Literary Reviews and Selling Your Short Fiction

Where can you sell an individual short story these days?

The short fiction market is getting smaller and smaller. Yes, there's The New Yorker and various genre fiction magazines, but many consumer magazines, like Redbook, have dropped their short fiction feature. Others will only consider work submitted by an agent or solicited directly.

Literary reviews are the last strong-hold for literary and mainstream fiction. These book-sized periodicals house some of the best short fiction written today, which makes them highly competitive. In addition to fiction, the reviews also publish poetry, personal essays, literary articles and critiques, and interviews.

What do the submission guidelines say?

Most publications these days have websites with their submission guidelines available. Although there are some variations, here are some common points:

• Don't send a sloppy manuscript. If the manuscript format is described in the guidelines, abide by it.
• Don't send previously published material, including stories published online.
• Short story length is usually from 3000 words to 9000 words, however the Colorado Review listed below has no specific word count.
• Genre fiction generally is not considered.
• Most have submission or reading periods and will return manuscripts unopened if they arrive outside of the announced submission period.
• Many reviews have themed issues or editorial calendars.
• Often a review will sponsor a contest with one part of the prize being publication. This gives you a second opportunity with the magazine.
• Payment is often on publication and ranges from about $10/printed page to $25/printed page. Smaller reviews sometimes pay a flat honorarium or even offer a free subscription in lieu of payment.

Why should you try to publish in a literary review?

Because they are so competitive, getting a short story published in some literary reviews can boost your writing career in ways that other magazines can't. For instance, the literary reputations of Threepenny Review, Ploughshares or Prairie Schooner (all listed below) means that publishing a story with them is like having a billboard on Times Square. Your work will get noticed and appreciated by professionals in the publishing industry. When an agent or editor sees it on your bio when you submit your novel, they will know your writing potential before turning the first page.

Here are some literary reviews to check out for your next short story: click the name to go to the guidelines page.

African American Review - will also consider critical essays on African American fine arts and culture, book reviews and bibliographies.
Arts & Letters - will also consider poetry, dramatic works, and creative nonfiction.
The Bellingham Review - will also consider poetry and essays.
The Chattahoochee Review - will also consider poetry, nonfiction, interviews, and reviews.
Colorado Review - will also consider poetry, personal essays and queries regarding book reviews.
Glimmer Train - considers only short fiction stories.
Iowa Review - will also consider poetry, essays and reviews.
Mid-American Review - will also consider nonfiction, translations, poetry and book reviews.
Oyez Review - will also consider creative nonfiction, art and poetry.
The Paris Review - (based in NYC) will also consider nonfiction and poetry.
Ploughshares - will also consider poetry and "a limited amount of nonfiction."
Prairie Schooner - will also consider poetry, interviews, general interest essays, and reviews of fiction or poetry books.
The Southern Review - will also consider poetry and novel excerpts.
Threepenny Review - will also consider poetry, articles, and reviews.
The Virginia Quarterly Review - will also consider poetry, nonfiction, travel essays, criticism and analysis pieces.