How to Write Short Stories: Traditional markets

Short stories can be a great way to establish your literary reputation. If you have been published in a prestigious magazine or a prominent anthology or won a significant competition or award, this can help with pitching your longer work to agents and traditional publishers. It can even bring in some extra money along the way.

I primarily choose to self-publish my books and short stories, and while I have licensed some short stories to traditional anthology markets, those opportunities came to me because of my author platform. So, I’ll cover the basics in this chapter but the best resource for the traditional markets is Playing the Short Game: How to Market & Sell Short Fiction by Douglas Smith.

Find reputable short story markets to submit to and check submission guidelines

There are almost unlimited places online that you can submit a short story for publication, but there is also a hierarchy of which markets are worthwhile. Your choice about where to submit should also depend on what you are trying to achieve.

The most prestigious and best-paying short story markets are, unsurprisingly, the most competitive. They are also genre specific.

A good example to look at is Clarkesworld, an award-winning science fiction and fantasy magazine that publishes short fiction of 1,000 to 22,000 words. They are very clear about their guidelines, which you can see at clarkesworldmagazine.com/submissions.

Even if you don’t want to submit to this magazine, it’s worth reviewing their guidelines so you can see what a clear and comprehensive professional submissions page looks like.

Clarkesworld wants well-written stories that are suitable for audio and easy to read onscreen, and although they accept science fiction and fantasy stories, they mention that some aspects would be a “hard sell”—for example, zombies, sexy vampires, and “stories about the stuff we all read in Scientific American three months ago.” This list of requirements is lengthy, so clearly, their taste is quite specific. Of course, you should be a reader of any magazine you submit to in order to understand what they are looking for.

Notably, Clarkesworld specifically will not accept anything written with AI and may ban authors who use it.

They have their own submissions system with tracking numbers, and they share timelines, expectations for the cover letter, and confidentiality information. At the time of writing this, they pay fourteen cents per word (in USD) and claim first world electronic rights for text and audio and non-exclusive anthology rights in English. More on rights and contracts in chapter 2.5.

How can you tell if a short story market is reputable?

It’s easy. Professional markets pay the author and use contracts that work for all sides. The minimum professional rate is usually around eight cents per word. There may also be reputable markets that offer promotional opportunities but cover the costs of editing and production and marketing.

If you are asked to pay for submission or publication, that is likely not a reputable short story market.

Duotrope.com is a paid subscription for listings of publications, anthologies, and competitions as well as literary agents and publishers, so it’s a good place to start if you want to find opportunities.

Competitions and awards

There are also an almost unlimited number of competitions and awards you can enter with your short stories, but again, some charge for entry, and many are not considered prestigious enough to be worthwhile. There are also a lot of scams where the entry fee is high or the winners are expected to buy a certain number of copies, so do your due diligence before submission.

You can usually judge whether a competition is worthwhile by the reputation of the judges and the size of the prizes involved. Interestingly, short story awards can have far bigger payouts than awards for longer fiction. For example, The Bridport Prize in the UK has a first prize of £5,000 (around US$6,500) and publication in a prestigious anthology.

There are also genre-specific awards. For example, the International Thriller Writers awards includes a category for best short story, as does the Bram Stoker Awards for horror. Check your specific genre organisation for opportunities.

If you’re worried about whether a competition, award, or publication market might be a scam, check WriterBeware.blog or check the ratings posted at the Alliance of Independent Authors site, SelfPublishingAdvice.org.

Rejection is part of the process

Most submissions will be rejected. Most award entries will not win. That’s just the reality of the market.

You may get a rejection letter of some kind, or you may never hear back at all. The main thing to keep track of is when you can submit to a new market, or when you might decide to self-publish if you want to go a different route altogether. Many authors just use a simple spreadsheet to track their submissions.

Build relationships with others in the genre

It may not be a definite shortcut to publication but building relationships with authors and editors in your genre can help, as well as networking at conferences and events, and attending courses offered by successful people writing, editing, or teaching in your genre.

My professional friendship with horror author Mark Leslie Lefebvre led to the commission of my first short stories, and my online platform led to being included in a further two anthologies. Proven authors with a track record of writing good stories and being on time and professional to work with will often be asked to write for themed anthologies, which can then lead to other opportunities.

Developing that track record takes time, and of course, you have to be an excellent writer, but personally, I’ve found that attending genre conferences and author events over the years has often led to creative and business opportunities I would not have discovered otherwise.

Questions:

• What do you want to achieve with your short story?
• What kinds of magazines or anthologies do you already read or listen to? Which might be a good fit for your own stories?
• Which opportunities will be most worthwhile for your own work or career?
• How could you network within your genre and build up authentic relationships over time?

Resources:

• Playing the Short Game: How to Market & Sell Short Fiction (2nd ed.) — Douglas Smith
• “Writing and Selling Short Stories with Douglas Smith” — interview on The Creative Penn podcast: www.TheCreativePenn.com/smithshorts
• Duotrope — duotrope.com (paid market database)
• The Submission Grinder — thegrinder.diabolicalplots.com (free)
• Clarkesworld submission guidelines: clarkesworldmagazine.com/submissions
• Reedsy list of short story competitions: reedsy.com/resources/writing-contests/short-story
• Alliance of Independent Authors book award and contest ratings: selfpublishingadvice.org/author-awards-contests-rated-reviewed
• Writer Beware: writerbeware.blog