HELP........Where to sell a short story?

Question

As a college student I have had several papers to pen. My comp. instructor says that one is written well enouf to publish, with a couple of changes and suggested I do so. It is a story on becoming a sniper for the military, dealing with some of the possible feelings, as a shooter and being ex-military I have some experiance in this subject (I was not a sniper I want to be clear on that). It has about 1000 words and can be expanded easly by me. It is writen in third person. This question was writen on the fly as I'm a busy person with a 4.0 last semester. I need money for school. Thank you

Answer 1

sounds great now you have to go thru the grind of checking out a bunch of mags that might fit the story say solider of fortune or field and stream or guns and ammo they will be most likely to take a story that deals with shooting if you had an agent then you could approach other pubs try the library quickly some night and look for a book, one among many about finding a publisher there will be a lot of them there send them each the same form letter about your story a several paragraphs to go with it, pin the rejection slips to your wall and with each one let your determination grow keep sending them and maybe just maybe one will be a hit good luck and never quite writing if it makes you happen.

Answer 2

Well -- problem #1: you equate publication with being paid. If this is fiction, you're looking at small literary journals operated by universities, usually run by graduate students. Your "pay" will be 2 or 3 copies of the issue your work appears in, and perhaps a year's subscription to the journal (which is usually only 1-2 issues/year). The journals that pay -- and they are few and far between, and VERY hard to get in to -- pay very small amounts, something like $5/page, or $100/story.

Problem #2: You don't get published just by sending your work off to a journal and waiting. You send that story to EVERY journal you can think of, and then you wait months (or even a year!) while the 3 or 4 grad students on staff work their way through the thousands of submissions they receive from every kid in the country who thinks he/she has a little bit of talent.

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The submission process isn't easy. It's something you have to dedicate yourself to whole-heartedly. It takes HOURS to research journals, craft a cover letter, and determine whether or not your work fits with each journal's aesthetic. (Because even if your writing is FANTASTIC, a journal won't publish it if it doesn't "fit" with their style.)

You also have to read each journal's submission guidelines -- because each publication has different guidelines about formatting, SASEs, stapling or not stapling manuscripts, etc. Some only take electronic submissions. Some take only paper submissions. Some take simultaneous submissions and some do not. Etc. NEVER send anything out before you've consulted the journal's guidelines.

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If you're still determined to submit, good luck to you! Check out Small Spiral Notebook ( http://www.smallspiralnotebook.com ) -- especially their links page. Also, check out Puerto del Sol's "journals" page ( http://www.nmsu.edu/~puerto/links.html ). These sites provide links to a number of literary journals that publish emerging writers.

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Answer 3

Try Readers Digest.

Answer 4

Ask the teacher who told you it should be published.

Answer 5

http://www.theshortstorywriter.com/