writing short stories is one thing
getting them published is another do you
need an agent previous publications
we're going to talk about all of that in
this video
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hi i'm megan i'm a professional writer
published author and writing coach and i
love helping frustrated writers hone
their process so they can finish their
projects and meet their goals
i recently had a short story published
so i wanted to give you a few tips on
what to do if you're looking to get
published too the market for short
stories is actually pretty strong i
would say and there are a few reasons
why i prefer it to the novel market
first you do not need an agent to get a
short story published which is a big win
second you don't need any prior
publications to get your short story
picked up i think it probably helps to
have a few publications under your belt
but that being said you really don't
need it in order to get published which
is awesome your story just needs to be
good and it needs to be the right fit
for the publication you're sending it to
think of it kind of like you're sending
your story out on a job application you
want to make sure you're applying your
story to jobs publications that it's
well suited for
third there are hundreds if not
thousands of options on where to submit
your story whether it's a contest or a
magazine or independent press big name
press the list goes on and on which
brings us to where to find presses and
magazines and contests to submit to so
if you're anything like me maybe you
started out looking for local presses
and local magazines or just google
searching open submissions for romantic
stories or horror fiction or whatnot
that'll take you down a lot of rabbit
trails and it's really time consuming
but there are a few submission platforms
you can use that make the process a lot
easier the main one i'm going to be
talking about today is submittable but
i'll touch a little bit on duotrope as
well so here's what you see when you
first log into submittable you won't
have anything there under my submissions
if you haven't used it before at the top
you'll see submissions discover saved
and following those basically show where
you're going to find your submissions
where you're going to discover open
submissions you can submit to where to
find the presses or the contests that
you've saved
or
where you're going to find the ones that
you're following so here you'll see my
submission some have been declined that
one was withdrawn in the middle because
my story got
picked up elsewhere
so if we go over here to discover
so here's where you'll see all the open
submissions whether they have no
deadlines or deadlines
on the left hand side you see when
they're due so these are usually short
story or fiction contests
and then over here you'll see kind of
the title of the submission maybe a
short description
so if we click on one of these we see a
little bit more information about what
they're looking for
the contest winnings um the different
types of stories that they're accepting
and when they're due you see up here
submit and save
you click out of that if you go up here
to the search bar this is where you'll
be doing the work of narrowing down
who to send it to so you'll see
different kinds of genres different
kinds of keywords and topics you can
click on to narrow down your search
let's click on short story
maybe i'll add a couple more tags like
fiction
maybe i'll add another one
contest you know you can add a whole
bunch you can type in your own
and then it'll give you a list of oh
well that one didn't have anything
so let's get rid of one of those there
we go okay so now you can see all of the
short story fiction contests that are
open so let's click on one of these
so you can click on
the press up here the name and say visit
website and this is where you'll get a
sense of okay what are these guys about
what kinds of things do they publish and
you can maybe even read part of their
catalog
okay and then let's click out of there
and that's pretty much the gist of
submittable when you are looking for
presses to submit to
so let's see what it looks like when you
go to submit a story so i'll click on
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this one and then you go up here and you
click submit
then it takes you kind of the form that
you'll fill out to submit your story so
it's really user friendly you can read a
little bit more about the contest again
always make sure to note if they charge
you a fee this one is 14
so you know be ready for that
most of them do
you fill in your first and last name the
type of fiction
or story you're submitting and then this
one asks for a bio and that's where you
upload your story you can also get
feedback from the editor i really like
doing that but it is more expensive so i
don't usually opt for that but it's a
nice feature
and then you submit at the bottom or you
can save it as a draft
let's take a look at one more
so down here you'll see kind of a
similar
outline they ask for a title on this one
and the cover letter so we will get to
that later but some ask for a bio some
will ask for a cover letter and then
similarly you choose a file
this one doesn't ask doesn't have the
editing option and then you go to your
payment method
so that's submittable it has a really
user-friendly interface and makes
finding places to submit so much easier
i love using it and as far as i know
it's completely free so get on there
make an account and have at it
now let's talk a little bit about
duotrope okay so duotrope is where my
story got picked up and it's really
similar to submittable but it's not free
unfortunately it kind of stinks they
have a membership requirement they do
have a free trial but once you use your
free trial it's i think five dollars a
month or 50 bucks a year in order to
become a member which isn't too bad but
it's up to you so unfortunately i can't
show you what the portal looks like
anymore but it is very similar to
submittable i found my publisher again
by kind of using the filters i think i
searched for short fiction literary
fiction and then i think i also filtered
it through certain themes like grieving
florida
things like that because that's what my
story kind of
was about all right so now you know how
to find the publishers but how do you
pick one that's perfect for your story
a lot of writers will tell you and there
is some merit to this i think but a lot
of writers will tell you to read through
a bunch of publications you should be
really familiar with the press and the
kinds of things that they publish
and i agree to some extent like it's
it's kind of like applying for a job but
you didn't read anything about the job
description or the company
it doesn't look the greatest right you
don't really know
whether you're a good fit so the same
thing kind of goes for your story like
if you're just blindly throwing your
story out there to publishers
it's kind of a waste of your time and
theirs because your story just may not
be a good fit for them
but i think when you're first starting
out it can be really overwhelming to
think okay before i submit i have to
spend hours and hours or hundreds of
dollars buying these subscriptions that
i can read through past issues so i can
get a sense of whether my story is a
similar style and i know for me that
stopped me from submitting for a while
because i was like i just i just don't
have the time to do that right now so
what i did was through using submittable
and duo trope i found certain publishers
that i thought okay this they're looking
for stories that are similar to mine let
me look into their press a little bit
more
and so i'd go to their website and i'd
read through what they're all about and
the kinds of stories they published and
that gave me a sense of okay i think my
story could fit in here pretty well so
while i think it's important to read
publications from the presses that
you're looking into i think that kind of
understanding of who takes what kind of
work builds up over time
so just do a little bit here a little
bit there and before you know it you'll
have kind of a mental backlog of where
you could submit certain types of
stories
okay so we've looked at how to use a
platform like submittable to submit your
story but i haven't touched on a key
part of the process which is writing a
cover letter or bio i actually took a
course at ucla extension that was
extremely helpful with this so i'm going
to tell you what i learned through that
course this is not a job application
cover letter it's not your college
admissions essay it's not a
full resume about your life it's one to
two paragraphs max giving
just enough information for the
publisher to get a sense of what your
story is about who you are and then move
on so you want no fluff just the basics
and here are some things that you can
include
one to two lines on what you're
submitting include your story's name and
a brief hint at its theme
one line about your educational
background if you studied english or
creative writing or another related
field if you studied engineering and
it's not pertinent to your story or
anything else don't put it in is they
don't need to know
one line about your work background
again if it's related for instance you
work as a copywriter or you work for a
publishing house or you work as an
editor or maybe if you're writing a
story about engineers and you're
submitting it to a press that only
publishes stories about engineers and
you work as an engineer then it would be
related
you'll also and this is key you'll also
want to let them know if you're
submitting your story to other places
this is called a simultaneous submission
it's good to let them know it's
considered good manners because then
they know that
it might be picked up somewhere else
then if you've been published before
definitely include that very briefly you
don't need to go into a whole
description about the things you've
published and where and how long they
were and how successful they were but if
you've won any awards or been published
definitely include that then of course
make sure you thank them somewhere in
the letter and sign off and that's it so
here's the letter i used when i
submitted my short story so i'm going to
go in here and click on my previous
submission
scroll it on down and you'll see the
letter that i wrote to them so it's dear
florida review editors thank you for
considering my short story lightning on
the lake for your upcoming issue it
describes an unorthodox way of dealing
with grief set during a stormy florida
summer this is a simultaneous submission
and i will notify you if the story is
accepted for publication elsewhere i
have a bachelor of arts in english from
the university of toronto and enjoy
writing work revolving around grief
transitions and experiences of
transcendence thank you again for your
consideration sincerely megan maclean so
you'll notice that okay i start
obviously by saying dear florida review
editors i don't know
who the exact editor is he'll be reading
it so it's okay to just use a general
introduction a general salutation
then i'm going to thank you immediately
thank you for considering my short story
i'm able to put the title in and then i
give one very brief sentence that kind
of sums up what my story is about then i
say this is a simultaneous submission
again really important to let them know
that i'm submitting it elsewhere and
we'll let them know if it's accepted
i added in my degree because it's a
relevant degree i studied english and i
added in my school because it's a good
school
and then one little tidbit about me that
kind of pertains to the stories things
that i like to write about maybe they're
interested in that
i thank them again and i sign off and
that's it so that's a submission cover
letter but what about a bio
for bios i say similarly keep it simple
and make sure you write it in the third
person you can include your education
your work background any accolades or
publications as well and then toss in a
few personal tidbits that connect you to
the story or add a little humor or
personality to it so here's the one that
i used for the anthology i was published
in
so you'll see i included my background
my work history and a few personal
details that kind of connected me to my
story you know i run a lot i'm from
florida my only frustration with this
bio is that i said it was my fiction
debut when technically i've had a poem
published before but i guess that's
that's
poetry
is that
that's separate from fiction right i
think it's fine all right whatever so
overall tip for bios keep it simple and
straightforward don't add adjectives or
your own interpretation of your work or
your history like you know megan writes
flowing prose that drips off the page
like drops of honey onto our eyes as we
read it like
don't do that
don't do that
okay so there you go a little walk
through on how to submit a short story i
was really excited that i implemented
the things that i learned and it worked
so i hope you can glean a little bit of
insight from my experience too you
should be able to navigate a submission
platform narrow down who to submit to
and write a killer cover letter my final
tip is to make sure you're sending in
the very best draft i think i worked on
about seven drafts of my story and i had
anywhere from three to five people i
think read it so make sure you're
sending a polished piece of writing
because that will better your odds of
getting it picked up if you have any
other questions about things that i did
what happens after your story gets
selected or anything else about
publishing a short story leave me a
comment below and we can talk about it
as always if you want more tips on how
to hone your process so you can meet
your writing goals hit the subscribe
button and i'll see you next time bye
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