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Grab The RSSHow and Where to Publish Your Short Stories
One reader asks:
“What advice would you give to someone who has bags of passion and loves life and just happens to have lots of stories and would like to know how to publish or where to publish?”
I’m really glad this reader writes from the heart. A short story which is meaningful to you, which celebrates life and which is written with real spirit is much more likely to meet with success than a technically good story without meaning for the author.
If you’ve got a stack of short pieces that you’ve written for your own enjoyment and that of friends, consider sharing them with a wider audience. There are dozens of ways to do this, from entering writing competitions to submitting work to magazines to self-publishing, and I’ll discuss a few below.
Questions to ask before trying to publishing your story
Is your work a complete piece?
Even when you’re writing from real life experience (as the reader who asked the question above was), your story needs to be well-shaped, with a beginning, middle and end. There also needs to be some conflict – whether between two characters, or just in a character’s own mind – at the start of the story which is then resolved by the time the story concludes. Without this, your work will read as an anecdote – interesting, perhaps, but not suitable for publication as a story.
What genre does the story fit into?
Whether you’re aiming for publication in a magazine or journal, or whether you’re planning to self-publish your work, you need to have a clear idea what genre the story is. If you’ve written a science fiction piece, you’ll have little luck submitting it to a magazine of Westerns. And your sweet story about your cat is unlikely to please the readers of “Tales of the Undead”, however well-written it is.
Where to Publish Your Work
Either you need to find someone else – probably a magazine editor – who likes your story and wants to publish it, or you need to self-publish. You will probably reach a wider audience with the former method, and you may receive some welcome remuneration, but the latter option gives you total control over when and where your work appears.
Publications which accept short stories
There are hundreds of magazines, e-zines and websites where short stories are published, and some pay professional rates. One good place to start is the magazine shelves of your local newsagents. Are there any publications devoted to fiction?
For example, the UK has many magazines aimed at women such as “Take a Break”, “Woman’s Weekly” and “My Weekly” which publish a couple of short stories each week – and bring out a monthly collection of twenty or so stories. If your writing fits into this genre – commercial in style, with a sympathetic main character (usually a woman) and a positive ending – then they are definitely worth considering. I’ve found the blog Women’s stories: read, write, enjoy! invaluable for advice on this genre.
If you write science fiction, fantasy, horror or literary fiction, you’re unlikely to find magazines devoted to these on the shelves. Try searching online for small magazines which people subscribe to by mail-order: you may be able to order a back issue cheaply or free. Or look for e-zines which you can submit work to online.
Self-publishing your stories
You can publish your work for free on a website. One easy way is to set up a blog (try www.blogger.com) and post a new short story every week. There are lots of easy ways to create a full website too – try Google Page Creator . You don’t need to be very “technical” and you certainly don’t need to be able to programme or understand terms like “HTML” and “FTP”.
If you are fairly web-savvy, though, you might choose to pay for a domain name and professional web hosting. I’d recommend this if you’re serious about your writing as it means you can use your site as a professional-looking showcase for your work.
The other option is to publish printed versions of your stories, to circulate around friends and family – and perhaps more widely. Traditional self-publishing in this way involved paying thousands of pounds for several hundred or thousand copies of your book: new “print-on-demand” technology, though, means that it’s cost-effective to print just a few copies of your book. A volume of your best short stories could make a lovely present – far more interesting and memorable than a box of chocolates.
I recommend Lulu, which I used to print a single copy of my first novel manuscript. It cost me £7 (about $14) for the whole book, including the postage: I’d have spent just as much on paper and ink if I’d printed it at home, and the result was a high-quality glossy-covered paperback.
Lulu’s site is simple to use, and takes you step-by-step through the process of uploading your work and choosing the format of your book.
Need to know more?
I’ve only touched on some of the issues about publishing short stories, so if there’s something you’d like to know more about, or anything I’ve not covered, please leave a comment here – or use the feedback form on the Contact page – and I will happily address it in a future article. And look out for upcoming articles covering revising your writing, formatting your manuscript correctly, markets for your work, entering short story competitions and more…
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23 Responses to “How and Where to Publish Your Short Stories”
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Salam,
I’m happy to be the first reader to say “Thank you”!
It was really helpful, because I’m writing a short story now.But I’m
not finished yet.I study English,That’s my major.But I’m trying to
slow down a little bit coz I’m not that much if you understand me:)
your name is Arabic,”Ali”.And you have a strong vocabulary,and your
writing is perfect! Masha Allah.
What was your story? and thank you for the great effort!
Keep going
This is a great idea for an article, and I think it would go greatly as part of a larger series. People writing things other than short stories could use advice on how to publish their work, too.
Whoops! Thanks, Joshua — it means I rewrote that sentence and left a couple of words in that shouldn’t have been. Have fixed the typo now.
Cheers,
Ali
I wondered who would catch this first. As one who writes daily writing tips, you must have to proof read to the max, else someone like me will kid you about it.
Not long ago I also caught a reference to a person where you used “that” instead of “who.” I constantly have to correct myself with that particular error.
I look forward every day to reading these tips. It is so easy to forget basic grammar, and this is a great help.
Hello
This is a response to the person who wanted to know how and where to publish short stories. I too had a few short stories – and a novel – that I wanted to publish but didn’t know where, or how to go about it.
I discovered podcasting. I bought myself a microphone and recorded first the novel, then the stories as mp3 files. These became my on-line ‘podcasts’.
The podcast of the novel, ‘One Among the Sleepless’ has been a worldwide success, with over 100,000 downloads to date. And the short story collection, ‘Hall of Mirrors’ has been in the U.S. iTunes literature charts since its release in August of last year and is still going strong.
All podcasting requires is a computer, a microphone and a recording software program like Audacity, which is easy to use and is free to download.
In effect, what you are doing is making a serialized audiobook of your work and giving it away to the world for free. Some may ask ‘why?’. Well, if you want your work to find a global audience, why not? And if you want to have a crack at landing that elusive big publishing deal, this link ( http://snurl.com/24dek ) will take you to the a Washington Post article on the recent major publishing deals of podcast authors Scott Sigler and J.C. Hutchins.
My website link provided here is to my short story collection at podiobooks.com, an online podcast bookshop which may take your book if you can make it meet their tech criteria. Hosting with podiobooks is free. Also check out PodShow.com and PodShow.co.uk for other free hosting options for your podcast.
Wishing you the best of luck
Mike Bennett
I notice my link hasn’t appeared. I re-paste it here:
http://podiobooks.com/title/hall-of-mirrors
Cheers
Mike
p.s. Check out my whole podcast world here:
http://www.oneamongthesleepless.com/
“If you write science fiction, fantasy, horror or literary fiction, you’re unlikely to find magazines devoted to these on the shelves.”
How about Isaac Asimov’s and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction? I often see these two magazines, which have been around for decades and have published short stories by most of the stars of the SF universe at one time or another, at the bookstore, the newsstand, and even occasionally at the grocery store.
Many of the well-known literary fiction journals are usually available at Barnes & Noble and Borders, and also in most academic libraries. But people who are writing for that market already know that.
Dir Sir,
My name is Youssef Kabalan Slaameh,I live in Nabay el-metn.Lebanon.
Anyway,I Have written many short stories in Arabic,and I would like to share them with you.So,may you do me a favor in helping me to get them published,thanking you very much for your cooperation,and I hope to receive your reply as soon as possible.
I have 50 short stories ready to go. They are childrens fiction stories and are suitable from between 4yrs – 16yrs.
Obviously I am looking to publish these stories and am hoping that you can stear me in the right direction.
I can also write books to order, such as personalised books for children, as well as stories along the lines of famous five.
Look forward to hearing from you soon.
Nathaniel
read it now
and put you comments .
I have recently found comfort in writing. I seem to write better if I focus my writings in letter form and to a known person. I am new at this writing though I hope to have more to say in the near future.
“Things to remember others to painful to forget”.
Tanya Lyles
I have written 36 Australian children stories and would like some information on where to publish them. Your assistance with information would be appreciated.
Val Crothers
I have a load of short stories per a mainstream audience. Right now I’m selecting mags to send them to. Got any online submission information for me. Visit my web, and read. Thank you. OOWEE
I’m looking for a magazine or place to publish short stories for children that my son writes based on his experiences. Written in first person.
Dear Madam/Sir,
I’ve written a collection of twelve short stories that I’d like to get published, but I don’t know publishers’ addresses or email addresses. Could you direct me to some of any nationality? I’d prefer English, Nigerian, Cameroonian, American. I don’t live in the UK.
Thanks in advance
i have a question not a comment. i have short stories about a detective and i am looking for a magazine that might would pay to publish them in their magazine. i have quite a few and i am really wanting to get them out ther for others to read. does anyone know of any that might would publish them? any help would be great. thank you for your time.
i have written a horror story name ‘shikozu’
I Have writin stories since 3rd grade, and since then, they have built up to,i don’t know, a BUNCH! I NEED These Published! I Left one of my stories above! Please don’t let my stories go unknown! I have LARGE dreams! My name is Marissa, and I hope You will help me! Thank you Sooooooo much!
-Marissa:)
Suggestion. Get this book from your library, “Best American Short Stories of 2009″ or else it’s called (Best Short Stories of 2009). In the very back of the book is a list of current magazines that publish short stories, including their addresses. You can find their writers guidelines by googling their name. Good luck and keep trying.
Am I really the only person who has read this article and is not so self-obsessed that I can think beyond my desperate need to get famous? Except ‘nova’, no one else has said much beyond “I have written something good, please help me get published.” And that doesn’t make sense to me because the article explains pretty clearly how to go and get yourself published; if it implied anywhere that the writer plans to get you published.
Ah, well. Anyway…
Thank you, Ali, for an article that answers the reader’s question in a manner easy enough for beginners to get started. Like ‘nova’, I’m pleased to thank you.