An Open Letter to Literary Magazines

Dear Literary Mags (may I call you Mags from here on out?) ,

In an effort to keep a promise I made to myself at the beginning of this year, I have been googling your websites and reading many of your Submission pages. In the process, I've discovered a few things about you. First, the good stuff:

• You are willing to read, and sometimes publish, some pretty out-there fiction. 
  
• Most of you publish poetry, a rare and necessary thing these days.
  
• Most of you pay, if not with money, then with social media publicity.
  
• Every week/month/season there's some wonderful reading to look forward to via mail/inbox/webpage.

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But I've also noticed a few things you could improve:

• Some of you still refuse to accept electronic submissions. The only reason for this logic in the 21st century, with wonderful things like email and Submittable here to help us all out and save us from rising postal costs, is as a filter. The problem with this logic is that, eventually, you will only receive submissions from ninety year olds. Nothing against ninety year olds, just saying.
• Some of you are snarky and dismissive before you've even read anything. Look, I understand that there are a million and one people out there who want to write, who look to you to get some cred, and that means that you have to read a lot of not-so-brilliant things. But it's part of the package, no? If people were dumping brilliant work in your lap every week, you wouldn't need to ask for submissions at all.  
  
• Some of you tell us that you can not pay us for our hard work, but would we kindly go out and buy a twelve dollar copy of you? I know that beyond selling yourself, you are trying to give writers an idea of what you want to read and publish. But so do a few excerpts on your website. And if you can't pay us, then why should we pay you? 
• Some of you have the audacity to tell us that we won't even receive a rejection letter. Wait a few months. If you don't hear from us, we probably don't want your work. Really? Not even an auto-response? You don't have time to press a button?
• Some of you want us to feel sorry for you. Can we all just agree that this whole literary thing is hard work and mostly for the joy of it, and not for the money or fame? I know that the majority of you are unpaid and overworked and that this is something you do in your precious spare time--kind of like the majority of people who submit their work to you. If you aren't having fun, you don't have to do it. 

I guess what I'm trying to say, Mags, is that when you are a champion of the literary underdog, when you act as a place for engaging literary discussion, when you point out something from an author we love that we might otherwise miss, and especially when you are generous and polite to you submitters, I love you, and I look forward to working with you. I will be your champion, if you will be mine. And if you are not? Well, most of your readers are submitters (or would-be submitters), and publishing is a tough racket these days. I say, good luck to you.

Very sincerely, 
     
                    Erin Bedford