How to Sell a Short Story

Most new writers start with the short story. It’s a lot easier to write 10 or 15 pages than it is to write an entire novel. Short stories are a good way to practice the craft. It’s also easier to get stories published. There are hundreds upon hundreds of venues that publish short stories--you just have to know where to start.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Short Story
• Internet access
• Envelopes

1. Write and rewrite your story until it’s as good as you can get it. Raymond Carver went through 40 or more revisions on a story. No reason you shouldn’t as well. Bad spelling or grammatical mistakes are a sure sign of an amateur story.
2. Determine if you’d like to be published in print or online. Some print literary magazine will have an online counterpart, but you need to make clear that you only want to be part of the print wing, or vice versa.
3. Read a few stories of the magazines where you’ll be submitting. If you’re story is entirely inappropriate, don’t waste the postage, or even an email. For instance, a science fiction story might not even be read by a non-genre-based magazine. Keep reading litmags on and offline to discover new venues.
4. Write a good, concise cover letter: include a short amount of biographical information, past publication credits, and a short synopsis. However, check each mag’s guidelines: some magazines will expressly ask that you don’t include what you’ve published in the past or any biographical info.
5. Submit to a fair number of magazines: 20 or even more. A number of print litmags have web submissions—much cheaper and convenient than using the mail.
6. If submitting through the mail, always include an SASE. This will be a requirement 99 percent of the time. If you don’t, you may never hear back.
7. Finally, be realistic. You might have your heart set on the New Yorker, but it’s a long shot.

Tips & Warnings

• If one story isn’t published, keep writing. The key to a successful writing career is perseverance.
• If a story is rejected, pay attention to any criticisms, especially if they’re similar from a number of different magazines. Rewrite the story and resubmit to new magazines or use the critiques for your next story.
• Don’t let rejection get you down. Rejection is inevitable: for everyone. So long as you’re prepared for some amount of rejection, it will hurt less.