avatarJess Kaisk

Summary

Literally Literary has updated its submission guidelines and general policies, emphasizing quality and adherence to specific content rules for its diverse readership.

Abstract

Literally Literary, a well-established publication with a substantial following, has revised its submission guidelines to streamline the process for new and existing writers. The guidelines detail how to submit work, the types of content accepted, and the importance of following specific rules, such as not submitting work concurrently to other Medium publications. The publication accepts both drafts and previously published works, provided they align with the content policy. Literally Literary's editors work closely with authors to ensure high-quality standards, offering feedback and editorial support to enhance the writing. The guidelines also outline the need for appropriate tagging, the inclusion of high-quality images, and a strict policy against offensive content. The publication aims to maintain a reputation for quality and variety, ensuring a satisfying reading experience for its audience.

Opinions

  • The editors, including Heath ዟ, Indira Reddy, and Anna Rozwadowska, are committed to maintaining high-quality standards and are willing to collaborate with authors to refine their work.
  • There is a strong emphasis on the importance of quality writing, descriptive language, and the use of high-quality images to visually complement the written content.
  • The publication values constructive feedback and encourages authors to be open to edits and suggestions, viewing the editorial process as a collaborative effort to elevate the work.
  • Literally Literary is focused on publishing a variety of quality literature, including fiction, poetry, and non-fiction, and discourages the dominance of content by a few prolific writers.
  • The editors reserve the right to reject content that is offensive or fails to meet the publication's standards, with a particular aversion to racism, sexism, politics, proselytizing, or gratuitous offensiveness.
  • The publication is moving towards a more focused literary direction, prioritizing content that aligns closely with literary themes and criticism, memoirs, and essays on literature, writing, or history.

Updated Submission Guidelines and General Policies

February 19, 2019

Kate Linkner

February 19, 2019

Welcome to Literally Literary. We are a publication that has been around for a number of years but we are now revamping ourselves. With a following of almost 24 000 people, you are welcome and we can’t wait to see what you have in store for us, so here are the submission guidelines.

How to submit:

  • If you are not yet a writer for Literally Literary and you wish to submit a piece of work to us, please fill out this form:

So, what happens after I fill out that form?

The contents of that form get emailed to Heath ዟ (the other editors also have acess but he manages this for the most part). He looks over the contents and then he will either add you as a writer, or your application will be rejected. In most cases, a rejection will be accompanied by an attempt at contacting you, if the new writer submission data shows a lack of having put effort into following the guidelines, there will likely be no response.

*Please note that you can’t submit the new writer form without checking a box saying that you read the guidelines.*

Once added as a writer, you can submit drafts and stories. The instructions for this process are below. Please read them if you have not already done so. Then, our editors get to work.

Your example draft that you linked in the new writer submission form does not automatically get published! That form is not a part of Medium and gives us no special permission to publish your draft to Medium on your behalf. It is there so we can get an idea of how/what you write. Once you are added as a writer, you will have to submit your draft/story to us through Medium.

In summary: You fill out the form. We’ll assume you are added as a writer. If we add you as a writer you will get an alert. You submit a piece to be published through Medium, to Literally Literary (instructions below). Easy peasy.

  • Literally Literary now accepts both drafts and previously published works as long as those pieces are not published concurrently in another Medium publication. If we find that we are hosting a piece also hosted in another publication, we will remove it from Literally Literary.
  • Please note that if you submit an already published work (not in draft form), it will appear in the order it was originally published and therefore may not appear at the front of the page like new drafts do.
  • If you are already a writer for Literally Literary with a draft, click the “…” next to Publish, then choose ‘Add to publication’. You should see us as an option.
  • If you are already a writer for Literally Literary with an already published story (that is not in another Medium publication), scroll to the bottom and click the “…” and select Add story to publication.
  • We can’t always publish immediately. We are working to quicken the response time. Please feel free to contact us if you haven’t seen your story published in a few days.
  • Yes, we absolutely do publish stories locked for Medium members.

General Policies:

  • Rule Numero Uno, the big one: Absolutely, under no circumstances, will we publish pieces focused on racism, sexism, politics, proselytizing, or those that are gratuitously offensive.
  • The first tag has to correlate with the correct navigation tab (Poetry,Fiction, Non-Fiction, or Prompts). This is for your benefit, as much as ours, as lacking a tag that corresponds to this can cause your piece to land in limbo (blame Medium).
  • Each post must have an image to follow the layout on the main pages if possible. These should be credited to the photographer or open domain.

Images

Nearly anything that it shows should be usable without hindrance. Two exceptions are images found on Pinterest and Maxpixel.freegreatpicture.com. Images obtained from Pinterest are not acceptable. If the image appears elsewhere on a Creative Commons site, you’re good to go, but any images attributed solely to “Pinterest” will not be accepted.

Once you’ve found an image you want to use you must include a link to the image in your piece, either somewhere in the body, or, preferably, right under the image.

If it is your own image, please indicate that.

We will work with you in creating a wonderful piece.

Quality Guidelines and How Editors Help

from Anna Rozwadowska

While this is written from my perspective as the Poetry Editor, it applies to all submissions to Literally literary, except where the obvious focus is poetry.

I wanted to write a few things about submitting writing to us.

We are all for both new and seasoned writers, but please keep in mind that this is a fairly large publication, and as such, you, the editors, and all of the other writers depend on a reputation for quality in order to give readers a reason come here to read your work.

Having said that, I rarely reject a piece; rather I am willing to work with the author to create a fine piece and take their writing to the next level. However, poetry is much more than scribbling a few words on paper. For me (and, really, for you, in the end), I need you to pay attention to these details:

  • The piece should be written well. This means examining it and using descriptive and adult level language in your piece. If the writing you submit to a publication (not just LL) is not the best you can do then it isn’t ready for publication. That said, we could all use an editor, for perspective, if nothing else. Real writers tend to get attached to their writing and a set of objective eyes is a precious commodity. There is a chance I will edit your piece, even if just slightly, if I believe that the poem will go further. I will always contact you about it. Creative edits can, of course, be rolled back by the author.
  • Please use high-quality images with your poem. A lot of us really dislike this part of publishing on Medium (e.g. Heath ዟ), but I can’t stress enough how much this can make or break a piece. It’s a visual medium and acts as a sort of “book jacket/cover” visually differentiating one page of words from another. In addition to this, pieces without a primary image end up looking odd on a publication page listing (white text on a white background isn’t great for anyone).
  • Be open to feedback and changes. That is what editors do. I am an editor. I will, however, always ask for permission before changing anything, even minor. Please do not take constructive criticism personally, it’s only meant to sincerely bring out your best. You have every right to disagree, but I ask that you at least consider my feedback. If you ever feel that your piece is edited or rejected unfairly, please feel free to contact Heath ዟ and he’ll be happy to review and discuss it with me if necessary.
  • Bring us the good stuff! Not the stuff you have scrapped away, unless you are willing to bring it to new life with me, but the good stuff. There are around 25,000 potential readers looking at your writing. We also welcome multiple submissions, but we have to spread them out, so if, for example, you send us 5 pieces, and they’re all good to publish, it could be 10 days, or even more, before that last one gets published. Please also respect that we’re not an author clearinghouse — this is not a place to dump everything that you haven’t published elsewhere. We’re here to publish quality work — a variety of quality work. Our readers should never feel that it is dominated by a handful of writers with massive amounts of submissions.
  • I reserve the right to object to material I find offensive in nature (sexist, bigotry, racist, etc.). This should not be an issue since anyone who filled out the New Writer form already agreed that gratuitous forays into these areas simply will not fly. I will always let you know before I change anything.

Prose addendums by Indira Reddy

At Literally Literary, we are looking for fiction, poetry and non-fiction. Our talented poetry editor Anna Rozwadowska has a few tips on what we are looking for (above).

We are also looking for great fiction — stories that make our emotions sing, that make us laugh and snort, that can wring tears from the most botoxed face, that make hearts pound with fear — we want it all!

Of course, there are some basic caveats to that — racism, hate speech, unnecessary violence, etc. will be rejected outright.

Now let’s sail to the vast ocean of non-fiction. LL, being primarily a literary publication is interested in memoirs, creative non-fiction, literary criticism, book reviews, essays on literature, writing or history.

Please note: Earlier, we have hosted pieces that don’t exactly meet the above criteria, but in our constant endeavour to provide our readers with beautiful, literary content, we are trying to remain true to focus on Literature.

Welcome — share, love, create.

Your Editors, Heath ዟ Indira Reddy Anna Rozwadowska

Literally Literary 2019

Submissions
Literally Literary
Guidelines
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