Eliza Stopps has been a good friend of mine for a while now. She started as a proofreading client, and we have evolved into good friends, who love to collaborate on stuff.
You can see our latest collab here, where we created a brand new character together, and Eliza wrote a short novella based on our character.
You can also find the 20 questions we used, and get a checklist for your own creative writing projects, on that blog post.
Fast forward to now, and not only do we collaborate on several projects, but we also trade guest posts.
You can find mine on Eliza’s blog here, all about how I became a book editor, and how you can too. I had a ton of fun writing the post for her, and I know she had just as much fun writing this one.
So, without further ado, check out Eliza’s post on How to Publish Your Short Stories.
How to Get Your Short Stories Published
Guest Post by Eliza Stopps
Many authors start writing short stories long before they ever tackle their first novel. Short stories offer dramatic glimpses or snapshots into a story, a character’s motivation, and give writers a good starting point for working on their craft.
Short stories are structured similarly to novels. They have a beginning, a middle (climax), and an end. They are interesting and often provocative.
If you are an author who has written short stories (or many of them,) you might be wondering if it is worth it to get it published. Can you submit short stories to publications? What about self-publishing?
In this blog post, I’m going to share my experience with publishing short stories and how you can too!
Traditional Publishing
Submitting short stories to traditional publications is very similar to submitting novels. The major differences are that you are generally paid much less for a short story (if at all).
You might send the entire story with your query (instead of the first three chapters), and you will be submitting to magazines or anthology collections rather than book-exclusive publishers.
A good starting point for submitting novels is to look on submittable.com. There are thousands of open submissions from universities, smaller publishers, and magazines that are looking for short stories and poetry.
I have published numerous poems and articles with publications that I found on submittable. My biggest tip with them is to take your time writing individualized query letters (instead of one blanket submission that you send out to everyone).
Don’t bother with any publication that charges a reading fee. If they have to charge you to read your work, they won’t be paying you when it’s published either.
I found Wild Ink Press through Twitter, where they had posted an open call for submissions for their anthology. My middle grade fantasy short story, Adventures of Barnaby and Clovis, is being published in an anthology of theirs.
I submitted this story to their acquisition’s editor via email, which I obtained from their website. I included the story, a short query letter, and information on where to reach me.
Self-Publishing
There definitely a market for self-published short stories. There is generally not a size restriction for eBooks, so you can publish a book of poetry, a 10,000-word short story, or a novel via Amazon’s KDP service or any other publishing aggregate.
You still need a book cover and editor before you self-publish your short stories. Many editors will take shorter works (like Pamela!) and it is often less expensive than the fee for editing a novel.
I have known authors that have published paperbacks of short stories (70 pages and less) without much issue. You can’t have the book title and author name on the spine if the book is too short, and there is a limit on how small the book can be.
If you are publishing very short stories, you might consider publishing them together instead of individually.
You can choose to self-publish a story individually or in an anthology that you create yourself. When I first published a paperback version of my novellas in The Leslie Kim Serials, I published a paperback collection of the first 4 books in the series together as an Omnibus.
Later, I created paperback versions of the individual novellas, even though they were between 100-150 pages, because I found that books in that middle range are still nice to have as paperbacks.
With eBooks, you can publish books of any size as long as it still meets the requirements for publications. Just be sure to mention that it is a short story in the description so that readers aren’t disappointed when they purchase it!
You might also consider publishing your short stories on Amazon’s Kindle Vella. I have had a lot of success with this platform and I think it is a great outlet for shorter works (as well as longer ones!)
You could publish each short story as its own episode, or publish 10 installments of your 10,000 word story. After your story has been on the platform for at least 30 days, you can also publish the work elsewhere.
Good luck in finding the perfect way to publish your short story!
Eliza Stopps is the author of 2 young adult novels in the Paige Parker Mysteries series and 5 novellas in The Leslie Kim Serials.
Her middle grade short story, Adventures of Barnaby and Clovis, is being published by Wild Ink Press in the summer of 2022. You can find Eliza on social media and on her website, where she shares book reviews and author tips!
When Eliza is not writing, you can find her teaching her horse new tricks, growing a vast assortment of vegetables in her garden, or designing clothes for her merch line, so she’ll always have something to wear.
Ok, so there you have it. Tips and tricks on how to publish a short story. I hope you enjoyed it! Leave a comment below with your thoughts, or if you have anything else to add!
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Until next time friends!
Pamela has been a reader her whole life. She specializes in indie and self-published books, and dreams of a community where authors can feel supported and encouraged. Because of this, her editing services are priced specifically with self-published author budgets in mind.
She also loves connecting other readers with hidden gems from the indie community through book reviews and showcases authors through her podcast and “Meet the Author” blog series. Her book-inspired gift shop is an amazing place to find book inspired candles, book gift sets, and other amazing items.
When Pamela is not working on The Picky Bookworm, you can find her hanging with her friends on Twitter, pinning amazing pins on Pinterest, reading, spending time with her husband, or playing with her cats Simon and Glenn. Sometimes all at the same time.
