GalleyCat, a publishing industry blog, posted this just in time for women’s history month:

VIDA: Women in Literary Arts have released a report entitled “The Count 2011,” revealing that male writers outnumbered female writers in many publications last year.

Picking up on where last year’s report left off, this report tracks the statistics of gender balance among writers published at literary magazines, including The New Yorker (overall: 165 women, 459 men), Poetry (overall: 134 women, 179 men) and The Threepenny Review (overall: 19 women, 37 men).

They also looked at authors reviewed, book reviewers, and interviews at certain publications, including: Harper’s (book reviewers: 13 women, 65 men) and The New York Times (book reviewers: 273 women, 520 men).

Writer’s Relief Demographics
At Writer’s Relief, we take these numbers seriously; all writers should. Regardless of what factors may be causing this imbalance, the imbalance in and of itself is worth attention and concern.

The good news is that the publishing industry—thanks in part to the analysis of groups like VIDA, as well as the outcries of high-profile authors like Jennifer Weiner and Jodi Picoult—is starting to pay closer attention to its own practices.

And we at Writer’s Relief thought we would do the same.

Whether you’re new to the writing biz or a seasoned veteran, there’s no escaping the fact that your work is going to get rejected at some point by someone—or perhaps many someones.

The fact is, you can’t control whether or not a literary agent or editor accepts your work. What you can control is the quality of the work in question and how you go about sending it out. Hone your craft and submit great writing that will make it just a little bit harder for people to say no.

Here are a few tips on how to make quality submissions and turn those rejections into acceptances.

Poems can be constructed in either free verse or formal verse. This article explains the differences between the various types of poetry and lists types of poems.