12 Quick-Response Literary Journals that Accept Reprints
Fast results for your submitting goals— and most of them pay!
If you’re submitting creative work to literary journals, there’s lots of advantages to having a few go-to lists of journals that consider previously published work, or that have fast response times. And the good news is, this list of journals offers both! Even better news — most are paying markets.
Here’s a few scenarios where submitting to these types of journals can be useful.
1. Maintaining Motivation
Feeling unmotivated because the only work you have circulating with journals are ones that take three or four months to respond? Send a few out to journals that take less than a month. An acceptance can boost your energy and motivation.
2. A Case of Instant-Publishing Regret
On the spur of the moment, did you publish that poem to Instagram or your blog (or here) that you later realized was a stand-out? You can send it to a few journals that accept poem reprints.
3. Needing Publishing Creds Fast for a Bigger Project?
Are you working on a poetry or prose collection with six weeks to the deadline, and realize you’d like the balance of published and unpublished content to be different? Send a few pieces to quick-response journals.
4. Boosting your Bio Creds for that Big Writing Gig
Perhaps you’ve landed a gig as feature performer for a spoken word event, or guest editor, or some other opportunity in the writing world, but wish you had more publication credits in your author bio. Choose some work to submit as reprints to quick-response journals, and your creds could be better bolstered by the time you step into that role.
5. Kickstart Your Submitting Goals
Have you just decided to start submitting to literary journals? Start strong and stay on target with monthly submission goals. For more in-depth tips, head here.
Below is a list of journals that take from 3 days to a month to respond and accept a variety of creative work. All of them accept reprints and most pay — some very well. So, wordsmiths, let’s turbo-charge those submission goals!
Ready, Steady, Submit!
Remember to read all submission guidelines carefully. Some have specific definitions of what they consider reprints — see here for more tips on communicating with editors when submitting your published creative work.
I’ve curated the list below to ensure all calls are:
- NOT US-centric: Submissions accepted from writers all over the world
- Fee-free for submissions
STT stands for submission turnaround time. Asterisks indicate journals I’ve submitted to, double asterisks indicate those I’ve been published in — so I may include “insider information” not on their website.
And of course, all of these journals are also open to original work! You don’t have to send them reprints.
- Dawn Review (Non-Paying) DEADLINE: Rolling submissions ABOUT: Dawn Review seeks to publish “work that is striking and honest– that creates the truth by refracting it.” FORMS / GENRES: Prose / poetry / plays / hybrid/ art SUBMIT: Via website form. Send up to 5 poems or 3 prose pieces PAYMENT: No payment, but provides free feedback on request STT: 1 month
- Diet Milk Magazine * DEADLINE: Varied calls — check website / Micro/flash opens Oct 1–31 ABOUT: A bi-annual Gothic literature magazine, plus an anual micro-fiction feature, they seek “withering romance, creatures that lurk and lure, families to be feared and houses that haunt; give us isolation and creeping, oppressive unwellness.” FORMS / GENRES: Fiction 1–6K / Flash Fiction / Poetry / Micro-fiction. Reprints accepted for work form defunct journals or author’s website. (If you’re prepared to delete a Medium story on acceptance, I’d think that equals a “defunct” piece. Let them know that in your cover letter) SUBMIT: Via Duotrope. Upon rejection, you may submit again. Guidlines here. PAYMENT: $40 Short fiction (minimum) / $15 poems / $50 Art STT: 3 weeks
- Edda Journal * DEADLINE: Currently open for submissions via website. (If link is “dead”, they’re temporarily closed.) ABOUT: A new US-based journal. “EDDA is interested in form: its standards, its failures. EDDA is for writing that is verse, prose, verse & prose, and neither verse nor prose.” Notably, they provide editorial feedback for submissions. FORMS / GENRES: Poetry / short story / experimental prose (see website for details). Reprints considered. SUBMIT: up to 8 pages is preferred in a PDF format via website (ensure you read the guidelines). PAYMENT: $5/page STT: 1 month
- Exist Otherwise* * DEADLINE: Bi-monthly rolling submissions ABOUT: A stylish journal with theatrical flair, Exist Otherwise seeks work that is odd, experimental, genre-bending, and unconventional. Their bi-monthly themed issues are inspired from the writing & photography of French surrealist gender-fluid artist Claude Cahun. FORMS / GENRES: Poetry / Personal essays / Fiction / CNF / scripts & monologues / Photography (B&W only). Accepts reprints. SUBMIT: Via email. Guidelines are quite flexible — just send a brief, friendly email if you have a query. I received an acceptance within 3 days & an invitation to submit more. PAYMENT: $10 per piece STT: 3–4 weeks, sometimes sooner
- Flash Fiction Online* DEADLINE: Reprint submissions open around the 5th of each month. (Different reading period for originals.) ABOUT: A popular mag, they want stories with “crisp prose, well-developed characters, compelling plots, and satisfying resolutions.” FORMS / GENRES: Flash fiction 500–1000 words. SUBMIT: 1 story per submission via Submittable. Guidelines here. (More detail in Submittable) PAYMENT: Reprints @ 2c / word. $80 for originals STT: 1 month or less
- Lascaux Review* DEADLINE: None ABOUT: “Writing of literary quality venerates the language and speaks to the human condition. We make no effort to define these terms — we know it when we see it.” No annotated poetry or sculptural / shape poems. FORMS / GENRES: Poetry, Flash fic, Short fiction, CNF. SUBMIT: Up to 5 poems / fiction via Submittable . See guidelines. STT: They state one month, but generally respond within 3 weeks.
- Last Girls Club ** DEADLINE: Themed rolling submissions. ABOUT: A quarterly indie feminist horror zine, their aesthetic is on the dark side. They like edgy work and emotional grit. They also produce a podcast called “Blood & Jazz”. FORMS / GENRES: Poetry / Fiction (under 2500 words) / Flash fiction / Nonfiction 1500–2500 words (Considers reprints 2+ years old) SUBMIT: Via Duotrope. Pitch nonfiction ideas via email. Guidelines. PAYMENT: $10 poem / .015c per word for fiction (USD) + Contributor copy (PDF) STT: under a month (generally 3 weeks)
- Luna Station Quarterly DEADLINE: Specific reading periods. Currently open til August 15th. ABOUT: Publishes speculative fiction by women-identified authors. Reprints must be 3 years or older. No simultaneous submissions. FORMS / GENRES: Flash, short stories 500–7000 words PAYMENT: 5USD / story STT: 1 month or sooner for acceptances
- Radon Journal DEADLINE: Open for submissions year round. ABOUT: Radon welcomes short story & poetry containing elements of anarchism, transhumanism, dystopia, or science fiction. They consider reprints as long as all rights are with the author. FORMS / GENRES: Short Fiction / Flash Fic / Poetry / Artwork SUBMIT: Up to 5 poems, 1 x Prose up to 3K words via Submittable PAYMENT: For reprints .05c / word for fiction, $5 poems (Double for original work) STT: 2 -4 weeks
- Scrawl Place* DEADLINE: Open ABOUT: Scrawl Place is a delightful journal celebrating a sense of place — “part visitor’s guide, part travelogue, part literary journal.” They seek work “about or connected to or associated with a specific, physical place that someone could visit.” A great journal for travel writers. Each piece is published with a google map location below it. FORMS / GENRES: Poetry / CNF / Hybrids / Fiction. Accepts reprints. SUBMIT: Via Submittable. Send up to 3 pieces, no word limit. See guidelines. NB: Sending a photo is optional, but not required. PAYMENT: $35 per piece STT: 4 weeks
- The Cosmic Background* DEADLINE: Open ABOUT: This journal publishes slipstream flash fiction from “the in-between places”. Send your surreal, experimental stories. FORMS / GENRES: Flash fiction up to 1000 words. Reprints considered. SUBMIT: Via email — 1 story/ submission. Guidelines here. PAYMENT: .08c/word for originals, 3c for reprints STT: 3–15 days
- Empty House Press (Non-Paying) DEADLINE: Current Reading Period July 1st — Oct 31 ABOUT: They’re seeking work addressing the way narrative & presence adhere to place and the way they vanish. They encourage broad interpretations on the idea or image of an empty house, including writing about home, landscape, place, memory, and the atmosphere of previously inhabited spaces. FORMS / GENRES: poetry, prose poems, flash fiction /nonfiction, hybrid work & photography SUBMIT: Via website STT: 1 month.
You can also go here for more reprint journals & here for fast-response journals.
Big thanks to Kelly Eden | Essayist | Writing Coach for giving these posts for beginner submitters a home.
Good luck everyone! I’d LOVE to hear if you get an acceptance. I’ve posted an extra list instead of a strategies post this month as I’ve been unwell & I’m on a tight deadline for a poetry chapbook. Subscribe to my stories to catch the best of the lit journal lowdown.
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Melissa Coffey is an Australian poet, writer and editor. Her fiction and poetry are published in various anthologies (The Mammoth Book series, Stringybark Stories) and literary journals (The Ekphrastic Review, Last Girls Club, The Aurora Journal, Writing in a Woman’s Voice, Not Very Quiet). She has work forthcoming in Last Girls Club and an Improbable Press anthology in 2024. Her work is often tinged with darkness.
More Submission Calls & Tips:
