Let bylines be bylines

This year, I decided to take the “100 Pitches a Year” challenge – which I keep hearing about in my various online writing groups – whereby I would submit pitches and/or completed pieces to 100 outlets. I discovered why it’s such a good exercise pretty quickly: For one thing, it encourages me to submit to places I might not otherwise – not because they aren’t a good fit, but because I tend to decide, with all the clarity of someone who has no idea, that the outlet couldn’t possibly want what I write. You don’t have the luxury of this kind of victimhood when you must conceptualize, write, revise, and send two pitches every single week. I also realized the sting of rejection is a lot less painful when I have several pitches circulating.

If you, too, are attempting to up your freelance game, then you might be wondering, as I did, whether certain bylines are more likely to lead to other bylines or opportunities. For the answer, I decided to go directly to the sources: writers who have been in the freelancing game for a while, literary magazine editors, and a literary agent who represents a wide array of genres, including memoirs, novels, YA, middle grade, and business books.

So: Do bylines matter? The short answer: It depends.

Not every outlet pays attention to where you’ve published in the past when considering whether to publish your work. The conventions change depending on whether you’re seeking to publish in literary journals, work for journalistic media outlets, or secure an agent for a book deal.

Literary journals

When asked how selects stories and