Top 6 Online Resources for Short Story Markets
It is received wisdom that in order to get a book published you should start by placing short stories in literary magazines.
Like most received wisdom, this is easier said than done. Getting a short story placed in any kind of reputable literary magazine is often a Herculean task.
Not only is it difficult to break into the literary magazine scene, it takes forever. Literary magazines are often staffed by unpaid, overworked grad students, who will take a minimum of three months to respond to your submission — if at all. Moreover, their readerships are generally small (1000 subscribers is a lot), their editorial staff quirky, and their requirements absurd. (No simultaneous submissions? Snail mail? Charging to submit?)(I don’t care what their rationale is, those charges really add up.)
So, why bother? For one thing, some people happen to be very good at writing short stories — much better than they are at writing novels. Unlike novels, which allow writers to natter on for hundreds of pages before getting to the point, the short story is an art form that requires fast efficient character development, a plot that moves at the speed of light, and an ending that sticks in your mind like a song you can’t get out of your head. If you can write a good short story, I envy you. Get it published!
Here are the most extensive, and most useful, resources for finding the perfect home for your short story.
Poets & Writers is always my first stop when I am looking for a short story market. Their list is not comprehensive, but P&W includes a great deal of useful information, such as circulation, length of time for a response, genres, representative authors, reading period, whether they accept electronic submissions, or charge a reading fee. (Don’t submit to magazines that charge a fee. They will take your money and run.) Listings are alphabetical, but you can also do a search by genre and subgenre.
These people were not overstating their mission when they called their site Every Writer’s Resource. Not only do they feature articles, blogs, publishers, but oh! the lists! The big list has 2000 literary magazines on it, which is enough to make anyone’s hair fall out. To keep you from going bald, they also narrow the field down to a list of the top 50 literary magazines, university magazines, print magazines that take online submissions (bravo!), and genre-specific magazines (horror, fantasy and sci-fi).
3) New Pages
New Pages keeps a well-organized list with new and featured magazines at the top. Best of all, they include icons of the magazine covers. Magazine covers are just as important as book covers (by which we make ill-informed, yet somehow completely accurate judgments). You don’t want your short story appearing in a magazine that has cover art drawn by the editor’s six-year-old grandson. The short summaries alongside the cover icons provide the essentials that will enable you to make a fast choice.
4) Duotrope (payment required)
When Duotrope was free I used the site daily. Not only does Duotrope include every literary magazine, you can search magazines by genre, whether they take electronic submissions, response time, and acceptance rate. These last two details are extremely important, and because Duotrope’s figures are based on what writers report, they are fairly accurate. The subscription is $5 a month (7-day free trial). (You can access Duotrope’s basic stats for individual magazines by doing a Google search on “duotrope” and the name of the magazine.)
5) The Grinder (free version of Duotrope)
Here you can find a virtual replica of the old Duotrope site — and it’s FREE. We tempest-tossed writers yearning to publish free really do appreciate their generosity. So go to The Grinder, and check it out! I’m going there right now…
The RR offers an extensive review database, in which they provide in-depth reviews of well-known journals as well as interviews with their editors. If you’re seeking publication in lit mags, this resource is indispensable.
Erica Verrillo has published five books. She blogs about the publishing world, posts useful tips on how to get an agent, lists agents who are looking for clients as well as publishers accepting manuscripts directly from writers, explains how to market and promote your work, how to build your online platform, how to get reviews, how to self-publish, and where to find markets for your work on Publishing and Other Forms of Insanity.
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