As we approach the deadline for submissions to Poets Online each month, the final days always bring in the most submissions.
Last year, we had 575 submissions. That's an average of about 50 per the monthly call. That is small compared to the big journals, but it's fine because we are small with a few volunteer staff and a one-man production team. There are no fees to submit and that does attract poets.
We don't have a number that we plan to use use each issue, but it generally whittles its way done to 10-20 poems currently.
It is important that you follow our rather simple submission guidelines, but that is true for any magazine, journal or book publisher. And yet, we always receive poems that have nothing to do with that month's prompt.That is an immediate rejection. We also receive poems that are not correctly formatted, which moves them down in the acceptance list. Then, there are the most difficult ones to decide on. If all the readers give it a thumbs up, it's included. Then we work our way down the list.
On Poets Online, we ask for email submissions in plain text, with the subject line being submission so that our mail filter puts it in a folder for readers. Even using submission_ or submit or prompt will push it elsewhere where it may not be read at all.
I am also a reader for a manuscript competition and a print poetry magazine. The submission guidelines for those are more complicated but the process is very similar: last minute submissions, poems that do not match the call, ones that are incorrectly formatted.
MORAL OF THE POST: Read and follow submission guidelines.
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