How to Publish Short Stories

Short stories may be a little more difficult to place than a longer story because of the lack of publishers that use them. There are, however, a more varied market to publish short stories, as these items can be pitched to several sources besides book publishers.

Instructions

1. Use the Writer's Market, the Novel and Short Story writer's Market or another comprehensive publishing market guide to find the publishers that print short stories. Look at the genres of short stories that each publisher uses in order to find one that could print your short stories.

2. Find collections of short stories and take a look at the companies which published them. Look for collections that are similar to the topic you plan to market.

3. Look for magazines that publish fiction in your genre. Read the submission requirements, which are usually printed in the magazine. Submit items just as described in the guidelines, including formatting and length.

4. Search for the literary journals that have small circulations but are prestigious to be published in. Call any colleges in the area to see if they publish a literary journal with short stories, which many colleges publish and circulate to the public.

5. Get published online on one of the many websites that publish fiction. Use websites to publish your short stories, but don't expect payment for fiction published online unless you choose to make the story an ebook. Go to a third party ebook publishing site to have your story published and sell downloads of the story.