Help! I'm a virgin.

[Sanity Claws]

I am ready to submit a poem and am still working on a short story.

I am a virgin regarding submissions and would love to hear words of wisdom regarding submitting poetry and short stories.
How do you pick your targets? How do you preserve the copyright?

I assure you whatever you have to say will be more than what I know now.

Thank you!

[SheilaT]

1. I can only speak a little bit about short stories,

since I've never submitted any poetry for publication.

To pick your targets, you absolutely must know your potential market. You need to know what kind of a story you've written and find out who publishes such stories. I happen to write science fiction, and there are a reasonable number of places to submit those stories.

Magazines will have their submission guidelines posted on their websites.

You automatically own the copyright on anything you write. Do NOT put the copyright symbol or any other such notice on your manuscript. It will brand you as a total amateur, which is the last thing you want an editor to think of you.

Here's a link to manuscript formatting guidelines: http://www.shunn.net/format/story.html

If it is possible for you to attend some kind of writer's conference, especially one that also covers submitting for publication, that could be very helpful. There's a ton of stuff on-line for you to look at.

Good Luck! It can be a hard slog, with many, many submissions before something is accepted. No rejection of your poetry or fiction is a rejection of you as a person; it just means that the editor didn't think your work was what they wanted to publish.

[Sanity Claws]

3. Thank you!

This is great information for a newbie.
It helps me and will help others who come to this site.

[Agnosticsherbet]

2. Choose a market, say Poetry Magazine or Loaded Bicycle...

Look up your market website or at their submission policy, usually found on the index page.

Go to their "Submissions Manager Page."
Poetry Magazine (https://submissions.poetrymagazine.org)
Loaded Bicycle (http://www.loadedbicycle.com/submissions.html)
Set up a manager account. (They are free.)
Submit your poem.
Most of them take one to five poems per submission.
Most magazines out there, both paper and internet, use the submission manager. You can go back and check, or wait until they email you.

For short stories, if you have a paper magazine, look in the small print at the beginning of the magazine for submission policy, or go to their Website.

It is a good idea to go to your market and read what they publish to understand the market.

I have not found anyone willing to steal my work. The Science Fiction Writers of America, Mystery Writers of America, Critters.Org, an other places track magazines and markets that do these things.

I just sold a short story to an internet Halloween Anthology, (Whortleberry Press). Their submission guidelines list what they want and how the want it sent.

I just submitted a story to New Yorker, and expect a rejection in three months. They are the most prestigious magazine out there.

[Sanity Claws]

4. Thanks!

You have provided some great general and specific information. Thanks for the response!

BTW, good luck with the New Yorker. Will you announce it here if your submission is accepted?

[Agnosticsherbet]

5. If New Yorker accepts my submission...

you will see the glow of my reply from Betelgeuse.

[Agnosticsherbet]

6. One other thing...

Go to a bookstore and check out Poetry Writer's Marketplace. (Published by Writer's Digest). Don't buy it. A new one comes out ever year and it is always on the shelves in some Barnes & Noble or other. Look up markets in there.