You submit to different establishments depending on what you're writing. In your case it's usually magazines. In my case it would ultimately hopefully be a publishing house. The big five would be people like Penguin, HarperCollins, Random House etc, but there are others of course. I believe @deadrats went the route you mentioned: short stories first and then novel and she's got someone interested thanks to editors already knowing her work through the short stories. I don't know what happened beyond the interest, if she decided to submit her book or not. But anyway, normally the way you go about it is simply, write a novel, and then you start querying literary agents. That's when you write a query letter, which consists of up to around 200 words summarising the main plot of your book, then maybe another 100 words or so that consists of technical details such as genre and word count, and a little one-line biography esp if you have any relevant writing credentials (I'm guessing having had a number of short stories published in reputable magazines would fall under this) and it's advised that there should be some personalisation for the particular agent you're writing to (why are you querying this particular agent?). If the agent likes the query and sample you've sent as per their guidelines, they'll request a "full" (full manuscript). If they like the full manuscript, then they'll sign you as their client. From this point on, they will try and sell your manuscript to publishing houses. If a publisher takes the book, then the agent gets paid a commission. An agent is the author's advocate, who should work in the interest of the author and negotiate a publishing contract for you and basically understand how things work and what's fair etc. So that's how you go about publishing a novel. Having had short stories published is not a pre-requisite. While it does probably at least help to reassure the agent of your writing quality, having published a short story isn't a guarantee you'd know how to write a novel as pacing and style are different in the two types of writing. So while it certainly can't hurt, I'm not sure how much it'd actually help, if that makes sense? But maybe someone more experienced can chime in because I'm unpublished as yet, so I can't really say how much it'd help or not. However, it's definitely not a pre-requisite If it's a novel you'd rather write, go for it. Again as I don't write short stories, I can't really say to what extent knowing how to write a short would really help you write a novel anyway. ETA: the above pertains to traditional publishing. Self-publishing is different, but then self-publishing applies to short stories too so you probably know how that goes already, since it's just a case of anyone can upload anything onto Amazon.
you don't have to publish short stories first. that's optional. it basically goes like this: you write a novel. you revise the novel. you get some people you trust to read it and tell you honestly if it's any good. if the answer is no, shelve it and write something different (there's plenty of time, it's not a race, etc.) Then you get to choose your path. Path A - once you write the novel you think is ready, you have to do the hardest writing you've ever done: you need to write a query letter and a synopsis of your novel. once you have those, you can research literary agents and start (slowly!) querying your novel to your researched list of agents you'd like to work with. if all goes well, you'll get an agent because your book is brilliant. if you exhaust your list of agents, shelve it and write something different (this sucks, but it's okay. there's plenty of time, it's not a race, etc.) yes, there are publishers you can submit to directly. however, these publishers are often not terribly stable financially, so I avoided them. Path B - once you write the novel you think is ready, you have to do the hardest writing you've ever done: you need to write a query letter and a synopsis of your novel. once you have those, you can research professional freelance editors and pay them to do a developmental edit of your book. you also need to research professional cover designers and pay them to do a cover for your book. you also want to research professional copy editors and pay them to do a copy edit of your book. you can also hire proof-readers and format/layout designers. costs on these services vary. upload your book to the usual self publishing places - you can choose to go all in with Kindle or you can "go wide" on multiple platforms. both are valid. market the hell out of your work while writing the next one.
