How to Get Your Short Stories Published in Lit Mags
By Suzannah Windsor Freeman | August 10, 2014 |
Five years ago I would’ve said I was on my way to becoming a novelist. Today, my novels-in-progress have been shelved, but my short stories have been published in several lit mags and anthologies, and I even manage an online literary journal—Compose: A Journal of Simply Good Writing. There’s just something about the short story form I’ve grown to love, and I do feel that this tangent from novels has made me a better writer.
If short stories fell off your radar on your last day of high school English, the world of lit mags may be one you know little about. You might consider yourself a novelist, but there’s plenty that short stories can do for your writing and your career.
What are lit mags?
The terms literary magazine and literary journal generally refer to publications that feature short stories, poetry, and creative nonfiction (although sometimes literary journal is also used to describe publications that feature academic essays about literature). Some lit mags are created and run by the faculty and students of university MFA creative writing programs, while some are privately run. Each lit mag has its own style and focus, and some publish certain genres such as science fiction and horror. For example, Ploughshares publishes literary fiction, while Clarkesworld publishes sci-fi and fantasy, and Ellery Queen publishes mystery. Whatever you write, there’s probably a home for your work.
I write novels, so why should I care?
Last year I wrote an article for Writer Unboxed called “What Novelists Should Know About Short Fiction.” My three main points were that
- Reading short fiction can make you a more knowledgeable writer.
- Writing short fiction can make you a more accomplished writer.
- Publishing short fiction can make you a more marketable writer.
Number 3 is important if you’re writing a novel or submitting a manuscript to literary agents or publishers. It’s entirely possible to get a novel published with no previous writing credits, but can it hurt to show agents and editors that you’re serious about perfecting your craft and seeing your work in print?
Writer’s Digest must agree, because they once ran an article called 12 Literary Journals Your Future Agent Is Reading.
10 Steps to Getting Your Short Stories Published
Read on for a rundown of what you need to know to get started submitting to lit mags:
1. Read as many short stories as you can. In my experience, the very, very best way to learn to write better is to learn to read better. I’m talking about critical reading. I mean tearing those stories apart and putting them back together. Check out some popular short story collections from the library, and take advantage of those you can read for free online.
2. Draft your story. When it comes to short fiction, I believe you can afford to be a pantser instead of a plotter (pantsing meaning you write without a clear plan of where you’ll end up). You’re dealing with a few thousand words—not a hundred thousand words—and letting your mind explore as you write can lead to a deeper, more meaningful story.
3. Revise, get feedback, revise again, polish. Don’t be fooled into thinking short stories are easier to write than novels—many writers say they are more difficult. Editors are looking for a great story with an engaging voice, and that can take time to develop. Better to take a few more weeks to revise and polish than to get an outright rejection or have to withdraw your piece to make corrections. A critique group can help you identify your story’s strengths and weaknesses.
4. Find the right markets for your work. The Review Review and Poets & Writers, among others, have free databases of lit mag markets. Record the titles and details of good matches for your work in a spreadsheet. I look for mags that (a) accept electronic submissions, (b) don’t charge any sort of reading or submission fees, and (c) allow simultaneous submissions. These aren’t absolute rules, but they ease the submission process. Be sure to only submit to journals that publish the genre of your story.
5. Choose your top 5-7 markets to submit to first. If you’re dealing with mags that accept simultaneous submissions, starting with the least prestigious markets is a good way to get a quick acceptance—but you could be cheating yourself out of a better publication credit. I always start submitting with a handful of my top choices, ones I would be equally happy to be accepted by. You still want to be realistic about where your work might find a home, but don’t just assume you need to work your way up from the very bottom.
6. Write a basic cover letter that can be customized to different pubs. This step seems to stump a lot of writers. Unless submission guidelines ask you for additional information, your cover letter for a short story should be limited to the following:
(a) An introductory statement such as, “Thank you for considering my short story “This Is Great Literature,” which is 2500 words long.”
(b) A sentence or two about you and your previous publishing experience, if you have any. This could be in the form of your third-person short bio (see step #7).
(c) Closing regards, such as, “Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to your reply. Best, Jane McLean.”
Some lit mags also want you to explain why your piece is a good fit for their magazine, as some sort of proof that you read their publication. If you do include that info, keep it to one line.
Resist the urge to describe your story; it’s a cover letter, not a query letter. Just be sure to change the name of the editor and journal to which you’re submitting each time.
7. Perfect your short bio. Your cover letter should include a couple of sentences describing yourself and your writing experience (see step 6b). Good things to mention are where you live, what writing contests you’ve won, previous publications, education, etc. If you don’t have much to say, it’s perfectly fine to write something like, “Joe Schmo lives and writes in New York,” or “Joe Schmo is a student at Awesomeness University. He is currently working on a collection of short stories.” If you have one great credit and other lesser ones, you could write, “Jane McLean’s work has appeared in The Missouri Review and others.” This short bio will probably appear alongside your published piece if you’re accepted, so put some thought into it.
8. Track your submissions. Always keep track of what mag you submitted to, the date you submitted, the date you received a response, and the final outcome. You will especially need this if you’re submitting several stories to several publications at once, because when a simultaneous submission is accepted by one mag, you need to immediately withdraw it from all the other markets that are considering the piece. If you’ve submitted through a management system such as Submittable, withdraw your piece within that system; if you’ve submitted via snail mail or email, email the editors to say the piece has been accepted elsewhere.
9. Let rejections and feedback guide you through further revisions. This is where it becomes a bit of a guessing game. If, thus far, you’ve received only the kind of form rejections that say, “Thanks, but no thanks,” it could mean your piece isn’t strong enough, or that you’ve submitted to markets that are too competitive, or that your piece just wasn’t successful this time around. If you’ve been lucky enough to get any personalized constructive criticism along with a rejection, you might want to revise your piece based on editors’ suggestions. That is, if you agree they have a point.
10. Choose your next group of best-matched markets and submit to those. Continue submitting in small batches and tracking as you go until you get an acceptance. (If that acceptance doesn’t come, put the piece away for a few months and work on another story.)
Dos and Don’ts for Submitting to Lit Mags
Here are some other general tips to keep in mind:
Do
- Read and follow all submission guidelines. If no detailed guidelines are available on a mag’s website, present your manuscript in a plain 12-point font, with your contact information and word count in the top corner. Assume simultaneous submissions are fine unless stated otherwise.
- Study potential markets to see what type of piece they typically publish. Print publications often have samples available online that you can read for a better idea.
- Have a decent headshot of yourself ready. A mag might ask for your headshot to appear on their website or alongside your story.
- Read all contracts thoroughly. Ask questions if you don’t understand the terms, and if no contract is offered, ask what rights the mag acquires. Generally, you want to be sure rights revert back to you upon publication so you can later publish the piece in your own collection or in an anthology.
- Withdraw simultaneous submissions from other lit mags within 24 hours when your story is accepted elsewhere. This is common courtesy to editors who might still be reading and discussing your piece.
- Grab copies of your print publications. Sometimes you’ll be offered a couple of free contributor copies of your work, but if that doesn’t come as part of your deal, do buy yourself a copy. They’re great to pick up when you need some encouragement and handy if you ever want to take part in a public reading.
- Link to online publications from your website or portfolio. Don’t forget to direct people to where they can read your short stories online. Most people won’t have access to your print publications, so this is a good chance to show them samples of your writing.
Don’t
- Fire off your submission to dozens of publications at once. It would be a pain to withdraw all of those submissions if you get accepted elsewhere, and you don’t want to get in the habit of sending every story you write to the same mags over and over.
- Get snarky with editors. Rude notes in response to rejections or long wait times won’t get you anywhere. Just move on to the next market.
- Obsess about what rejection letters mean. Some lit mags have tiered rejections: a piece that isn’t a good fit gets a basic form letter, while better stories that receive more editorial attention get more encouraging form letters. If you get a positive rejection letter, great! But not all magazines have tiered rejections, and busy editors sometimes don’t have time to worry about which letter to send, so don’t over-think it.
- Try to decode response times. Just because a lit mag takes forever to get back to you doesn’t necessarily mean they’re spending all that time agonizing over whether or not to publish your piece. They could be behind on reading or on sending out rejections. On the other hand, they could be considering your piece more carefully, but there’s no real way to know.
- Expect payment. This is one market in which the “never write for free” advice is irrelevant. Most lit mags can’t afford to pay contributors, and editors are generally volunteers. If you are paid at all, it will likely be a small sum.
The most important thing to remember is that the story is the most important thing. You can only control so much about the publication process, so focus as much as possible on writing the best story you can.
Getting short stories published in literary magazines can help boost your confidence and give editors and agents a sense that you’re a seriously dedicated writer. You’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Which lit mag might your future literary agent be reading right now?
Photo courtesy of Illinois Library via Flickr
Suzannah Windsor Freeman is a Canadian freelance writer and editor whose work has appeared in The Writer, Sou’wester, Grist, Saw Palm, Anderbo, The Best of the Sand Hill Review, and others. She is the managing editor of Compose: A Journal of Simply Good Writing and Writeitsideways.com. She lives in Ontario with her husband and four children.
Very helpful, Suzannah. I’m a short story addict, read them and write them and write a weekly blog about short stories with links to free reads (so I read at least 3 shorties a week in order to feature one on my blog). I have several shorts published in small non-paying ezines and print magazines. One thing puzzles me about “literary” magazines and perhaps you can advise. I’ve been told by more than one person person in this industry that if you don’t have an MFA in fiction on your resume, most “literary” magazines won’t even consider your submission. Do you think that’s true?
Thanks, Paula! That advice is absolutely false, so don’t worry. One of my short stories was published in a university-affiliated journal that has published many well-known writers, and at the time of acceptance I had only one other short story published in a small, private journal. I also had, and have, no MFA.
I’ve published a lot of short stories in literary magazines over the years. Another thing I’d add to your useful advice is that the process of submitting and resubmitting short stories can acclimatise you to the rejections you’re going to face if you want a book published, of whatever type. You also discover how persistence pays off, I’ve had less than a handful of stories accepted first time but generally get there in the end. And how lovely it is to have others reading one’s work.
I definitely agree that all the rejection you face in submitting to lit mags can ready you for querying a novel. After a while, it becomes just another thing one has to deal with—not quite so soul crushing as it is in the beginning!
Thanks, Suzannah, for making the short fiction lit journal query less daunting. You make many good points. Though I consider myself a novelist, I love short stories and dabble with writing them when the well is low. It’s nice to feel a sense of accomplishment from finishing something, I suppose.
Perhaps this will inspire me to refine a few and give it a go.
Thanks again. Have a wonderful day.
I hope you do give it a go soon, John! And you make a good point about the sense of accomplishment from finishing something. I see the ability to finish a piece of writing as a learned skill, really. Thanks!
Good timing on this as I just ripped out what I think is a good one this week and am in the process of revising now. I generally stick to working on long form, but once in a while, I get some good short piece. I do find submitting a pain the backside, though. Thanks for this, Suzannah.
Jeffo: That’s funny, because I think submitting is the best part! It means the hardest part—the writing—is over :) Good luck with your piece!
Hi there
I am writing a 3.500 word short story for a monetary award from the Scottish Book Trust. Would you say they are the same as short story’s for magazines and competitions.
Many thanks.
Gary.
Gary, I’ve heard of the Scottish Book Trust but don’t know much about the particulars. However, it’s pretty safe to say that the same basic concepts will apply no matter where you’re submitting: follow the guidelines provided, write a fabulous story, give yourself time away from the story, etc. Can you read past winning pieces from SBT award to get a feel for what they like?
Would love to see comments that address using Submittable. Thanks for some great reminders. I always like to see other authors ideas.
Hi Robin, not sure what info specifically you’re looking for, but in general I’d say Submittable is very user-friendly system. You basically just follow the prompts. What’s great about Submittable is that it allows editors to keep track of submissions in a much more organized way than snail mail or email submissions, so it’s less likely your story will get lost in the shuffle. Multiple editors can easily read your piece and comment on it, as well as vote YES, NO or MAYBE on it. It’s free on your end, except some journals have started charging an administrative fee for writers to submit through the system (because journals with more than two staff members have to pay a monthly fee to use Submittable).
Suzannah–
Thanks a lot. As a writer, I have neglected short fiction for years. Reading your post is going to get me back to it. Over the years, I’ve written lots of highly stylized blog entries that may lend themselves to modification as SSs.
Thanks again–and thanks for all the useful links.
Thanks, Barry! You won’t regret it, I’m sure.
Short fiction has saved me! I am a magazine evangelist for this reason while I pursue my longer works.
Suzannah:
Reading this was a little creepy because about five minutes before I went to WU this morning, I had a rare thought about an old short story I think holds promise but needs revision. I told myself I should work on that and submit it, but stalled on the “how” and pushed the thought away.
Then I read your wonderful piece this morning, complete with the all-enticing list, and the “how” was answered. Your links override several other excuses I’d been conjuring. This is a keeper.
Thank you for the coincidence that feels as though you read my mind, even if it weirded me out a little. I haven’t thought about any short story or mine in over a year.
If you write genre fiction, specifically romance, keep in mind that there are still a few magazines out there that publish shorts. Most don’t pay well, but they pay, and writing them helps hone your craft. I put myself through grad school by writing and selling my short romances to the Trues family of confessions magazines (True Love, True Confessions, etc), as well as to the better known Woman’s World and the now defunct New Love Stories. For me, these first attempts at writing romance were like training wheels to help me learn to write novels. They’re great fun!
I have a friend who writes literary shorts, and I have already sent her this post. Thanks for your insights!
Sophia / She Likes It Irish
I will echo what Sophia said. I’ve earned 12 K selling stories to Woman’s World–which is a good deal more than I made on my 2 published romance novels! (Actually, there’s no comparison, which is why I’ve given up writing romance novels.) While I don’t kid myself that these short-shorts are “literature,” they’re fun to write, and I like the checks. There’s also a lot of satisfaction to be had from knowing that each story has the potential to be read by 1.6 million people.
I’m also a “novelist” who’s been writing more short stories than I would’ve thought I would. The reason for me: immediate gratification!
When you submit to a magazine, you usually hear back in a couple of weeks. But when you submit to literary agents–it’s months, sometimes almost a year. Craziness. I need a pat on the back more frequently than that!
This is a great post. I’ve bookmarked it for future reference and pinned it on Pinterest. The links are especially helpful. Writing short stories is something that especially interests me. Thank you for sharing this information.
Really fantastic article. Thank you. You answered a couple questions I had regarding submitting short stories (which I have been doing!) but I am still wondering: is it important to address the cover letter to a specific editor? When I can find the fiction editor I address it to him or her but a few times there have been a whole slew of people listed as editors so I simply addressed it Dear Editors or Dear Name of Journal. Is that okay to do? Thank you again!
You know, to me as an editor, it doesn’t matter whatsoever. I think it’s certainly good to look at the masthead and if it’s obvious to whom you should be addressing your submission, go for it. But, if there are multiple editors for each genre or it’s just not clear, I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Thanks!
This is a great post! One thing I realized recently is that if a story gets some recognition, but isn’t published, do some polishing and then resubmit to different publications and/or contests. Make sure to mention that an earlier version received recognition and/or accolades in the cover letter. I did that with a story I felt strongly about and it ended up placing in a contest and will soon be published! I suppose my point is not to give up just because of one round of rejections.
-Dana
A plethora of great tips! Thanks Suzannah!!
So helpful, thank you. I’ve only written a handful of short stories (they intimidate me so much more than writing a novel), but you really have inspired me to try my hand some more. This is the best comprehensive advice and information I’ve seen in one place, thank you!
Thanks, Suzannah.
I admit I was never much of a reader, but there’s something about short folklore-type stories that just pull me in. So i’ve held on to those types of stories to help me read more, which in turn are gradually helping me become a better writer.
I like the suggestion to stop decoding response times. I obsess about this all the time, in my short story writing as well as my agent querying for my novel. I think if you can learn the magic of letting go, writing can become so much more enjoyable! Thanks for the great advice!
Having a few publication credits under your belt is indeed a great way to be more marketable for when the time comes to sell your novel, and getting your short stories published is one of the easier ways to do so.
As an editor, I was hoping I’d see that point in this post! And as a writer, I’m now inspired to get to work. :)
Thank you for the helpful post! I was having trouble deciding whether I should submit my short stories individually through literary magazines, or all at once as an anthology through a small press. These stories all center around common themes, and all share the same characters and same setting. Each one portrays the themes in different ways, using these characters and setting, so in a way, they are like written episodes. Which route would you recommend that I take with short stories such as these?
Should I publish all of my short stories through a publishing company, all at once as an anthology? Or should I publish each individual story through a literary magazine? Would some lit magazines accept short stories that use the same characters and setting, but portray the themes through different scenes and different plot-lines?
Lastly, would it be a good idea to release an anthology every so often– for example, release a collection of 4 short stories at a time and slowly gather up a fan base?