Three good pieces will do more for you than eight adequate ones. Most editors decide whether to keep reading within the first few lines of a submission, and a portfolio that knows what it is — a tight, deliberate set — reads as confidence rather than a shortage of material. Building one comes down to three decisions: what to include, what order to put it in, and how to introduce yourself in the covering note.
Read the magazine before you choose the work
Selection starts with the reader, not with the drawer. Before assembling anything, spend an evening with two recent issues of the magazine you have in mind. Notice the register. Is the fiction wry and domestic, or formally restless? Do the poems run short and plain, or long and argumentative? Then read the submissions page properly, because the requirements there should shape everything that follows. Many UK magazines ask for up to three poems, a single story, or two or three flash pieces.
If your strongest piece is a 4,000-word story and the magazine publishes 1,500-word stories, it is not the right piece for that magazine, however good it is. Keep a short list of five or six places you genuinely read, and match work to them instead of sending the same set everywhere. Editors can tell when a submission has been aimed at them rather than scattered.
Choose three to five pieces, and give each one a job
An editor reading a portfolio is trying to answer one question: is there a writer here worth following? Three to five pieces is enough to show voice, range and control. More than that and you start repeating yourself; fewer and you risk looking tentative, unless the guidelines ask for one piece only.
- One piece that shows your voice at its most natural — the one you would read aloud without flinching.
- One that shows range: a different form, register or subject from the first.
- One that lands. A turn, a closing line, a final image that stays with the reader.
- Nothing you have to explain. If a piece needs a paragraph of context to work, it is not ready.
- Nothing you are bored of. Fatigue shows, and it reads as indifference.
Be honest about which pieces are doing the same job. Two quiet, domestic poems about a parent will compete with each other; keep the better one and find something else for the second slot. If you write poetry, vary the form and the length — three 16-line lyrics in a row can blur into one poem with three titles.
Order matters more than most writers think
Editors rarely read a submission in one sitting, top to bottom. They read the first piece properly, skim the rest, and stop wherever a line catches them. The opening slot is doing real work. But a long, difficult opening can use up the goodwill you needed for the piece you are proudest of.
- If your strongest piece is also one of your most accessible, put it first. Voice and clarity in the opening slot buy attention for everything after.
- If your best piece is dense or demanding, open with something short and immediate, then place the big one second.
- End with the piece that closes best. A portfolio is remembered by its last page more often than its middle.
- Read the first lines of each piece in order, aloud. If you cannot tell where one ends and the next begins, the sequence has gone flat.
- Check the overall shape. Two long pieces back to back is a heavy read; three short ones in a row can feel weightless.
For a portfolio page rather than a submission, the logic holds, with one adjustment: lead with the piece you would most like to be commissioned on.
The covering letter: a few lines, plainly written
UK editors tend to prefer brevity. A covering letter that runs to a page suggests a writer who has not read the guidelines. Four short paragraphs, or even three, will usually do.
- Greeting. “Dear Editors”, or a named editor if the guidelines say who it is. Not “To whom it may concern”.
- What you are sending, in one line: titles, form, word count.
- Context, only if it genuinely helps — that a story belongs to a linked set, say, or where a sequence came from. One sentence, not a mini-essay on your themes.
- Two or three relevant credits, if you have them. No list of fifteen. If you have none, leave the space empty; it is not a confession and editors do not read it as one.
- A note on simultaneous submissions, where the guidelines allow them.
- Your name, email and website. Then stop.
Resist explaining the work. Interpretation belongs to the reader, and a letter that tells an editor what a piece means can make the piece look thinner than it is. Do not apologise for submitting either, and skip the line about hoping they enjoy it. A plain “Thank you for your time” does the job.
The bio: fifty to seventy-five words, no flounce
Most magazines want a third-person bio of around 50 to 75 words. Third person keeps the focus on the work. Use the present tense, mention where you are based if it is useful, and give one or two recent credits rather than a career sweep. A line about a current project is welcome — a pamphlet in progress, a novel being redrafted — as long as it is real.
[Your name] is a writer based in [city]. Their work has appeared in [magazine] and [magazine], and they are working on [current project].
Keep a master version and two trimmed variants, and swap in the credit most relevant to the place you are sending to. If a magazine sets a word limit for the bio, treat it as a rule rather than a suggestion. Prize longlistings are worth including only if they are recent and verifiable; a paragraph of near-misses reads as padding.
A last pass before you send
Check the file name and format against the guidelines — usually a .docx or .pdf, sometimes pasted into an email body. Keep your spelling consistent; if British English is your natural register, do not drift into American spellings halfway through a portfolio. Read the whole set aloud once more, check every title and word count, and confirm the reading period is open.
Then diary the reply window. If the magazine states eight weeks, wait eight weeks before nudging or sending the set elsewhere. Every six months, retire the piece that has been out the most and add something new. A portfolio is a living set rather than a monument — the version you send next year should be better than this one, because the writing will be. Send it, close the laptop, and go and write the next piece.
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