Dear Geist,
As an emerging poet and short story writer, I am interested in establishing publishing credentials. To do that, I need to be able to separate out “prestige publications” (a term you used in one of your responses published on January 11, 2017) from publications that are not well regarded. Through conversations with other writers and by personal research I’ve been able to identify top literary journals such as
in the United States. I’ve also been able to establish that publication in any vehicle without a credible, objective vetting process is as likely to be negatively regarded as to be considered an achievement. It is the huge grey area in between these extremes that is the problem.
The online service Duotrope lists and provides data on over 5,000 literary publications. I use it regularly to identify magazines likely to be interested in poems and stories that I am writing. In response to Duotrope’s publicizing of themes, I’ve been able to place several poems. In one case I was elated when the magazine that accepted one of them was named the top Canadian poetry magazine for that year. In another case I was chagrined when an American magazine quickly accepted five of my poems with apparently little deliberation about their worthiness.
What is your advice on how to approach this problem of building a credible publishing record and avoiding the ridicule of being featured in a publication of questionable repute?

Dear Roy,
All publication credits help to establish you as a serious, dedicated writer. As you have found, among writers in any given group or place, certain book and periodical publishers are considered more prestigious than others; but these vary from community to community, and they are not the only arbiters of good or successful writing. The writer who makes an effort to become familiar with the market, and to work with editors, is the writer who will be taken seriously by writers and publishers. Your presence in a range of periodicals helps to establish you as a writer who is building a large and varied audience, and who will be writing steadily for a good long time.
Our reference to “prestige publications” was part of our advice for a writer, “Alarmed,” who wondered about the protocols of pointing out editorial errors to a publisher. “Alarmed” considered it a prestigious publishing credit and did not want to be seen as a nuisance.
You might try browsing the membership of
, Canada’s professional magazine publishing association—not just the literary mags, but any periodical that might respond to the subject and tone of your poetry or fiction. Dues-paying members of any such association are very likely to adhere to industry standards and generally to be respectable. And you already know the value of anecdotal information to be had by staying in touch with your colleagues, in writers’ groups or more informal settings.
Now, about that fast-responding American magazine. . . Sometimes an editor opens an envelope and starts reading, and has the Yes Feeling immediately, and is authorized to snap up the goods without consulting other staff. And some editors believe that poetry shouldn’t be tampered with, so decisions to accept, or not, are swift and simple. In other words, a quick response is not necessarily an indication of carelessness. It is always a good idea, though, to look at any periodical to which you are thinking of submitting work, even a few pages of a recent issue online, to ensure that
feel it is right for your writing.
—The Editors