Tips On How To Get Your Short Story Published - Writing Advice
I want to start by saying do not do this for the money. I cannot stress this enough. It is very difficult to get something published, it can take lot of time, between editing and writing, to have something that is worth publishing and when you submit, it can be weeks, if not moths, before you get a response. That being said, if you are a glutton for punishment like all writers are and choose to get something published, here is some advice that might help.
The biggest tip I have is to use submission grinder (https://thegrinder.diabolicalplots.com/). This site is great to find out what places are accepting story submissions. You can see what the site will pay, how often they have accepted stories and the average wait time you can expect when you submit. The biggest use of the site is for science fiction writers as those seem to be the highest volume of publications that it houses. It will also tell you about the publication and what they are looking for, which is important to follow if you want to get published.
Send you stories to the places that will want them. A romance publication does not care about your scifi western. Sure it might be awesome and technically there is a relationship is in between a cowboy and an alien but unless that is the focus of the story, don't bother. Most of the sites will give you a description of the kind of story they are looking and some will give examples of authors they like. Maybe it is dark humour, or light and funny, but whatever the market, try to send the right story to the right place.
You also have to consider simultaneous submissions. A place that does not accept simultaneous submissions means that when you send a story to one publication they do not want you to send it to another one until you get a response from there. Considering that some takes weeks to respond, this can slow you down. I recommend just working on the next one. At first this might seem daunting, you spent so much time to get that short story perfect you want to stick with it until it gets published. Maybe it is the best short ever written. But you will still have to wait weeks for it to be read and you will still have a really good chance of it being rejected. So why not work on something else until then. You need to get a flow of steady work going and being submitted, then edited and submitted elsewhere.
And don't fear rejection. It's going to happen. That I can almost guarantee. Get it over with quickly so you know what it feels like. It is this shitty draining feeling. Almost like a sinking. It is not pleasant but once you identify it you can power through it in the future. I find when you know why you feel something and know it is temporary it helps. Just don't take it personally, everyone has their own opinion and maybe your story didn't fit what they were looking for it. Reread it, make it better and try again. Then repeat this a thousand times :p.
Oh and follow the instructions that the site gives you for submitting, including what formatting to use and what to put in the subject line.
*my upvotes/rep disclaimer: https://steemit.com/steemit/@whatageek/my-steemit-account-where-i-stand-on-bots-self-votes-and-multiple-account
Resteemed -- anything that can connect writers with potential markets for their work is extremely helpful. Thanks for sharing the website link that you found, as well as your other tips.
Thank you, maybe someone will read this and get published from one of the sites.
It's true that it's very tough out there, but it's also true that thanks to sites like Patreon and Steemit and others, there are more places to make money with your writing than ever before. I just have to break free from the idea that to be a real writer, I have to have a book contract with a major publisher. I don't, and I may never, but I make solid money every month by writing. It could happen to you.
Sites like steemit really can pay the bills. It all depends on your goals. There are bloggers and even people on steemit who make really good money. Plus you can always write and work on a great novel without any publisher behind you. A great work is a great work.
That's actually something I'm doing, writing a novel where the Steemians pick the path of the plot. We'll see how that goes, but so far so good.