Book Review: How to Submit by Dennis James Sweeney

A new guide to how, and why, to share your writing

Whether you write poetry, essays, stories, or creative nonfiction, the last step of the creative process is getting the work into a reader’s hands. Without that, the work doesn’t do its job. Here’s how writer Dennis James Sweeney expresses that feeling in his new book How to Submit:

“Writing always begins, for me, with a deep need to communicate. When it arrives in the world, it’s as if that act of communication has finally reached its home.”

For most of us, reaching that “home” means sending our work to people and organizations who publish it, often literary journals (print or online) and small presses.

Sweeney’s book, How to Submit: Getting Your Writing Published with Literary Magazines and Small Presses, is an invaluable guide for anyone looking to understand that act.

I feel like the title undersells the book. Of course, it delivers on the “how to” part of the promise with advice, guidance, resources, and a lot of practical information about exactly how to send your work out into the world.

But the book goes much deeper, and that’s where, to my mind, the real value lives. Besides the how, Sweeney urges you to figure out your why, turning your deeper motivations into a strategy. He also offers a realistic view to what happens during the submissions process.

Why to submit — understanding your strategy

Before knowing how to submit, understand your personal why. For example, as you compile a list of places to submit, how should you tier them? Which should you prioritize?

There’s no “right” answer—it depends on your objectives. We submit our work for many reasons: getting published, earning money, building a portfolio, sharing our work, finding like-minded readers… The list goes on.

To form a strategy, you need a clear idea of what you’re trying to achieve with your writing and how it fits your life and career. In the book, Sweeney invites you to spend time journaling about your objectives. Doing this deep thinking will make the book much more valuable for you, because ultimately you are the one…