4 Reasons Your Favorite Literary Journal Shut Down

If you frequently read literary journals, you probably have a few favorites. Whether it’s because you really like the literature they curate or because you have a soft spot for them for choosing your work for publication, it’s only natural to have a few favorites.

I started submitting to college literary journals in 2014 and then started submitting broadly in 2016. I’ve had the pleasure to get quite a few publications, but I’ve also had the sad realization that several of the journals I’ve been published in are no more.

In recent months, I’ve also been seeing more rejection messages from journals that stated they were closing their doors.

Shaking up the literary journal scene even more, one of the largest journals, Tin House Magazine, decided to close its doors.

While this is sad news, considering that knowledge of literary journals isn’t that wide beyond the writing community, it’s not entirely surprising.

I’m going to list the three most common reasons I’ve seen for literary journals halting their printing presses.

1. The editors’ lives changed.

Theoretically, yes, it’s possible to find a successor when you are simply unable to keep up with something anymore. It’s a lot harder than you might think though.

If you’re part of the core team that created a journal, it’s very hard to pass it on to someone else.

It’s like someone who has overseen a company for many years handing it down to the next generation because it’s time for that person to retire. This might sound like a lofty comparison, but the feelings are the same; you created something, you love it, you’re proud of it, and you’re afraid to see someone destroy it.

There’s also the tricky fact that even if you do look for help or for a successor, you might not find one. We’ve all got busy lives. I personally feel like there’s more focus now on building your own personal platform rather than contributing to existing structures like journals, so that could also possibly impact the willingness of potential editors.

2. The time investment ends up being a lot more than bright-eyed editors initially expect.

Even if it seems simple, running a literary journal is a lot of work.

Plus, it’s also very easy to overestimate your time. I ran a writing online group way back in high school that sadly ended up being defunct. I would frown and judge people when I saw how they let their writing groups die off when they had accumulated a solid user base, but then I also saw how many groups would change staff then ultimately end up dying anyway since the new staff didn’t manage things as well as they theoretically could have.

At any rate, the biggest reason this problem impacts journals is because of the amount of time it takes to run a journal. When writers are trying to write constantly, especially if they’re trying to monetize their writing, taking time away to run a journal can correlate to a direct loss of income. It may not be a direct cost, but it’s all connected.

3. The cost of running the journal became too much.

Jane Friedman, the author of The Business of Being a Writer, has the following thoughts on the challenges facing literary journals, particularly in terms of profitability.

“At the 2017 AWP, I sat on a panel about money and transparency, and someone in the audience asked how they could turn a publication based on volunteerism and free contributions into one that paid staff and writers.

The short answer is you can’t unless readers are willing to pay and/or someone is willing to gift you into existence.”

Paying for your domain name and web hosting isn’t back-breakingly expensive, but if you add it up over several years with no profitability, it adds up. Most literary journals aren’t profitable.

Someone’s paying for the cost of having a website up, unless the editors turn to free hosting options like the ones on Wix, but most journals don’t settle for that. In general, having that leech of WordPress, Wix, or any other free web hosting option in your URL just doesn’t look as professional as existing as your own entity. I don’t want to offend anyone who has gone for this more affordable option, but it’s very true for personal portfolio websites as well. It just looks more professional to have a domain that is yours and yours alone.

4. The editorial team fractured.

This one might not be quite as common as the others, but sometimes friendships and professional partnerships can turn sour.

If you have a strong team that breaks apart, whether because of an internal conflict or life circumstances changing, there’s a new fissure in the culture that could be irreparable.

It’s tough; when you have a small team, losing one person hurts. But if you have a large team with a strong culture, losing one person and trying to replace them can be nearly impossible.

Alternatively, sometimes, people in groups end up with differing ideas and can’t find happy solutions for those disagreements. A small team will struggle to keep up, but a large team can struggle to be harmonious and to be efficient.

Fractures can happen over the simplest things, whether it’s literary journal crusaders only using Submittable or largest matters, like the overall vision of the publication.

Supporting literary journals is key to their survival.

Ultimately, there are a lot of reasons for a literary journal to close their doors, but I’ve found that these seem to be the main three. Have you seen any others that really stood out to you as unusual or also common?

The literary journal scene is a complicated one; at the end of the day, I think it’s important for readers and writers to do their best to support journals.

It’s easy to submit widely to journals, hope for publications, but not actually purchase or subscribe to any literary journals. I know money is tight for a lot of writers, but if and when you’re able, it’s a great thing to contribute to the literary journal ecosystem by buying those books. If you can’t manage that, doing your part as an eager reader to promote literary journals can make a difference as well.

Even just letting editors know that you’re enjoying their hard work can make a big difference. After all, there isn’t just that extrinsic value of possibly earning money off of a literary journal. The intrinsic value of sharing literature with the world has a lot of merits, especially when readers take their time to show their appreciation.