Frequently asked questions
A few of the commonly asked questions we receive.We receive a lot of enquiries regarding various facets of the publication and The Rialto, We try to answer everything personally as fast as we can. Below is a list of some of the commonly asked questions with some answers, please however do get in touch if these do not help you.
Why have I not heard back yet about my submission?
The editors endeavor to respond to everything personally by either letter or email, however we do receive very high volumes of post, because everything is dealt with and read personally by the editor and the assistant editors it does take some considerable time to work through everything and respond, Usually we have a backlog of work to read that is around 12 weeks, however sometimes we receive exceptional quantities of mail and we will get further behind with the selection process. We will respond eventually and always try to do so as soon as possible.
Is it okay for me to send my work to another magazine and The Rialto at the same time?
Yes please do, we have absolutely no issues with this whatsoever.
The work I have sent to The Rialto has been accepted by another publication, what should I do?
Please inform us by email if anything gets accepted elsewhere so we can discount it from publication. If it’s great and we missed it, it’s our loss sadly, and well done! You do not need to resubmit your work we will just exclude that piece.
What is the best way of getting my poems published?
A difficult question to answer. We would always suggest buying a copy of the publication you are trying to get your work published in, reading the style and content of any magazine is a good barometer of whether it will fit your voice. You should also keep sending your work out and keep developing it, just because a piece isn’t accepted doesn’t mean something else won’t be. It is also work flicking through our blogs as Michael has written on this subject in the past.
I live somewhere where there is no postal service, I cannot get to my local Post Office due to illness/disability, may I submit by email?
Yes you may, please email us first to check, we will do whatever we can to assist you. You may also use our Submittable portal for online submissions.
I live in another country, may I email you my poems?
No, but you may use our Submittable portal for online submissions. Unless the country has no postal service at all or is in a conflict that makes posting your work hazardous or impossible, or if illness prevents it. We would still prefer your work to be submitted vis our Submittable Portal or posted to us by land mail. We appreciate that it is invariably difficult to include Return postage, if you would rather hear back by email please include your email address with the work you send us. If your country is blocking the IP of our online submission portal in we may accept poems by email.
I don’t have any way of printing out poems to send to you.
We will more than happily accept handwritten work, please supply an SAE if you would like us to return them. You may also find printing services available at your local library, or ask a friend to print them out.
If I email you a submission will you read it anyway?
No, all email is filtered before being sent to the relevant person. All unsolicited submissions are ignored, we will usually endeavour to reply and tell you we haven’t read them too. We only accept work by mail or Submittable.
If I’ve published my poems on my website or on a poetry site online, can they still be considered for publication?
No, we only publish previously unpublished work, anything online is considered to have been published already.
Who owns the copyright for my work once it is published?
The rights of any poems of yours that we publish remain with you.
Once a poem has been published in The Rialto can I publish it elsewhere?
Of course, the poem is yours, all we would ask is that it is acknowledged somewhere in the publication that the work was first published with us if at all possible.
How many poems should I send in?
We recommend you send in no more than six of your best.
Do you publish long poems?
You will see in the magazine that occasionally we do, although fitting Beowulf into the magazine might pose a problem so we leave it to your judgement as to whether you think it’s too long, quality counts over word counts.
Do you pay pay for the poetry you use?
Yes, you will receive £20 per poem published.
Can I buy some back issues?
Yes, there are a variety in the shop, we also have a few copies of other magazines going further back, if you can’t see a specific title please ask via email.
Do you have a telephone number I can call you on?
No, as the team are working from different, varying locations across Norfolk and London we rely on email for most communications, if you urgently need to speak to someone, email us on the info@therialto.co.uk account which is manned from 9 to 5, 5 days a week, we will reply as fast as possible and ring if we really think it is necessary.
I have a piece of artwork, I think would make a nice cover, would you like to use it?
We get asked this a lot, ‘possibly’ is the only answer we can give you. If you have a portfolio online by all means email a link to it to us, but we can’t guarantee we anything as the covers are chosen carefully by the editorial team and art director usually from a group of suggestions.
I have just written a poetry book/pamphlet book or CD and had it published, would you like a review copy and would you like to publish any of it in the magazine?
Much as we like receiving poetry books and pamphlets, we do not produce reviews. There are a great many publications and websites that do, choose your targets wisely. We do not as a rule publish work that has been published in books, particularly if they have been produced recently. If you’d like to be considered for publication please send us some of your work as detailed in the submission process page.
We are holding an event could you publicise it in the magazine for us?
As you will be aware as a reader, we do not have a listings section and as such don’t publicise events, if you have an event and are on twitter you can find is at @RialtoPoetry we will make every effort to Retweet your event, please be aware we do receive a high volume of ‘at’ mentions.
I own a bookshop and would like to stock The Rialto, how do I go about this?
Contact us by email, we can organise stock direct or via our distributor or you can contact Central Distribution directly.
Do you accept poetry in translation?
Yes we do, and no we don’t; if the work is a translation of your own work, then it probably is worth submitting using our normal submission process. If the poetry is translated from someone else’s work, it would need to be both unpublished in English, and also would have to be supplied with the appropriate rights to use or permission from the writer, copyright holder or estate of the writer.
I have previously published my work on my blog is it okay to submit it for publication?
Sorry to say it but no it isn’t, we will not print anything that has been published before. Part of the joy of poetry magazines like The Rialto is that we publish work that has not been seen or read before, The internet is a powerful medium to publish in and even with a small blog there is a good chance that hundreds if not thousands of people will have read your piece already. So please don’t submit anything that you have blogged before.
I’d like to replicate a poem in a piece I am producing for a magazine piece, book or collection, what should I do?
All works remains the property and copyright of the original author, you will need to get in touch with the poet, if the work was first published by The Rialto, we would of course always like a credit if possible once you have obtained permission from the poet or their estate. If you can’t contact the author, please do get in touch via email or the contact form, we will always do our best to help put you in touch with them if we can.
If I send you a link to my work on a blog or website via Twitter or Facebook will you look at the link and Retweet or Share it?
The Social Media accounts are not run by the editorial staff, they are run by a separate team. We will not consider any submissions via any platform other than those indicated, and whilst someone on the Social Media team may read it out of curiosity (and often do) it is unlikely that they will either RT a request or pass it on to the editorial team as they do not feel qualified to make such judgements and we do receive high volume of such requests making it almost impossible to do so for everything. We will however try and RT events and publications or press releases if we feel they are pertinent. An RT or Share is not however an endorsement.