April 2023: A Month in Review

Hello, all!

April has been an exciting month here at Soft Star! I’ve spent this month focused on designing the print edition of Issue Three: Wormhole and beginning work on Issue Four: Arcana. Before discussing those, however, I’d like to solicit your feedback on a topic that’s been making the rounds in the lit mag-osphere lately:

Hot Topic: Submission Fees

Submission fees are always the subject of much discussion in the lit mag world, but I’ve noticed a recent surge of articles on the topic. Back in February, Becky Tuch’s newsletter Lit Mag News published a scathing take on the practice written by an anonymous contributor, while the Chill Subs startup diary, Things We Do While Waiting To Die, posted their own data-based analysis of the prominence and effects of submission fees earlier this month. (By the way, I am a HUGE fan of both of these newsletters and encourage all of you to give them a follow!) In light of this recent discourse, I wanted to open up the floor to you, the contributors and readers of Soft Star Magazine, to understand your views on submission fees for literary magazines.