Submission Guidelines for Writers & Artists

Regular submissions for New Letters:  Writing, Art, Reviews

(click here for contest guidelines)

 WRITERS' GUIDELINES

     Thank you for your interest in New Letters.  We strongly urge potential contributors to read one or more issues of New Letters before submitting work.  A sample copy of a recent issue can be ordered for $10 each, ppd.  The best deal is to order a one-year subscription (4 issues) for $16 (regular rate $22); we make this discounted rate available upon request to writers who submit writing to us, or plan to submit writing to us.

We seek many kinds of writing:  Regardless of subject, style, or genre, our overriding concern is literary excellence.   

      • We do not read unsolicited submissions that arrive
      between May 1st and October 1st.  Sample copies of
      a recent issue are available from this office for $10.00 ppd. 
      We wish you much success with your writing.

      • We prefer that you send no more than six poems, one

 piece of nonfiction or one short story per submission.

• We publish personal essays and are open, as well, to
 critical discourses about writing, art, or culture, as long as
 that writing is, in itself, lively, fresh, and vivid.  We are not
 interested in footnoted, “scholarly” articles, or anything that 
 uses the word “privilege” as a verb. 

      • A rough average length for prose is 3,000 to 5,000 words.

• We discourage multiple submissions but appreciate being
told if you are simultaneously submitting your work to us and other magazines; we expect to be notified immediately if the work you have sent to us has been accepted for publication elsewhere.

• Format notes: 

     a) We do not read e-mail submissions, nor do we respond to your submissions by e-mail. 

     b) We do not read double-sided hard copies. 

     c) Please give us generous margins (consider 1.5-inch side margins for prose).

     d) We encourage writers to create emphasis through word choice, placement, syntax and
         sentence pacing, instead of overuse of exclamation marks.

• We have no rigid preferences as to subject, style or genre, although formulaic “commercial” efforts tend to put us off.  Even so, our only fixed requirement is good writing.

• We are unlikely to publish poems about poetry.

• We require a self-addressed, stamped, #10 envelope if you want notification of our decision only; if you want your entire manuscript returned, please send an appropriately sized envelope with sufficient postage.

• Like most literary magazines, our staff is small, and the volume of submissions is large, so please be patient.  Do not query us until five months have passed.

• We buy first North-American serial rights only.  All other rights revert to the author upon publication.  Payment for essays, stories, and interviews ranges from $45 to $100 each and could be more, depending on grant and other revenue.  Minimum pay for poetry is $15 plus more for multi-page poems; but pay often exceeds those minimums.  Payment to contributors also includes two copies of the issue and huge discounts for additional copies and subscriptions. 

ARTISTS' GUIDELINES

New Letters publishes photographs, drawings, paintings, and even, at times, photographs of three-dimensional work.  Although placement in the magazine creates a resonance with a particular piece of writing, we generally do not use art to "illustrate" the writing.  Art in New Letters is there for its own sake.

We have two principle standards for selecting art:  It is fresh, interesting, high-quality work; it will effectively reproduce on the pages of this magazine.
 

• We have no preferences for subject matter or style.  We evaluate each work of art on its own terms.

• Artwork in the magazine could be published in black and white or full color. Color art can be, and often is, published in New Letters in black and white -- as long as there is enough contrast and delineation of detail in the work.

• We cannot consider slides.  Send photographic prints, any convenient size.  Sometimes, with line drawings or collages, high-quality photocopies work well for initial consideration.

• Include a return envelope with sufficient postage for the return of the work.

• We usually respond within three to four weeks.

• Sample copies of a recent issue are available from this office for $10.00 ppd.

• Pay for art depends on the extent, number and placement of the art used, at least $10 to $20 per item.