If you are seeking different literary journals to submit to, there are two great new places to find journals to submit to. One of these is a database, and the other is a Substack newsletter.

A database: chill subs
chill subs is a new sortable database of places one can submit to. As the name suggests, it is more informal than Duotrope and other databases, and it embraces certain aspects of contemporary internet culture much more. It also feels to me much more practical than a lot of the databases out there.

You can search by magazine or contributor name, response time, and vibe, and also if they are open for submissions and offer expedited submissions (mostly for a fee or to historically excluded communities). It also allows writers to only see publishers that allow reprints, simultaneous submissions, and free submissions. The fact that they allow you to filter out all the markets that charge submission fees, is personally the most important for me, and something that’s impossible to do with a number of other databases. You can eliminate all markets that don’t pay, as well.

One of the aspects of the site I really appreciate is the promotion and hype section. They share how active literary journals are on social media, and they make it clear which publishers continue to promote the work of authors that previously published with them. I’m also grateful that they make it clear if they are available in print or if examples of the work they’ve published is online.

Currently the only downside to the database that I can see is how limited it is. At the time of my review, it only had 129 literary journals listed, and less than half of these journals were open to submissions. However, they seem to be actively working on it, and you can suggest journals via a link at the bottom of the page.

You can learn more about chill subs here.

A Substack newsletter: Lit Mags News Roundup
Becky Tuch, the founder of the now-defunct Review Review, has started a new Substack about literary journals called Lit Mag News Roundup that does an excellent job, even for free subscribers. It is more like Authors Publish, in that it does more than just list literary journals — it publishes interviews with literary journal founders, links to recently published listings, as well as grant opportunities. For paid subscribers, there are also submission events.

You can get a free 30-day trial right now, and subscriptions cost $5 a month, or $50 a year, but I’ve been a free subscriber for three months now, and am very grateful for the amount of free knowledge that is shared. You can sign up for either version of the newsletter here.

Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The 2021 Guide to Manuscript Publishers.