Choose Your Target Carefully

• 1). Choose your targets carefully from reference guides like "Writer's Market," or specialized magazines like "Writer's Digest." An iconoclastic political magazine biased toward free verse probably won't welcome your Shakespearean sonnet, no matter how dazzling it seems. Nothing embarrasses editors more than a submission that falls way outside of a magazine's guidelines.
  
  
• 2). Start slowly with online journals or small literary magazines, which--although not widely circulated--are hungry for good writing, and less likely to filter out work that doesn't follow trends. Once you rack up a few of these credits, you can approach the more established likes of "Atlantic Monthly" or "Poets & Writers Newsletter" (two tough spots for first-timers to crack).
  
  
• 3). Read your poems once more before submitting them--you're more likely to ferret out lines that fall below your expressive best. Double-check such relevant details as editors' names--to avoid mangling them--and include a self-addressed stamped envelope. If you don't want your poems returned, make that clear, too.
  
  

Hurry Up and Wait

• 1). Respect the guidelines of the magazines you approach. If simultaneous submissions are allowed, and that route seems appealing, tell the editor. Similarly, if the guidelines specify a six-week response time, don't write or email to follow up at the halfway mark.
  
  
• 2). Read the acceptance letter carefully--if you hit on the first try--and make sure you understand the terms. Most small magazines pay contributors in copies, others pay by the line, poem or page. Avoid plunking down money for inclusion in an impressive-looking anthology--that's more than likely a scam, and one you should avoid.
  
  
• 3). Roll gracefully with rejections as you get them. Many editors will write comments on a submission, so use them as a starting point in your learning. That verdict only represents one opinion, so feel free to send the poems elsewhere.
  
  
• 4). Support the magazines that publish your work, if you find a creative home. Take part in a magazine's discussion with its community, whether it's buying a subscription, writing a letter or handing out a contributor's copy to friends. After all, it's about practicing your craft--don't treat publication as an end in itself.