6 Free Submission Newsletters Every Writer Should Know

The one word I hear most often when talking to writers about submitting to literary magazines is OVERWHELMING (their emphasis)—so many magazines, guidelines, restrictions, and deadlines.

Fortunately, several free newsletters are available to help writers discover new journals, track what's open, and streamline the submission process. Published weekly or monthly, these newsletters focus on recent submission calls. They're a convenient resource that's relatively concise and arrives directly in your inbox.

I like the flexibility of the lit mag newsletter as a submission resource. You can give the email a quick skim when it arrives, and if an outlet clicks with what you write, you can add it to a running journal list in your Notes app. Or you can save the email for when you've set aside time to work on submissions and read through it intentionally then.

But what I find most valuable about lit mag newsletters is the curation. The editors behind these resources have carefully identified and researched specific lit mag recommendations. They've essentially done the work for you—visiting the journal's website, reviewing the guidelines, developing an understanding of what's a good fit for the journal, and compiling the essential submission details you need to know, all in one place. In this way, these newsletters—and the editors behind them—help manage the overwhelm, making the submission process more approachable.

Some newsletters are highly selective—6 Lit Mags You Gotta Submit To This Week, for example—while others take a broader, more comprehensive approach, compiling a hundred or so magazines open for submissions in a given month. Each can be valuable in its own way, depending on your preference and where you are in the submission process.

Here are six lit mag newsletters—all free—that I find useful.

Sub Club by Chill Subs

Shannan Mann compiles Sub Club’s Weekly Sub Calls, a newsletter that highlights up to 10 handpicked lit mags—all recently opened for submissions, across a variety of genres. Each call includes key submission details for each journal: deadline, fee and pay, whether the journal accepts simultaneous submissions or reprints, average response time, a brief summary of the lit mag's mission, and a link to the lit mag's summary page on the Chill Subs website.

The real gem in the newsletter is what Sub Club calls "our one cent." Shannan is a lit mag expert—she’s read and analyzed hundreds of lit mags, and has submitted and published in many as well. The resulting Weekly Sub Calls newsletter offers specific, sophisticated insights into what kind of writing best fits an outlet.

The Practicing Writer 2.0

The Practicing Writer 2.0 is a monthly newsletter published by Erika Dreifus that features a curated list of 20 or more submission opportunities for fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction that have no submission fee and offer payment. She keeps the list compact, briefly outlining what the journal wants and when it's due, with a link.

Erika, another lit mag expert and a literary citizen superhero, has been providing this free, curated resource to writers for over twenty years! In addition to the long list of journal submission alerts, her newsletter includes news on contests, fellowships, and grants. Last month, she also shared a list of fee-free writing residencies.

Authors Publish

The Authors Publish newsletter regularly (less than weekly, more than monthly) provides curated lists of lit mags open for submission on a theme and with no submission fee, e.g., 28 Journals with Fast Response Times, or 27 Approachable Literary Journals. Authors Publish's newsletter also includes essays by writers about the submission process, e.g., Why I'm No Longer Chasing 100 Rejections Every Year.

Galleyway

Galleyway champions diverse voices in poetry, fiction, nonfiction, TV, film, and theater. Each month, Camille Warliss, the organization's founder, publishes a newsletter with links to a range of writing and publishing opportunities—including calls for submissions and pitches, residencies, fellowships, and more—across genres for BIPOC writers. Also of note: Galleyway’s list of journals that specifically seek out marginalized writers.

Publishing … and Other Forms of Insanity

Unlike the curated lit mag lists outlined above, Erica Verillo’s monthly newsletter is more like everything but the kitchen sink: a long list of submission calls, often 100 or more, that are paying markets across genres and forms. For each linked journal, she provides the genre, payment, deadline, sometimes the word count, call details, or theme. Erica does monthly long-list newsletters for contests, writing conferences, and workshops too.

Submission Sunday

Writer Chris Daley's biweekly Substack newsletter includes a vetted list of eight literary submission opportunities—both calls and contests. For each listing, Chris provides a succinct description of the outlet and what kind of writing fits the call. Access to past newsletters is also free, and Chris occasionally shares her own hot tips for lit mag submitting, too.

All in all, a well-researched and curated newsletter is a good addition to your literary magazine submission toolbox. And no, you don't need to subscribe to all six newsletters listed here; try one or two for a couple of months, and see what content and format best support your practice. The right newsletter will make submitting less overwhelming and your submission practice more focused and sustainable.

Join me and a roomful of writers at the next Submit It Now! Session on June 3, 2026, from 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm EST. Always free. Register here for the Zoom link. We will focus on lit mag ranking lists and how to use them to support your process. As always, you will have time to work on submissions and ask questions.