Publishing Tips

Tips on submitting

1. Make sure your name and current contact information appear on each page of the submission. A good way to make sure that this happens is to create a template for writing that you wish to submit for publication. And paginate as well - that way if you have pieces longer than a page everything stays together the way you meant to have it.

2. Do a good proofread of the work you would like to submit for publication. Check for typos, misspelled or wrong words. If you don’t trust yourself to get it right, give it to someone else to look over. It is truly amazing what a computer spell check will miss.

3. Keep your cover letter short and to the point. Again, check it through for errors. A good cover letter gives editors a sense of who you are.

Your cover letter should include:

The quality of the work you send is what is most important. It is a good idea to tell editors that you are new and unpublished, but long explanations of your writing style or what inspires you are not helpful. Let your writing do the talking.

4. In your cover letter indicate how you would like to be contacted with the response to your submission. If you would like your submission returned to you intact, please make sure you send enough postage (International Reply Coupons or Canadian postage) to enable us to do so. If you want your reply via email let us know in your cover letter and include your email address. If all you want is the yes or no letter, then include a regular #10 envelope with your address and sufficient and correct (see above) postage for us to get it back to you.

5. Please be patient once you’ve sent your work. Most magazines take anywhere from a month to six to even nine months to get back to writers because they have a lot of submissions to get through. If you are getting really impatient and/or anxious that your poems might have gone astray, wait at least a month and then send a polite email inquiry.

6. If you are sending out an email submission, make sure the attachments you send are in the correct file format by checking the guidelines. Often older formats, such as Word Perfect or Apple Works files, are not compatible with our software and can prolong the time it takes to get your work into the hands of an editor. CV2 prefers Microsoft Word format or RTF (rich text format).

7. If you are sending an email submission, make sure that you have included your current address and phone number. With electronic submissions, having an accurate address and phone number is one of the only ways that we can check to see if you are who you say you are and have written what you say you have written. Also, if your work is accepted for publication neither payment nor contributor copies can be sent to an email address.

8. It is our policy to accept email submissions from Canadian writers because we are a Canadian based magazine and are committed to supporting new writing from our poets. It does take extra time and effort to manage email submissions, but if you are not Canadian and you have a particularly good reason for submitting your work by email, please read our guidelines first and then query us by email before sending your work.

9. It is our job to encourage new poetic writing and we want to hear from all of you poets out there so if there is anything we can do to make your experience with CV2 as pleasant as possible please contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

10. Beefs as well as bouquets are always welcome and should be sent  to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .