I've been getting my work published in print publications since I was 18 years old. My first published work was in Teen Ink, a literary magazine for teenagers. They send out a monthly tabloid-style magazine and offer online publishing opportunities. 

Since then, my work has appeared in a variety of newspapers, magazines, literary journals, anthologies, and online publications. This includes both non-fiction work such as essays and journalistic articles as well as short stories.

I remember where I was when I first was notified by Teen Ink that they had accepted my work for publication in their print magazine. I was sitting in study hall my senior year of high school, and I checked my email to find out my work had been accepted for publication. This was before cell phones were as prolific as they are today, and I actually went and used the office phone to call my mom and tell her the good news. I was so excited and just remember feeling like I was about to jump through the ceiling.

Later that year, I landed my first internship with the news industry at a small publication called the Journey Christian Newspaper. It was a monthly newspaper that focused on Christian news and inspirational stories in the upstate of South Carolina. That was a lot of fun because I got to see my name and print every single month, and I wrote all kinds of articles. Some of them were just news blurbs where maybe I would ask people questions over email or phone call but others were full-length articles about churches, ministries, and nonprofits.

Later in college, I worked for the school newspaper and had my articles in the news and feature sections and just really enjoyed this process. I love talking with people and learning their stories. Plus, seeing my name in print never got old. 

Over the past couple of years I've been getting back into creative writing and had my first fiction pieces published in print literary journals. This was particularly exciting for me because I spent so long focusing on journalism and marketing writing that I really lost sight of my passion for creative writing. 

To date, I've had my work appear in at least three journals, and I'm submitting to more each month. I wanted to give you my best tips for getting your work into print, whether you're writing fiction or nonfiction, journalistic articles or op eds. Whatever it is that you want to see published, these tips should help you get a couple of bylines under your belt.

Tip #1: Research Publications

Depending on if you're writing fiction or non-fiction you need to research the publications you’re interested in writing for. If you’re writing nonfiction, say an article that is either newsworthy or maybe an opinion essay, you’ll want to research publications before you begin writing. Publications that put out this kind of work are usually pretty picky about what they share, so you’ll want to make sure your story idea is aligned to the publication’s topic. 

Say for example you want to write for a local lifestyle magazine. You wouldn't pitch them a breaking news story about some crime that happened in your neighborhood. That's not the type of thing they publish, so if your goal is to work with that specific publication, think about the type of work they publish and then come up with some story ideas to go along with that.

The beauty of writing articles and nonfiction is that, oftentimes, you pitch your idea before you even start writing. This makes it easy to get a lot of pitches out there and see who would be interested in publishing your work. Having someone respond to your pitch and say that they're interested does not mean that it's going to be published. It's not a shoo-in but it is a good indicator that they're interested in what you're working on and they'll work with you to polish it and make it something worthy of print.

Fiction and creative non-fiction is a little bit different. Fiction writers often write stories from their heart and may not have a specific place in mind for that story, so in this case, write your short story or your essay whatever it is that you're working on, get it polished up, and make it the absolute best that you can make it. Then you can start looking for publications. There are a ton of literary journals out there, and you can find them on places like the Poets & Writers database. I also recently learned about a great website called Chill Subs that has a huge database of literary journals and magazines, both in print and online, and you can filter by genre. 

Literary journals may publish fiction or nonfiction, but typically they request that you submit the work in full rather than a pitch. They also move a bit slower than something like a newspaper or magazine. Newspapers and magazines are often published more regularly (some even as frequently as daily), whereas journals may be yearly, biyearly, or quarterly.

Tip #2: Stay Organized

Once you start submitting I recommend putting together a spreadsheet that you can use to track where you've submitted things. This is a great way to understand where your work is and know if anybody has published it. It's a lot easier than sifting through your email inbox or forgetting that you submitted something and then receiving an email from the publisher months later.

Below, you'll find an example of a spreadsheet to help track your submissions. If you'd like to use this, you can make a copy of it and fill it out on your own Google Drive.

Tip #3: Start Small and Work Your Way Up

Another tip is to start small and work your way up. There are a lot of publications that really just want people to submit work. I'm not saying that they'll publish everything, but they have lower standards than other publications. Think of it this way: Ivy League colleges have a very low acceptance rate, and they are incredibly picky about the students they’ll admit. State colleges have a might higher acceptance rate. They still have standards, but they are much more approachable for students who aren’t total brainiacs. Start out with publications that are the equivalent of a University of South Carolina acceptance rate rather than a Yale acceptance rate.

• One way you can do this is by researching the history of publications. See how long they’ve been in print, if they are affiliated with a college or university, or if they are owned by a well-known literary organization. 

• Another tip is to look at their social media to see how many followers they have. If they have a huge following, that may mean they are a little pickier with what they accept. 

• See who is published in their journal — Are they publishing work from well-known authors or writers who have won prestigious awards? 

If you really want to submit to a journal but it feels more like a Princeton than a Radford University, you can still submit, but keep your expectations low and don’t be afraid to submit to smaller journals. 

Tip #4: Follow the Publication’s Guidelines

Something else that you need to consider when you're submitting your work for publication is that every single publication has different writer’s guidelines. Your work will die by the writer's guidelines, so make sure you follow them to a T. 

These guidelines often include things like: 

• Font and font size

• Margin

• Spacing

• The editorial style guide you should follow

• If and how you should include a header

• File naming conventions

It may not seem like a big deal to use size 11 point font instead of size 12 point font or to choose Arial over Times New Roman, but it is a big deal to editors. The first thing they look at is your formatting. If it doesn’t meet their guidelines, they will often automatically reject your work. 

If you don't follow their guidelines, it shows the publisher that you really don't care about their opinion or publication. Why should they care about your work? 

Tip #5: Get Your Work Critiqued

No matter how good of an editor you are, you will always have blind spots with your own writing. Before submitting your work to any kind of publication, be sure to get it critiqued. There are many ways to do this that are free and convenient. 

• Explore Local Critique Groups: My favorite way to get critiques is by getting involved in a local writers critique group. You'll find these sponsored through parks and recreation departments or local libraries. Look online to see if there's anything in your area. 

• Connect With Writer Friends: Another option is to connect with some of your friends who are also interested in writing and offer to swap work for critiques. If you don't have any friends who are writers, you can try to make some through Facebook groups. Be careful with this because there are a lot of scammers out there and people who want to make a quick buck by reviewing your work.

• Try Online Critique Platforms: The last recommendation is to use online critique platforms such as qtCritique. I really like this service because it's completely free. You have to critique others’ work to earn credits and then you can spend your credits to post your own work for review. I’ve submitted about half a dozen pieces and have never had an issue with people not looking at my work. This is also a great platform because the critiques are blind—the people critiquing your work don’t know who you are, so this option is the least likely to result in biased feedback. 

Tip #6: Be Patient

My last piece of advice is to be patient. Don't constantly follow up with the editor to see if they have reviewed your work. They will get back to you one way or another, and if they won't reach out to you unless your work is accepted, that's usually listed on their website.

It can take a long time to hear back, especially when it comes to more prestigious literary magazines. You could be waiting up to six months. 

One thing most journals and magazines have in common is that they don't want to be bothered. If you bother them, they may even just throw your work straight in the trash, so be patient.

Are you working on anything you’d like to see in print right now? Share it with me in the comments!