Short Stories: Places to Publish

I’ve been reading more and more posts about the all-important query letter, fishing for representation from agents, and publishing.  Currently, I’ve drafted a book (Wastelander: The Drake Legacy).  I’m also working on a corresponding novella.  With all this considered, I really don’t have much else in the way of a fiction writing resume.

I wouldn’t go to a job interview without first preparing my resume, so why should I attempt to gain representation from an agent without beefing up a similar writing resume?  Right now my resume would consist of, well, nothing.  I can’t count the single novel and novella because they aren’t published.  They are the unproven products I want to get representation for and publish.

When you look at it this way, my resume is pretty weak.  After all, I think it’s fair to assume an agent wants to know if we have a future in writing, or if we are a one-and-done kind of writer.   My assumption is they are looking for repeat work.  I interpret this as, are you readable and prolific enough to make everyone involved money by pumping out work?

 

The problem is that it takes time to draft a book, more to polish it, and potentially longer to start the process of publishing.  If we rely solely on full-blown novels as the basis of our writing portfolios, then we are working on resumes that are years in the making.  In the meantime, we may be writing books very few people will stumble upon (depending on your Jedi marketing mind powers).

Potential solutions include (1) self-publish first book and novella, (2) write two or three books in the series prior to seeking representation, (3) say, “screw it,” and try to gain representation with current work, (4) roll myself into a ball and cry while rocking, and (5) publish a few short stories to bolster writing resume.

This post focuses on the short story option.  Specifically, finding legitimate publications to publish in.  If successful, the agent would have more than just a single example of what we can do.  Even better, the stories would be published examples by places that presumably value quality within our genres.

In researching the how and where, I came across a few sources of information I thought might be useful to share.

The first is a website is called, Let’s Write a Short Story.  They wrote an article called, 46 Literary Magazines to Submit To.  This reference article lists outlets to submit to, provides hyperlinks to those websites, and breaks the list down into genre’s.

Another comes from the website, The Write Life.  The article I found most useful was, Where to Submit Short Stories: 25 Magazines and Websites That Want Your Work (that’s a long title).  While this list is a little shorter than the previous one, what I like about it is they provide a snippet about each, potential pay for works submitted, as well as rough estimates for word counts.

The Los Angeles Writers Group offers a more current listing: Nine Places to Submit Your Short Stories Right Now.  This one includes places to post poetry, as well as fiction.  I also like that they provide extra information regarding posting requirements.

According to these websites, there are more than 4000 places to publish short stories.  Happy hunting.  It should be noted this post is reblog.  Since this post was generated, some excellent folks have listed more great resources for you to check out!

Kernerangelina (Where Dragons Reside) offered the following:

http://www.publishersweekly.com/
http://spawn.org/
http://www.bookmarketingworks.com/
http://www.publishedauthors.org/
http://www.writerspace.com/
http://pred-ed.com/pealc.ht

Philcharlesr (Phil Charles R) provided these gems:

http://www.forgelitmag.com/
http://www.inkshares.com

Have any of you published short stories?  If so, where?  I’d love to hear about it and add to our collective information.  Give this amateur yarn spinner some tips!  Until tomorrow, keep reading, keep writing, and as always – stay sharp!