In the short form writing world the only way to get noticed for 99% of writers is to write a ton. Write and submit to everywhere and anywhere that will take you. Print or online magazines, it doesn’t matter. Print anthologies or ebook collections, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you get your name out there, get publishing credits and get people reading your writing.

Not everyone is going to write novels and there is nothing wrong with that. Many people just enjoy writing short stuff but some authors see it as a short coming to writing a full length novel. This is nonsense. Sure, less money in short story writing and it is much harder to find a traditional publisher who will publish a collection but this does not mean it cannot be done.

If you want to publish a collection by a small press, mid or even approach a larger publisher you need to submit often. Everywhere. Get exposure. Show a commitment to the form and advance it. Try new things like reading your short story and posting it on youtube. Read it and submit it to online radio stations. Use twitter even and post micro fiction. Whatever it is do it to stand out from the pack. Tons of writers are writing short stuff and there is really a lot of good stuff out there. You need to stand out and show you are a marketing machine. Not always the best writers or the best stories get published but the ones the publisher sees as a profitable story. This means an author who knows how to get their name out there.

Set goals of submitting at least once a week or better yet submit to one print, one online and one anthology a week. This is the commitment it will take to get picked up by a publisher unless you are in that very very small percentage who manages to get a story picked up by the New Yorker or another enormous publication. People always hear these stories where someone got a story published in a mag and was picked up for a collection. This just isn’t common, really it is not. What is common is an author who works their butt off sending out work constantly for years upon years and eventually a small press will pick them up. If they continue to do it and sell copies of their collection maybe a larger press will pick them up and so it goes.

This shouldn’t discourage you and if it does, better to know now. Going with a goal to one day have a collection published by a reputable publisher is a tough road. A very possible road but one that takes thick skin, one that gets used to rejection often and most of all, the ability to write in the first place and not just one good story but many.

So go to duotrope.com. Build a list of places to submit to and get sending. They are not coming to you, you need to go find them and if they reject you, edit if needed and resubmit, and resubmit and resubmit until you get it published. Build a blog and an email list. Learn marketing techniques for writers. Get active in writing forums. You get the point.

About the Author

Casey Quinn

Casey is the editor of Short Story Library and ReadMe Publishing.