Writing short stories is a great way of practicing the craft of writing. They are satisfying to write, and they help build your profile as a writer.<\/p>\n
Publishing your work, in addition to being good for the soul, is good for your resume. Having a publishing record will help you down the track with securing both agents and publishers.<\/p>\n
Before we delve into the market, let\u2019s get some preliminaries out of the way:<\/p>\n
This is a common concern for new writers, and an obstacle to sending out work. \u00a0Remember that it is exceedingly rare for publications to steal stories or ideas. It doesn\u2019t make sense, from a business perspective\u2014if they like your story, they will accept it. If they don\u2019t, they won\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Stealing stories or ideas is simply not worth the risk. And while there is always a (very) small chance that someone might steal your idea, the only way to get published is by sending your work out into the big wide world. If you are suspicious, make sure to do your research and confirm that the publisher is legit.<\/p>\n
Magazines or journals and contests are the main markets for short stories. A bit of research will save you a lot of pain in the long run \u2013 make sure the contest or magazine is a good fit for your work before submitting!<\/p>\n
A handy tip is to have more than one short story in circulation at the time. Remember that some contests and magazines do not allow simultaneous submissions. This means that if you submit a story to them, you will have to wait for their reply before you can submit that story to anyone else.<\/p>\n
These make a good place to start. There are many (many!) magazines and journals, both in print and online, which consider short stories and provide new writers with a range of publishing opportunities.\u00a0Here is a handy list<\/a>\u00a0of magazines by country. The magazines and journals to look out for are those who accept unsolicited submissions (which means that anyone can send in their work, even without an agent).<\/p>\n Here are a few important things to bear in mind:<\/p>\n On the legal side, here is a clause on rights taken from The Lifted Brow submission guidelines:<\/p>\n \u201cIf we publish your work, you agree to license to us the first publication rights of the stated work for a period of three months from the date of first publication. You retain permanent copyright of the work. Full license to use your work reverts to you at a period of three months from the initial publication date.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n You should always retain permanent copyright of your work and the full license should revert back to you X many months after the initial publication (so that you can publish the work elsewhere). Never give away the copyright of your work, and always find out when the full license reverts back to you. Be very suspicious of publications that aren\u2019t clear about these details!<\/p>\n There are hundreds of short story contests across the globe. Have a look\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0for a couple of short story contest lists. Generally, contests will charge a small admin fee to enter and will offer cash prizes and\/or publication. Depending on the contest, the publication could be online or in a printed anthology (a collection of stories by various writers).<\/p>\n The top contests offer big cash prizes but are also very competitive. It\u2019s a good idea to start small and work your way to the top. Have a look around for local contests, run by Writers\u2019 Centres, universities, or magazines in your area (or close-ish). Publications like local voices, and this will also provide you with valuable networking opportunities.<\/p>\n Some publishers, like\u00a0The Fiction Desk<\/a>,\u00a0Stringybark Stories<\/a>, and\u00a0Black Inc.<\/a>\u00a0do run regular, themed writing contests. Winning stories are published in their anthologies.<\/p>\n Chose a short story you are happy with and give it a good edit. If possible, get someone to read it and give you some honest feedback. Have a look at the lists of magazines and contests above and choose one that is a good fit for your writing. Then take a deep breath and send it in! Best of luck!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","categories":[36,38,18],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/refiction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles\/489"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/refiction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/refiction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/articles"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refiction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/refiction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refiction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
A Word about Rights<\/h2>\n
Contests<\/h2>\n
What Next?<\/h2>\n