I was thinking of submitting a short story to a magazine for publishing. Anyone know how this works? Any tips you can give me? I'm not expecting to get into Reader's Digest, instead I was wondering how I would go about finding other types of magazines that publish short stories and would odds be good of publishing or should I focus on writing a novel to be published?
The best thing to do is to find the right market for your short fiction. This can be done by going to sites such as metnioned by Banzai (Duotrope). Then, looking at the guidelines and also, if possible, some samples of what the magazine/ezine publishes. On my website, a list of market search sites (about a dozen) that you could use: ervin-author.com Markets Search Sites page. The odds of publishing, the competition generally gets stiffer the higher paying (and exposure) the magazine/ezine submitted to. It is hard to tell if you should focus on short fiction or novels. It depends on the stories you have to tell and your writing goals. Good luck. Terry
Thanks guys... the duotrope website was very useful, but I was thinking about (and give me your personal input, just give it to me.) getting my short story printed into a paperback book from a printing company. Now before you start ragging me about "self-publishing," this is not what I am intending to do. I was going to get around 35-50 prints of my short story, I have a friend graphic designer friend who will design the front cover (nothing special) and then from there I wanted to place those books for sale on Amazon.com under a nomdeplum name. I have got a price for my short story: around $150-$200 bucks. Thats for 50 books, shipping and tax included. My goal is to not self publish, although what if it was a hit, I doubt it, but I just want to see if people buy the book and if they leave a comment. I will sale the books, before tax: $4.00. I will be breaking even at best, but thats not my goal really. So, what are your guys opinion on this? Should I try and just publish the short story? Its a 20,000+ short, so I am looking at 75-85 pages, please give me some input.
What you have is not a short story, but a novelette or novella (depending on what source you use). Also, although you may not be intending to self-publish, what you describe is self-publishing. If not, what do you think what you described is? If you submit the story to markets (magazines/ezines/anthologies) and manage to get the story published, then folks will read it and, depending on the venue it was published in, receive comments and input from readers. Other than folks you know and tell, if you self-publish the book, who would know about it...buy it? The odds of anyone randomly stumbling across it online are small, and then purchasing is are even smaller. You could do promotion and all that...but I digress. As I read your post, it sounds as if you want to self-publish the novella, deep down hoping it sells well and you can expand upon its success, but if it doesn't do anything, well, your real name is not attached. Even if it sells only a few copies, it's not a big investment and you might garner a reader comment or some sort of recognition, at least via the name you self-published under. Just a few quick questions/comments for you to consider. Terry
Sounds to me like self publishing...although there's nothing wrong with that. My dentist told me last week that his son published a book and I checked it out online. It was self published but its apparently a fairly big success. I mean your not going to be going on tour or having people lined out the door for your autograph but so what? If it's something you want to do that gives you a sense of accomplishment why not? Plus I mean you never know right? What's it about?
shane... all that is IS 'self-publishing'... the only way for it not to be, would be if you got a traditional ['real'] publisher to pay you to put your work into book form, instead of you paying a printer or whoever to have that done... and, as noted by others above, the chances of you selling any of your books to anyone but friends or family are slim to none... and, if it matters to you, doing that will not make you a 'published author'... as for having it published in a magazine, it's way too long for any to take on... so, it would seem to me, your best chances of getting really 'published' do rest with writing a full-sized novel and submitting it to paying publishers...
