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How to Publish Short Fiction and PoemsPosted by John Woodington on November 17th, 2009

I think there is a misconception around the writing world when it comes to the sensitive topic of publishing.  I’m talking specifically here about the publishing of short stories and poems, and not novels, which have a different, lengthier process, with multifaceted ways to get to the end goal.  In the world of publishing short stories and poems, becoming published lies solely in the hands of the author, and does not take an editor or publicist or agent to get a story into a publishing house. In fact, my previous literary agent said she would specifically not take charge of submitting short fiction for me, as there was very little money in it for her, and that she would only handle novel-length work. This makes sense, since her cut of my sales was 15%, and a top sale in short fiction would be $5000.00 at the very most, leaving her with a profit of only $750.00 for her work.

So the burden (and ultimately the success) of getting a short story or poem published lies with you, the author.  And it is not impossible.  Trust me.  I mean, yes, it’s impossible to get published in The New Yorker, but it’s possible to get published anywhere else.  You only need three things to get your short story or poem published:

1) Dedication
2) Consistency
3) A handy dandy submissions chart

I published my first piece of fiction when I was twenty.  It was wonderful and exciting, and it happened because I followed through on the list above.  I should tell you that this list was imparted to me through some wonderful writing instructors, and is not entirely of my own invention.  Here’s what each point means, and why you need to do it to get published:

1) Dedication – This is the most important (and therefore #1) item on the How To Get Published List.  You need dedication, and eve before that, I suppose, you need a realistic outlook.  The truth of the matter is, you are not going to be published right away (in all likelihood) and it is going to take time, and a little bit of effort.  And everyone goes through it.  You are not the only person to get a rejection letter (or, in the case of The New Yorker, a rejection sentence).  Take pride in them, save them in a folder, and realize that they are the paving stones that make up the path to publication.  You have to remain dedicated in the face of failure.  I have a story in submission right now that has been rejected over forty times in various versions and drafts, but I keep sending it out, because I feel it is a good story, and deserves to be read by others.

2) Consistency – This is important because it can save you a lot of time and a lot of indecision.  Be consistent in your submissions.  If a story gets rejected, send it right back out to the next place.  When you write out a query letter, perfect it ahead of time and use the same one for all of your submissions.  My entire query letter body reads like this:

Enclosed is my short story “[Title]” for publication consideration in [Name of Magazine]. The story is 4000 words long. A SASE is enclosed, and I look forward to hearing from you.

You don’t need more than that.  When I get a rejection letter, I drop it in my thick file of rejection letters and send out the story to the next place within 15 minutes.  The key is to keep your work out there.  You can’t get published unless you’re submitting your stories/poems regularly.  You have to assume that you will be rejected numerous times before your piece finds a venue that wants your work.  Keep sending it out, and don’t despair when The New Yorker says “No.”

3) A handy dandy chart – This is, for me, the most valuable item on my computer, aside from the stories themselves.  The chart consists of a list of your stories/poems that you have out for submissions, and where they are currently submitted, and when you submitted them.  I’ve worked on my chart over the years, and I track everything on it.  Here is a screenshot of it for your visual amusement:

In the left-hand column are the various stories that I have out for submission.  The ones highlighted in blue have already been accepted and published.  Across the top row is a list of various places that accept short story submissions.  Certain places are highlighted in light blue, which means they have rejected work in the past, but would like to see more work (sometimes publishers note this on their rejection letters; make sure to keep track of this as these places can be of value to you in the future, since you already know they like your writing style).  This is just a short sample of my list, which has over 130 different places that I have found to submit to.  Needless to say there are countless others that I don’t have on my list, but which you could put on yours.  The row directly beneath the list of publishers tells me if they take email submissions or snail mail submissions (email are far quicker, and cost no postage), and the row directly beneath that tells me which places pay their contributors (green highlighted boxes) and which don’t.  The little Xs in the cells denote where a particular story has been rejected, so that I don’t submit that story to them again by accident.  The cells with the dates in them denote where and when a particular story was submitted.  Those stories haven’t been rejected or accepted yet.  When they get rejected, I change the date to an X.  If they are accepted, I change the date to an A and highlight it blue, because blue makes me happy.

By following the three points listed above (Dedication, Consistency, A handy dandy list) it is only a matter of time before you find yourself among the published authors of the world.  But it takes time.  I currently have 5 stories that I am submitting, and those stories are each submitted to five places at a time.  It’s okay to do this.  Make multiple submissions at once.  Send your story to four or five different places at the same time.  Odds are you’re going to be rejected by most places anyway, so you may as well speed up the process of finding the right place by submitting to multiple places at once.  The worst that can happen is that your story gets accepted somewhere, and you have to email the other places you submitted to and tell them that your story is no longer available, which will probably make them think, “shoot, we should’ve taken that story before our competitor did.”

So send out your story or poem to The New Yorker and four other places, and when The New Yorker sends you their rejection sentence two weeks later, send that story right back out to the next place on your list.  Once you do this consistency, publishing only becomes a matter of time.  And while you’re waiting for rejections and acceptions, maybe you write out a few more stories or poems.  Because that’s what it’s all about, right?