Publishing Short Fiction…12 Markets to Get You Started

Can you sell short fiction today?

Many novelists begin their careers writing short fiction. Today, there are few mainstream markets for short fiction, but if you search you can find them, and if you look really hard, you can find some that pay decently and offer you a good deal of exposure.

What kinds of magazines are out there?

The best place to publish short fiction is in magazines like The New Yorker or The Saturday Evening Post. However, The New Yorker only takes agented fiction, while The Saturday Evening Post says, "we seldom publish new fiction."

If you want decent pay and exposure, try a literary magazine. Usually affiliated with a college or university, the competition for publication in literary review is tight and fierce. Literary magazines don't usually consider genre fiction but will sometimes consider experimental short stories. Having the right literary magazine on your resume can boost your reputation significantly in the eyes of agents and publishers.

Science fiction/fantasy and mystery magazines are some of the more popular genre magazines. Ellery Queen, Alfred Hitchcock and Asimov's Science Fiction have long histories in publishing short fiction. Like publishing in the right literary review, publishing in these magazines tells the genre industry that you've got what it takes.

The number of fiction/literary magazines on the Internet has grown over the last several years. Some are building reputations for excellence too. However, pay is often nominal or nothing at all. And most print publications recognize e-publications and will not accept work that has been published online. So if you decide to publish online, make sure it is the best spot for your story because you may not be able to sell it elsewhere.

Do you know what comes next?

That's right - I have a list of a dozen short fiction markets for you. First, I found a new resource for market searches: Duotrope's Digest. Duotrope's Digest is a database of over 2200 fiction and poetry markets. It is free to search and it has a submission tracker and other free services for those who sign up. The staff updates the database throughout the day so it is probably one of the most current databases available.

The markets below seek short fiction among other things. Click the titles to go to the guidelines, unless noted.

108 - seeks original fiction that is directly related to baseball, its history, culture, society connections.
The Afternoon Reading Broadcast - This is a BBC radio program, featured five days a week, stories should be strong on narrative, one story per writer.
The American Scholar - NO unsolicited fiction manuscripts, query with publishing history.
The Bear Deluxe - website takes you to the parent company site, click magazine title, then submissions for full guidelines.
BRAND - British magazine, NO excerpts, next deadline: end of September.
Georgia Review - considers new, unpublished writers, NO novel excerpts or translations, submit between August 15-May 15 ONLY.

Great Western Fiction - seeks unpublished stories set in the American West before 1914, NO submissions until October.
Lyrical Ballads - a monthly e-zine, seeks "emotional" fiction, "make the reader feel something - anything at all."
The Saturday Evening Post - seeks humorous fiction.
Tesseracts Thirteen - an anthology of dark fantasy and horror, "open to Canadians, landed immigrants, long-time residents, and expatriates."
Zoetrope: All-Story - submit one story at a time/two stories a year, NO submissions between September 1-December 31, has a short fiction contest.
ZYZZVA - US West Coast writers ONLY, NO e-submissions, especially seeking translations from Latin American and Asian writers.