Best literary magazines for novel excerpts?

[notsonew]

I would appreciate any help. I want to submit a novel excerpt to literary magazines but the ambiguous rules have really boggled me down.

I've written a commercial fiction novel, which is actually a mix of thriller, political and global, if you take that as a genre. I am confused as I don't know the magazines ready to accept that. Most of them say you can submit novel excerpts if they stand alone (mine does) but do not list the genre specifications.

I've read somewhere that most want only literary fiction but many publish a diverse range of stories.

I've also written a couple of short stories and I am really confused on what to submit where. Please help!

[Unimportant]

Hi Notso:

In my experience, the only way to know what a magazine publishes is to read it. Most magazines make it clear what genre(s) they publish or specialise in, and obviously it's pretty much a waste of time to send them material outside their genre.

Without having read your novel, I can't guess its genre. But it seems that if you've read your own book, and you've read the magazines you're interested in submitting to, you should be able to tell whether or not your work will fit in with however those magazines define 'literary', yes?

You might get more useful responses here if you list the magazines you've selected to target.

[notsonew]

^
Thanks for the response. I am thinking to submit in The New Yorker, Ploughshares, Southern Reveiw, Prairie Schooner, Glimmer Train etc.

[Unimportant]

Have you read those mags? Do they publish work similar to yours?

In my experience, TNY only publishes very literary work and Very Big Names, while Glimmer Train includes some genre fiction. (But obviously I can't guess where your novel fits since I haven't read it, and I don't know who you are so I don't know if you're a Very Big Name.)

[NewKidOldKid]

Those are very big magazines. Your chances of breaking in with anything that's not literary are... well, I think there are no chances. Unless you're a big name with an impressive publication list already.

[Unimportant]

I have to agree with The Kid. If an author is of the status that they've got even a remote likelihood of selling their novel excerpt to someplace like The New Yorker, their agent will probably manage the submission and sale for them. If the author doesn't have an agent, they're probably shooting for the moon in a solar system several galaxies away.

If you're looking for magazines that specifically accept thriller stories, maybe try the Duotrope market list?