If you’ve exhausted all the literary journals you’ve found in your cold search, despite refining your genre and keywords, another way to find new lit mags is to pillage the bibliographies of similar writers.
The writers who’ve come before you have done a lot of heavy lifting—they’ve searched for publications, highgraded the good ones, and proved the editors will accept your stories. Often, their bibliography gives you the names of magazines and reveals who accepts reprints or publishes on podcasts, short story dispensers, and YouTube channels.
As an example, I’ve chosen PA Cornell’s bibliography. She’s a Chilean-Canadian speculative fiction writer, and specifically science fiction, fantasy, and horror. (If you haven’t read her, I highly recommend you start!)
I started by listing all her publications and separating them into magazines ranked roughly by tier, podcasts, anthologies, and contests. (Note that to avoid long lists of defunct publications, this exercise works better with contemporary authors who are just ahead of you in their careers.) Finally, I located the link to the submission guidelines. (I tried to make it easy for you to copy and paste by using bare links.) You can use as many categories as you like to sort your magazines— I find pay rate, response time, and whether they accept simultaneous submissions super useful.
I hope this strategy helps you find the best fit for your story. And if you write in the same niche as Cornell, let me know if you find any gems!
Magazines
Upper-Tier
Apex Magazine – https://www.apexbookcompany.com/a/blog/apex-magazine/post/apex-magazine-submissions-guidelines
Lightspeed Magazine –https://adamant.moksha.io/publication/lightspeed
Factor Four Magazine – https://factorfourmag.com/submissionsinfo/
Heartline Spec – https://www.heartlines-spec.com/submission-guidelines/
Adventitious – https://www.adventitious.net/submission-guidelines/
Haven Speculative – https://havenspec.com/submit/
Mid-Tier
Short Édition –https://short-edition.com/en/submit
Trollbreath Magazine – https://magazine.trollbreath.com/submissions/
Plothound Magazine – https://plotthoundmag.com/submission-guidelines/
Radon Jounral – https://www.radonjournal.com/submit
Abyss & Apex – https://www.abyssapexzine.com/submissions/
Augur Magazine – https://augursociety.org/submissions/
Frivolous Comma – https://www.frivolouscomma.com/submissions/
Lower-Tier
Polar Borealis (REPRIINT) – https://polarborealis.ca/submission-guidelines/
Metaphorspace (REPRINTS) – https://metaphorspace.com/submission/
Trembling with Fear – https://horrortree.com/submissions/
Interstellar Flight Magazine – https://magazine.interstellarflightpress.com/all?topic=call-for-submissions
The Tentaculum – https://www.drabblecast.org/submissions/
Defunct or Hiatus
Cossmass Infinities
Little Blue Marble
Departure Mirror Quarterly
Frozen Wavelets
The Bronzeville Bee
Podcasts
Escape Pod (REPRINTS)- https://escapepod.org/guidelines/short-fiction/
Pseudo Pod (REPRINTS) – https://pseudopod.org/submissions/
Tall Tale TV (REPRINTS)- https://talltaletv.com/how-it-works/
The Drabblecast –https://www.drabblecast.org/submissions/
Anthologies
Contributor
Stars and Sabres Anthologies – https://www.starsandsabers.com/category/anthologies/
Dragon Gems Anthology – https://waterdragonpublishing.com/submissions/dragon-gems/
Flame Tree Press Anthology (REPRINT) – https://blog.flametreepublishing.com/fantasy-gothic/topic/call-for-submissions
The Dread Machine Anthology – https://www.thedreadmachine.com/submit/
Dark Matter Anthologies – https://darkmattermagazine.shop/pages/submissions
Third Flatiron Anthologies – https://thirdflatiron.com/?page_id=13
Galaxy’s Edge Anthologies – https://www.galaxysedge.com/submissions/
Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy & Science Fiction (REPRINT) – http://kotowych.com/yearsbest/
Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy – https://adamant.moksha.io/publication/basff/guidelines
Selected
Long List Anthology
Nebula Awards Showcase Anthology
If There’s Anyone Left Anthology
One-off, Unavailable, or Defunct
Worlds of Possibility Anthology
NewMyths Anthology
Binge Watching Cure (REPRINT)
ZMB Presents Anthologies
Bushmead Anthologies
World Balloon Anthologies
Contests
Unicorn Mech Suit Short Story Contest