The Submissions Process: Tip #5

5. Keep a poetry submissions log. It helps you to keep track of the journals you’ve submitted your work to.
I keep mine in a word document and format it as follows: journal name, web address, the titles of the poems I’ve submitted to a particular journal, and status of my submission (like “sent” or “rejected” or “rejected but submit again” if the rejection letter is positive or encouraging).
The submissions log can save a ton of work later on, in the case that a poem(s) gets accepted to a journal and you need to withdraw the poem(s) from the other journals.

While many journals accept simultaneous submissions, they ask to be notified if a poem is accepted elsewhere. They get angry if you don’t. Letting them know is common courtesy. The handy submissions log helps you track the journals that you need to contact to withdraw your submission from.

Also, you might decide to submit another batch of poems to the same journal that you received a previous rejection from, (the editors might have told you that they’d like to read more of your work in the future) and here is where the submissions logs gives you a hand in knowing which poems you have already submitted, so you don’t submit the same poems again.

The submissions log keeps you organized and a good friend of poetry journals.

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