Getting Your Short Fiction Published: The Hard Truth
The short story market is one of the hardest to break into.
There are thousands of well-known writers pumping out short
fiction, and thousands more just like you, struggling to get
themselves published for the first time. But there are several
things you can do to set yourself apart from the rest and start
working your way to the head of the pack.
Attention to Detail
First things first, make sure your manuscript is professional.
Use a plain, 12-point font, times new roman is the norm.
Double-line space the entire manuscript and only left-justify
your text. Use a minimum one inch margin on both sides of the
page, and top and bottom. Put your name, address and contact
number in the top right-hand corner of the coversheet, put your
story's title and your byline in the centre of the page. Rights
being offered should go on the bottom-left corner and
approximate word count on the right. Thereafter, make sure the
first three words of the title and the page number appears in
the page header on the right-hand side. Place your title about
two-thirds of the way down the first page, your byline
immediately underneath, and start your story one double-spaced
line below that.
If this manuscript was for a short story competition you would
normally need to remove the coversheet and delete any
occurrences of your name from the final draft. Though you should
always check the competition's guidelines as some do differ.
If you can submit an error-free, professional-looking document,
you will already have beat out all the dreamers who think
they'll get their story noticed if it's printed on pink paper,
bordered with little stars, or hand-written in old gothic. None
of these strategies will give you an edge; they will only make
you look too eccentric to be worth an editor's trouble.
Choosing a Title
Though an editor may want to change your title, a title can
sometimes make or break your entire submission. Don't alienate
yourself by selecting a title like 'My Dog Rover,' or 'The Story
of My Father.' Instead, go for something mysterious or edgy,
like 'Bark the Dead Down,' or 'The Meanest Old Bastard from Here
to Melbourne.'
Know When to Take Instruction
Get on-line, not just for e-publishing, but for print
publications as well. Find out what your target publishers are
looking for in terms of genre and submission criteria, such as
format and word length. You would be surprised at how many new
writers will attempt to submit a piece that is 3,000 words too
long, or is on a topic completely unrelated to the regular
content of the publication they are attempting to break into. If
you can follow a publisher's submission criteria to the letter
and are sensitive to what their publication is trying to
accomplish, you will find yourself pulling even further ahead of
the other writers.
However, you don't always have to listen to the dictates of
publishers. Many editors will tell you that if you are
submitting a piece to them, do not submit it to any other
publisher at the same time. If they find out they have been
wasting their time on your piece while you've gone with another
publisher, they could blacklist you. Although, authors will tell
you a different story. Rather than having eager publishers
fighting over your work, the truth is that you will probably
submit your story, wait for months to hear from the publisher,
and then get a letter of rejection. Is your time really that
much less valuable than that of an editor? Experienced authors
say submit, submit, submit. Just be sure to keep a list of all
the places you have sent your manuscript so you can withdraw it
if you get lucky.
Writing Competitions
While it may be hard or even impossible for a never-published
author to get their manuscript in front of an editor, one
strategy for breaking in is to enter short fiction contests.
These contests usually come with some prize money and an
opportunity to be published. However, beware of scam contests.
Any contest that says you're a winner and then asks you for
money is a scam. Any contest that says you're a winner but wants
to publish your work without paying you is a scam. Don't be
fooled - research contests as thoroughly as you would a
publisher. A reading or entry fee is pretty much the norm, but
again beware, watch out for high fees in return for small prizes.
Get Tough or Get Out
Being neat, professional, competitive and a contest-winner may
help to put you at the head of the pack, but these do not make
up a never-fail formula for success. The truth is, your stories
are going to be rejected a disappointing number of times. Just
remember that this does not mean your story is bad, and it does
not mean that you will never succeed. It just means that you are
going to have to learn to accept rejection. Some of the greatest
authors in literary history have been able to paper their walls
in rejection slips.
If a rejection contains comments of any kind from an editor, you
know you're on the right track. You made them care enough to
want to teach you something, and this is no small feat. Whatever
an editor has suggested, consider it carefully. Try making some
of these changes and resubmit.
Don't Forget that this is a Job
Like every other stage of the process, this is hard work.
Writing is like any other job, to do it well, you have to work
your butt off, and deal with bosses that are going to give you a
hard time every chance they get. The biggest mistake a new
writer can make is to give up when things stop being easy. As
soon as the creative juices don't seem to be flowing, or they
can't get part of the story just right, they quit. This attitude
is all wrong. Writers that are getting published aren't better
than you; they're just working harder than you. Authorship can
offer huge payoffs, but only to those who are willing to quit
playing and do some real tough storytelling.
One last thing you can do to advance further ahead of the pack
is to do your research. Writers used to depend on annually
published directories like the Fiction Writer's Market to get
the scoop on submission criteria and publisher addresses, but
today the Internet is the place to be for the short story
writer. The new frontier when it comes to short story publishing
is on-line. The form is ideally suited to on-line publications,
websites and as a downloadable for hand-held devices. So warm up
your mouse and start pounding that keyboard, you'll never know
unless you give it a go.