Publishing Short Stories: How to Get Your Fiction Published

Writers often struggle to find the right place to publish their short stories and other work. Where can I publish my fiction? Where can I publish my short stories? A lot of people lament the "death" of the fiction magazines, and while print markets for fiction and poetry are definitely shrinking in comparison to several decades ago, the Internet has allowed for more markets and online journals to open up opportunities for authors. While some people don't think of online markets as being as prestigious as print journals, there are some exceptional online journals, and these markets offer great publishing opportunities for first time and experienced authors alike. In addition to this, many of the traditional print journals (especially those produced by colleges and universities) accept submissions online, giving you more access to print publications than writers ever had prior to the modern Internet. If you write short stories, somewhere there are markets for your work.

The hardest part can be finding the right market for your work. Fortunately, I've included my personal favorite links near the bottom in the link list. These should connect you to hundreds or even thousands of different online and print markets that publish fiction, poetry, and non-fiction of all kind. Even better, you can search some of these sites by genre and pay scale, helping to guarantee you that you find exactly the style of journal that you're looking for.

Some people think the online proliferation of journals and the Internet has made it harder for writers to find markets for their writing and succeed, but I've found from experience that the opposite was true. Ten years ago unless you were starting your own experimental journal or had a novel length work of genius, there was nowhere for a young writer to find a market for say magical realism. The last time I looked at my favorite site, I had nearly 15 choices. It doesn't get much more sub-genre niche than that, and authors who write more "normal" stuff than mine can do even better.

Researching and finding paying markets is just one part of learning how to become a writer.

If you're searching high and low for the perfect places to send your short stories, then I strongly recommend looking up the good folks at Duotrope.com, who have put together the best writers' resource on the web. This is my favorite website to search when I'm looking for markets, and is in fact my favorite resource for writers as a whole!

This website allows you to search for markets based on:

• Pay scale
• Genre of submission
• Length of stories allowed
• Media (print or electronic or both)
• Themes
• Awards won
• Keywords

This wide range of choices makes it possible to do some amazing things, and is a great resource. For example, if I write a 35,000 word novella that is some cross between experimental surrealism and magical realism, I can use that information to instantly search through the thousands of journals listed and get every possible place to send my story that might actually accept it. It used to be this could take hours of research, and since the genre is so unusual and split aside, there was a very good chance that it could have even taken an entire day to get some information.

Instead I type the information in, and BOOM, there it is. You can check the page out for yourself here: http://www.duotrope.com/

If you find it useful, seriously think about giving a small donation. Based alone on the time you save, it's worth it, and they're often seriously under-funded. Don't let the best writer's resource on the web fold...or go to paid membership!

By now if you've checked out many of the resources I've recommended then this is probably redundant, but I hope that this hub has answered the questions of:

• Where are the markets where I can sell my short stories?
• Are there markets for beginning creative writers and where can I find them?
• What are the best resources for finding markets for creative writing?

Aside from the good links I've added on this page to help out beginning and established writers alike. As for print books, it's really hard to argue with The Writer's Market. They're not nicknamed "The Writer's Bible" for nothing. Between that and these online pages, you would be amazed at the sheer number of markets that actually exist for creative writing, and while many of them are free or only pay in contributor's copies, there are many markets that do pay for creative work, even if you have to start at a pittance and work your way up.

There are markets for everything, and there are many online magazines that have larger reader bases than many of the print journals released by universities. If you tend to write experimental work, the new online age could especially be a boon to get your work and your name out there.

So start sending out those manuscripts, and drop in time to time to let me know about your success stories!