By Shannon Lawrence
The short story world can be an emotional roller coaster,
but it’s a fun, creative, and empowering experience in many ways. The hardest
part can be overcoming the fear of submitting, which is more about the fear of
judgment and rejection. Here’s the thing, though: a rejection is just a polite
email saying the story doesn’t work for that particular publication. It’s not a
personal judgment and has nothing to do with you as a person. It usually isn’t
even about your story. Often, a story gets rejected because it doesn’t fit with
that publication or a theme that has formed among the accepted stories. Even if
the editor doesn’t like this story, that’s a matter of personal taste. Someone
else will like it. There’s no reason to keep that story from the people who don’t
even know they want it yet, so submit that puppy!
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| Fountain Pen Writing (Literacy), by Peter Milosevic, Wikimedia Commons |
Once you get over the fear or discomfort involved with submitting, there’s the matter of figuring out where to submit the stories you’ve written.
Here are a few ways to get started:
- 1. Submit to publications you already read and enjoy. Their websites will have submission guidelines.
- 2. Use an online resource, such as Duotrope (annual fee) or Submission Grinder (free). These sites allow you to plug in information like story length and genre, then return publications matching those criteria and open for submissions.
- 3. Join groups on Facebook that are specifically about open markets for short stories. There are some that are general, while others are genre specific.
- 4. Check out “best of” anthologies to see where those stories were published in the first place.
- 5. Look at where short story authors you like are getting published and review the guidelines.
- 6. Subscribe to blogs or newsletters where they announce markets open for submissions.
After choosing a market (a magazine or anthology), the next
step is to check their submission guidelines and determine that A. your story
fits what they publish, and B. your story is formatted correctly to their
specifications. If these are a go, check the guidelines again to see how they
expect stories to be submitted. This may be via an email or through a
submission portal. It’s far rarer, but some publications still take mailed
submissions. Ensure you observe all their submission guidelines throughout the
process, as different publications have varying requirements and stories not
meeting those requirements may be rejected without having been read.
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| Android Email 8.1 Icon, Google, Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain) |
Now submit! But don’t just wait to hear back. Instead, get that next story written and submitted. Much success to you!
Have you ever submitted a short story? How did it go? Do
you have any short stories waiting for submission? What’s holding you back from
submitting?
A fan of all things fantastical and frightening, Shannon Lawrence writes primarily horror and fantasy. Her stories can be found in over forty anthologies and magazines, and her three solo horror short story collections and her nonfiction title, The Business of Short Stories, are available now. You can also find her as a co-host of the podcast Mysteries, Monsters, & Mayhem. When she's not writing, she's hiking through the wilds of Colorado and photographing her magnificent surroundings, where, coincidentally, there's always a place to hide a body or birth a monster. Find her at www.thewarriormuse.com.
