first time submitting - please help

You must acquaint yourself with Duotrope. It's pretty easy to use. It lists pretty much every market there is, and you can search by genre, pay, theme, etc. Be warned though, time is condensed there and a projected five minute search turns into an epic two hours exploratory mission. Who knew there were so many markets in the world?

As regards competition winners, if they were not actually published you can submit them. Even if they were published, you can submit them as reprints. Duotrope allows you to search for reprint markets.

I would not indicate that the story you are submitting has won a competition, (but maybe others would) but you can allude to the fact that you have won whichever competition under the writing credits section,

Letter can be something like this,

Dear Editor, (actual editor's name)

Please consider my story, "Story Title" (approx. 2000 words) for "Magazine Title."

I have won blah blah writing contest 2008, 2009.

Thank you for your consideration,

Sincerely,

name.



Some markets will think very little of a university writing competition BTW. You may decide to leave it out and let the story stand for itself. Or not. The point is debatable and ultimately, it's up to you.

Cheers. And good luck.

Duotrope rocks.

And cover letters should be short, sweet, and professional. The Lady's got it right.

Don't tell the editor much about the story unless they ask you to.

Be particular about reading magazine guidelines, and even more particular about formatting your submission to fit. Editors won't even look at you if you've blatantly disregarded their guidelines -- they just don't have the time.

Good luck!

Editors hate long letters.

Be brief.
I always thank them for their time.

I think you will find all the detail information you need right here in the AW treads. At the bottom of the screen you will see a 'forum Jump'. Press that arrow and you can look for whatever area you might want.

Best wishes and much success.

I agree to read and strictly follow all submission guidelines. Make sure your contact info is on the manuscript as well as in the body of the cover letter--sometimes those get separated, sometimes they don't.

So it's important, unless the sub guidelines say differently, that your cover letter goes something like (to largely crib from The Lady)

Dear Submission editor's name,

Please consider my previously unpublished story, "Story Title" (approx. 2000 words) for "Magazine Title."

I have won blah blah writing contest 2008, 2009.

Thank you for your consideration,

Sincerely,

name
email addy
snailmail addy

The "previously unpublished" is legal-speak and many editors look for that.

Another thing--look to see if they want you to put "Submission" in the subject line or some such. Ideomancer (for whom i used to slush) accepted several spec genres, and they wanted very much for authors to put *which* genre in the subject line--the distribution editor then sent all horror to me, all scifi to EBear, etc.

cat

You might consider desilit.

If the works weren't published, I would include the fact that the particular story won a competition (and list the specific competition)...but only if it was a competition that would be instantly recognized by someone in the industry.

For any of your future works, I would include the fact that you had won those competitions (again, if they're recognized)...

Good luck!

cathyfreeze said:

The "previously unpublished" is legal-speak and many editors look for that.

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Interesting, I'd never heard that before. Granted, I've usually submitted to outlets that don't accept reprints.

cathyfreeze said:

The "previously unpublished" is legal-speak and many editors look for that.

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They do? Maybe it's genre-related. I submit to SF and erotica publications, and with them, it's considered a given that the story is unpublished otherwise stated. (In which case the editor wants to know where and when the story previously appeared.)

Cathy has the right idea. It might help put the editor at ease to know it's an unpublished story. I haven't done it myself, but I'll probably mention it in future submissions. I can't see how it would hurt.

Isaac Espriu said:

Yeah, that's what i thought too, but i guess including that phrase couldn't hurt.

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It seems pointless to me, so I won't be adding it to mine. Unless, of course, an editor specifies in their guidelines that they want it.

Isaac Espriu said:

Of course, as you say, guidelines be the most important thing in this consideration

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Hey, if an editor asks for knock-knock jokes in my cover letter, I am so there.