Literary Database is a PDF table. You save it to your computer's desktop and it's there whenever you need it. Just open with Adobe Reader. At a glance, you can tell where your work will fit. Then, just check the reading period column for the journal to see when they accept submissions.

For each of the 350+ listings, it is easy to see what type of work they accept (experimental, humor/satire, micro/flash fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or sci-fi/fantasy—all listings accept literary work unless noted otherwise). There are also columns for simultaneous submissions and whether or not they pay you for your work.

The remarks column lets you know HOW to submit your work: by e-mail, via online submission manager, or snail mail. And you can CUT & PASTE addresses from the database to your cover letter and labels for when you have to snail mail a submission. This eliminates transcription mistakes.

Best of all, Literary Database has HOT LINKS to each publication’s website. Click on them and your browser will open to the site. This allows you to get up-to-the-moment information for the journal you’ve chosen.

Literary Database always tells you which publications will PAY for your work.

There are thousands of publications out there, but that doesn't mean you want your work to appear in all of them. I've been published in journals that looked worse than what I could have produced in my own office. It's exciting to have a story accepted, but disappointing to have it published in a poorly produced journal, or one that takes work that isn't so great.

How did we decide which journals to include?

Literary Database has two layers:

The first are those journals and magazines that submit their publications to be considered for The Best American Short Stories anthology. Among short story writers, especially, these publications are considered the highest quality. (Inexplicably, The Writer’s Market omits many of them.) These journals are highlighted in the database, so it is easy to distinguish them.

The second layer of publications is an interesting mix. Some have great editors and put out a wonderful product. Some are trying something new in the publishing world (like GUD which offers single stories for sale by PDF file, or the entire issue by PDF, or their print version and they pay you every time your story is sold in any one of these formats). Many of these journals are based at universities with writing programs and are of a literary mindset. Some are niche publishers, publishing only work by certain writers (Calyx only publishes women) or focusing on work that is more regional (like Watchword and Zzyuzza). There are only a handful of online journals, and we tried to choose only those that also publish a print anthology or ‘Best of Year’ issue (like Carve). Some have both an online and print issue (Hobart and McSweeney’s).

This second layer of publications is a good mix of 'step-up' journals (publications that are good places to publish to get started) that will look good on your cover letter, and more narrow journals that may be easier to break into for beginning writers.

We’ve put together a database that has no 'filler,' no fly-by-night or we might publish you if you'll subscribe...magazines. And we are constantly re-evaluating our choices to keep the database relevant.