versus those who don’t—not everyone has access to the same information and resources, and as long as the voice and the story get me hooked, that’s what matters most to me. On the flip side, I’ve read plenty of work by authors with laundry lists of credentials whose work I didn’t connect with at all, since my personal taste might be different from that of those lit mag editors. Subjectivity is the name of the game, but it takes only one right editor to see something in your work and want to advocate for its publication.
Like much of the publishing industry in general, the lit mag world can feel opaque, exclusive, and full of endless waiting and rejection. It’s easy for me as an agent—and as someone who’s not a creative writer herself—to tell you to store up hope and summon patience that your work will be accepted, but the truth is that publication in these outlets is a long game. Agented writers and already-published authors still often have trouble placing their short-form work in literary magazines. There’s a ton of competition for very limited spots in issues put out by a small staff, many of whom handle multiple roles at the publication. As frustrating and cliché as this probably sounds, you just have to keep throwing spaghetti at the wall until something sticks. Once something does stick, lit mag features can sometimes have a snowball effect—after you land one publication and can add that credential to your author bio, that mag title might help you stand out in the slush pile at another outlet and compel that editor to take a closer look at another piece of yours.
To date, I haven’t yet signed a writer I’ve scouted from a lit mag, and that’s true for many reasons. Many of them are already represented by the time they secure a publication. Some write great short-form work, but their long-form work isn’t quite so compelling to me. Some simply haven’t finished a long-form project yet, and I’m waiting to see their work when it’s ready. But I definitely continue to look through these mags for potential new clients, and seeing these outlets in a writer’s bio will generally make me flag a query to look at more closely. So keep throwing the spaghetti—you never know who’ll see the thing that sticks.
Natalie Edwards is a literary agent at Trellis Literary Management. She previously worked at Curtis Brown as well as Janklow & Nesbit, and she represents upmarket and literary fiction and narrative nonfiction. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her wife.
Author photo: Sylvie Rosokoff