Lit Mag Review: Sonder

Another avenue for you, the writer

One great opportunity for us writers as a way to get our name before the reading public is a thing called the “literary magazine,” and one of the newest of these is Sonder from Conservatarian Press.

What is a literary magazine?

Good question. It is a publication that lurks in the literary shadows.

Just kidding.

Actually, a literary magazine turns its eye on literature (the way I do on my Substack). Content usually has a monthly theme and features the following:

• Fiction (short stories, flash, book excerpts, poetry)

• Non-fiction (essays, articles, interviews with authors, publishers, et al.)

• Art (both as part of the layout such as the front cover and as content such as art features)

Some lit mags charge a submission fee (usually fairly small). Some pay a token amount for accepted submissions (let’s face it, this avenue for getting your work seen won’t pay the grocery bill). Frequency can range from monthly to annually.

One thing to note:

Every single lit mag I’ve reviewed so far (about a couple hundred) ban anything generated using AI or similar technology.

Most also want work that has not appeared elsewhere, including on Substack, Medium, or your author website.

How Sonder sizes up

As with anything new, the folks involved with Sonder are feeling their way. They certainly have the content lineup squared away and are now dealing with some behind-the-scenes issues and making good progress. Sadly, to save time in her hectic schedule, publisher and layout designer Jamie Wilson, who also runs Conservatarian Press, resorted to using AI (“artificial intelligence” – another name for fancy programming) for the covers and some images inside the magazine. I’m cutting her some slack on that, though, having been in her shoes in the past. Also, I’m ignoring the typeface used and the overall layout, since I know these things are in the developmental stage.

The focus here is on the content, specifically in Issue 2. I must admit that I found quite a bit of it to be rather gritty. A notable exception is Jamie’s story “Next Year” which has a lovely and uplifting twist at the end, something I catch myself putting into even the darkest story I’ve written so far. Also, I generally hate reading author interviews. Your writing should speak for you. However, the interview of Tom Monteleone by Thomas Weiss, the editor-in-chief, was an exception. I encourage you to read it. Also, check out the article by Robert Arrington, assistant editor, titled “The Continuing Saga of the War Against Robots.” And don’t miss “Crossroads,” a book excerpt from FLIP by Steve Stinson (published by Conservatarian Press).

The biggest plus for this lit mag is its focus on conservative and libertarian views and basic avoidance of what is called “woke.”

The Conservatarian Press site.

Download Sonder by clicking red button on top of the site’s homepage.

Interested in submitting to them? See their guidelines on page 63 of the current issue.

Final Note

Are you stuck with submitting to lit mags? Well, maybe “stuck” isn’t the right word. But frankly, it can seem that way. The answer will be coming in my next article.

Hope you found this helpful and have been inspired to start and/or continue writing!

See my article: Publisher Agent Fiction Genres Defined, with downloadable PDF.

Please check out my works in progress (WIPs). And thanks for reading.

Disclaimer: I get no compensation for links to other sites and/or products in this post or on my site.