by Laurence Raphael Brothers
A lot of knowledge is required to be successful when submitting stories for publication. The aim of this article is to concentrate what you need to know in one place: right here!
Finding a Market
I recommend using submission trackers to record submissions and also to find markets. There are many criteria for searching using these tools, but the two big ones are fees. Two? Yes. The first is the fee the magazine pays you if they publish your story. The better SFF markets pay around $0.10/word as of this date, but some reputable markets pay as little as $0.01, while others can’t afford payment at all. The second is the fee you pay them to submit the story. Many writers believe it’s improper to ever pay to submit, but it must be said that some leading literary magazines do charge fees.
Reading the Guidelines
All reputable markets publish submission guidelines. Read them carefully. Some markets require anonymous submissions, which means that the manuscript must betray no hint of your identity, not even a pseudonym or an email address. Other markets want particular formatting or typefaces. Some only take emailed submissions, while others use a submission manager, for which they will provide a link. Some markets forbid multiple and simultaneous submissions. Some want particular things in the cover letter, but the majority want a brief letter that doesn’t explain the story but rather provides only key information, typically title, word count, and genre. A third-person bio of 100 words or so is a common requirement, so it helps to have one at hand to paste in.
Manuscript Format
You can’t go wrong with the “modern” form of Shunn Manuscript Format, which will work for probably 95% of all markets, with a couple of provisos. First, you only need to provide an email address with an online submission, no phone number or postal address. Second, including professional memberships is no longer standard. What about your pseudonym? Usually, you put your real name in the upper left corner and your pseudonym as the byline in the center of the page. But you may have good reason to not let the publisher know your real name at all at the submission stage. That’s okay. You can always decide if you trust them enough for that after acceptance.
Waiting and Querying
So you finally got to the point of clicking “Submit” and your manuscript is in the publisher’s hands. Congratulations! Now comes the wait. A few wonderful magazines have wait times in days or even hours for a typical rejection. Most take weeks to months. Some few (especially literary magazines) can take a year or longer before sending you a form rejection. If a publication exceeds its own advertised wait time, or submission tracker data reveals that most people at your submission date have already received responses, you can always send a query email. A very brief, polite note is appropriate—no apology or explanation necessary. It’s important to query without fear because a) some stories do, alas, get lost, and b) when an editor is holding your story for consideration and they learn you are interested in its status, you might just shake loose an acceptance.
Handling Rejections
Check the rejection off on your spreadsheet or on a submission tracker and move on. That’s it. Never respond to a rejection, even if it’s a personal rejection, even if the editor has completely misunderstood your story—unless there is an explicit question in the response that requires your answer. You shouldn’t respond because, first of all, it’s considered unprofessional, and secondly, you are not going to argue an editor out of a rejection in any event, so why irritate them with the need for a reply to your response?
Handling Revision Requests
These are very rare. Revision requests are not guarantees of sales. The revised story can still be rejected. Sometimes the request may be simple and easy, but often it will be involved and difficult. You can always turn down the request and withdraw the story from consideration if it’s too onerous.
Handling Acceptances
Acceptance! Yay! Respond to acceptances by telling the editor the story is still available (assuming it is) and that you await the contract, which they should send you shortly. Keep in mind that your story hasn’t really sold until both parties have signed a contract or (if no contract was provided) you get paid. I strongly advise you to demand a contract because all kinds of bad things can happen without one. Payment delays, non-payment, rights reversion after either non-publication or some time after publication, film options, byline terms, right to reprint, and many other serious considerations hang on contract terms. The other thing you have to do on acceptance is withdraw simultaneous submissions from other markets. What if you got accepted by a little market, and your dream market is still holding your story? Tough. Don’t submit to a market if you don’t want them to publish you.
There’s a lot more to each of the above topics than I have room for in a first article, but these very basics should at least get you started. Good luck, happy writing, and many sales!
Glossary
Contract: legal document binding author and publisher and specifying terms of payment and publication, including which rights are being acquired by the publisher.
Cover letter: brief note typically giving your name, byline, story title, wordcount, and genre. May also include bio information, payment address, and other elements as requested in the guidelines.
Guidelines: publishers’ rules for submissions. Violating the rules may yield a quick rejection.
Manuscript format: a common guideline feature; includes typeface, leading, margins, text layout, etc.
Multiple submissions: sending more than one piece at a time to the same market. Not uncommon for micro-fiction and poems. You can assume markets don’t allow multiple submissions unless they say otherwise.
Simultaneous submissions (simsubs): sending the same story to multiple markets. Read the guidelines carefully, and if simsubs are not explicitly forbidden, they’re probably okay. Just remember to withdraw the story from all markets after an acceptance.
Submission managers: Online tools often used by publishers to manage submissions. The two most common are Submittable and Moksha.
Submission trackers: Online tools used by authors to track submissions and also to find markets. The two leading tools are The Submission Grinder (free) and Duotrope (paid subscription). This writer recommends the former.
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Laurence Raphael Brothers is a writer and a technologist. He has published over 50 short stories in such magazines as Nature, Galaxy’s Edge, and The New Haven Review, along with eight novels and novellas. He has worked in R&D for Bellcore, Verizon, and Google, written professionally for Toptal, and is currently employed as a US patent examiner. Check out his books and stories at laurencebrothers.com/bibliography. Pronouns: he/him.