How to go about publishing a short story?

Question

Should I send it to magazines, publishers...?
What to do?

Answer 1

I completely agree with the suggestion to take a look at the book Writer's Market, or (what I use), their website found at www.writersmarket.com. I also suggest a book by the same company called Formatting & Submitting Your Manuscript for help with the technical aspect of what a submission should contain.

I think that discounting it completely is a poor idea. It is a very valuable resource to find outlets that may be suitable for the kind of story that you have written.

However, as the previous answerer has mentioned, you have to do your research as well. Gather some names of magazines, journals, websites, etc and then take a look at them! Don't just read their submission guidelines but take a look at what kinds of stories they contain. Spend time at your local public library, they normally have a vast collection of magazines that can help you do this research.

And you will get rejected. Possibly quite a bit. It has happened to every great writer (and musician, artist, etc). Have patience and keep submitting to appropriate publications, and your stories will find homes!

Answer 2

Writer's Market is good, but it doesn't really help you get published. It's just a list of places to send your work.

The best way to get published is to read a lot of journals, magazines and other publications that publish the kind of fiction that you write. When I say a lot, I mean that you should be familiar with hundreds of journals. This way, when you complete a story, you will be submitting it to the appropriate magazine, thereby increasing your chances of publication.

I know tons of authors who don't do this legwork and they shotgun their stories to what they believe are prestigous publications. Then they are despondent when all they receive are rejections.

Still, there is plenty of rejection when you are just starting out. Keep writing new material, shelf the old stuff when it gets stale, and keep getting better. Read a lot of journals and, if you have the means, subscribe to your favorites to keep them in business. Good luck.

Answer 3

Get thee a Writer's Market 2006 promptly. Fantastic list of publishers and well worth the investment.

Magazines are your best bet for short stories; if you already know of one where your story would fit, go right ahead and submit it. If not, use the WM as a nice guide to find some that may fit; buy an issue or two and check in out for yourself.

Answer 4

A short story is a form of short fictional narrative prose. Short stories tend to be more concise and to the point than longer works of fiction, such as novellas (in the modern sense of this term) and novels. Because of their brevity, successful short stories rely on literary devices such as character, plot, theme, language, and insight to a greater extent than long form fiction.
Short stories have their origins in the prose anecdote, a swiftly-sketched situation that comes rapidly to its point, with parallels in oral story-telling traditions. With the rise of the comparatively realistic novel, the short story evolved as a miniature, with some of its first perfectly independent examples in the tales of E.T.A. Hoffmann and Edgar Allan Poe.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_story
http://www.forthewriters.com/
http://www.43things.com/things/view/695
http://www.writersrelief.com/newsflash.asp
http://www.writesight.com/google.php
http://www.web-fiction.com/
http://home.universalclass.com/i/c/onlinecourse/courses/writeandpublish.htm
http://fictionwriting.about.com/od/thebusinessofwriting/ht/publishing.htm
http://www.mindsightseries.com/discus/messages/4/3228.html?1095777082
http://www.fanstory.com/index.jsp
http://www.webtaxi.com/publishing-short-story.htm

Please visit the above links to find what u r looking for. Let the writer inside u come out and make ur presence be recognized by the world all over. I hope, a visit to the above links will help u in getting ur work published. Happy Writing to U and Happy publishing to u. I wish u all the best...

Answer 5

Writer's Market 2006 or look for web sites with list of publictions:

http://www.readersread.com/booklinks/bookpublishers/
http://www.writerswrite.com/writersguidelines/