I’ve been in the publishing game for not too terribly long, but I have had five publications so far, so I thought I’d share how I personally go about submissions, finding publishers, editing, etc. for those of you who are just starting out with sending your short stories to publishers!
Step 1: Editing and Formatting
First of all, before you ever go about sending your stories anywhere, you have to make major edits and adjust your document to fit proper manuscript formatting. A lot of publishers request Shunn formatting for submissions. Shunn formatting is quite simple to follow and is not too far off from what you probably already have your manuscript set up as. Here's the link to Shunn formatting for you to follow:
Step 2: Finding a Publisher
Now that you have your story edited and adjusted to the proper format, it’s time to look for a magazine, journal, podcast, or online publisher to buy your story! This is the most important and most time-consuming step of the process. Never just pick a publisher on a whim without seriously looking into them first. I have seen far too many writers get acceptances and sign contracts only to not be paid or have their stories taken and sold in a way that they were unhappy about. Always look into a publisher by examining their already published stories, reviews about them from other publishers (if they have them), and especially the rights they offer for your story! Here is a link about all the different kinds of publishing rights and what they mean:
Finding a publisher that is perfect for your story can be tricky. A lot of the time, magazines want stories that fit into a certain theme for their new issue, specifically. A submission call might want horror but only stories that are about a cryptid, or horror stories that are slashers, but they have to have a female protagonist. You have to pay attention to see if they publisher you are looking at is requesting specific types of stories. A great place to look for horror, fantasy, and sci-fi publishers is "The Horror Tree" and "Dark Markets". These sites put up submission calls from all kinds of publishers in the speculative fiction realm! Another thing you need to do is read some of the works that have been published already by the publisher you are looking at (if they are available to be read for free online). This can help you to understand the type of stories and style they accept so you can get an idea if your story would be something they would want.
Try to stay away from markets that ask for a reading fee or submission fee. Beginning writers don't have the means to pay $15 for submitting a story that might not get an acceptance. I never submit to markets that require a fee. The only way I would tell you to do so is if you are quite sure that you will get an acceptance and if the magazine is a well-known publisher, but even then, I would be hesitant to spend money on submitting your work. They should be paying you, not the other way around. Another thing to keep in mind is if the market is a paying market, meaning, do they pay you for your work if they accept it either with actual money or a contributor's copy? I believe that a market needs to pay its writers (it's your hard work and art... don't just give that away for free!) However, if you are just starting out, submitting to magazines that don't pay is totally acceptable to get your foot in the door and get publications. Contributor copies are one way that publishers pay their writers. This means they give you the issue of the magazine that your story is in for free.
Step 3: Follow Their Submission Guidelines
Now that you have narrowed down your publishing choice, pay extra careful attention to their submission guidelines. Almost every publisher will automatically reject your work if you fail to follow every step of their guidelines (you might have a killer story that is amazing but you end up leaving your manuscript with indented lines instead of manually moving every first line to the 0.5 margin like the publisher asked, and then your story is thrown into the trash before it even has a chance). Read each part of the guidelines thoroughly and follow along with it as you look at your manuscript. Look at the section of the guidelines that talks about simultaneous and multiple submissions. Simultaneous submissions means sending out your story to more than one publisher at a time (If a magazine allows simultaneous submissions, make sure you let them know that you are simultaneously submitting your story to more than one publisher and will notify them of acceptance elsewhere if it occurs!). Multiple submissions mean you are sending more than one of your stories to the publisher at the same time. I haven’t come across a lot of magazines that allow this, but sometimes they do. Just keep in mind with multiple submissions that there is a chance that the publisher will reject every single one of your works at the same time which can be a huge confidence breaker, so I suggest only ever sending one story to a publisher at a time.
Step 4: Email and Cover Letter
Now that you have your story edited in the proper format, you have found the right publisher that accepts work that is like your story, you agree with their offer of rights, you have read the guidelines front to back and over again, and you have decided on simultaneously submitting or submitting multiple storie... you are ready for your email and cover letter!
So, the dreaded cover letter. It’s not that bad at all, and it is not supposed to be as lengthy as you probably thought it was going to have to be. Here is an example of my usual cover letter in its most basic form:
Dear [editor names of the magazine], (if you don’t know the names, put the name of the magazine followed by the word “editors”. For example, “Dear Poe Magazine editors,”)
Thank you for considering my [total word count]-word short story, “[story title],” for publication. I appreciate all the time and attention it receives, and I look forward to hearing from you!
[if you are simultaneously submitting] This is a simultaneous submission, but I will let you know immediately if it is accepted elsewhere.
[Insert a bio if they ask for one, following the word count they give for a bio. Otherwise, only give them small information like your occupation, where you live, and your publications, if you have any] I live in East Tennessee and am a graduate student at Tennessee Tech University. I have works published with Broadswords and Blasters, The Horror Tree, The Sirens Call, and The Iris Review, vol. 1 and 2.
Kindest regards,
[your name]
Make sure you put the correct subject line in the email as they ask for it. For example, they might want it to read as: Submission [“Story Title”] [last name].
Step 5: Hit Send and Sit Back and Wait for Your Letter!
Once you have crossed your t’s and dotted your i’s, you are ready to hit send and immediately go into a state of worry and impatience and overthinking! But don’t really do that. Remember, the worst thing that they will say to you is “no, we don’t want you story.” That’s okay! Writers who are published got hundreds of rejections before their first publication happened. It's just part of the writer’s life to receive rejections, but we bounce back and tell ourselves that our story might not be for everyone (and it won’t be for everyone), but someone out there will love it and want it! We just have to work hard to find that someone. Never self-reject. Submit your work to your heart's content without telling yourself that your story isn’t good enough. It just might be! I never in a million years thought that my story, “American Appetites,” would be picked up by a semi-pro magazine, and I almost deleted that email to the publisher because I assumed I would get a rejection, but I sent it anyway, and I got the acceptance letter!
Keep in mind what the publisher listed as a response time in their guidelines. Usually a magazine (if they are not pro or semi-pro) will take about three months to give you an acceptance or rejcection. Other times, if they are a bigger publisher with hundreds of submissions all the time, it could take about six months or they might not even respond to you past the allotted time they have listed, which means a rejection. I've found some that only take a couple of weeks or even a few days, but that's rare. Be prepared to not know the state of your submission for a while, and if they have not given you a response withn a reasonable time as they have listed, send a query on the status of your submission. Sometimes things get lost accidently or overlooked. Keep a list on you that informs you where you sent a story, when you sent it, what you sent, and what the listed response time is to remind you of when you should be getting an answer. But just know, submitting stories requires a lot of waiting and patience.
Always follow what you think is best for you submission and letter. I just gave these tips that I use to help you as a beginner submitter, but there are so many more sites with tips and tricks out there to help as well. Always listen to your publisher and always stick with your gut. Good luck with your submission endeavors and don’t get dismayed by rejections. They will happen over and over and over again, but you have to just keep working on your craft, making it better, and staying in search of the perfect market for your story. It's out there!