Changes are Coming to LAR

This spring, changes are coming to The Los Angeles Review’s submissions process. Beginning with our new reading period opening February 1, 2012, LAR will begin charging a reading fee for electronic submissions. Our current subscribers and our former contributors may continue to submit their work electronically free of charge.

Many other journals have already taken the fee-to-submit route, and while the editorial staff at LAR has for some time considered instituting fees, we have until recently resisted making the change. As much as we would like to continue to keep online submissions free for all our submitters, the truth is that quality printed literature is expensive to produce, and is becoming more expensive as the cost of printing continues to rise sharply. However, we believe in the impact and permanency of the printed journal, and in the contributions our staff and authors continue to make to the nation’s literary conversation.

The revenue raised from reading fees will go toward printing and distribution costs, and we hope to use some of the funds to give back to the writing community through a program of literary outreach that we are developing.

We recognize that fees for online submissions are a burden for writers. Those who submit to a large number of journals may find that the expense adds up quickly. However, we still believe this system represents improvement on the old-fashioned method of printing and mailing manuscripts, though you are still free to submit your work by post, free of fees, if you wish.

We hope our submitters will continue to support LAR’s efforts to bring divergent, West Coast literature to the mainstream.

Please see our Submissions Page for more specifics about our guidelines.

–The Editors