Selling Short Stories, Part 1: Know Your Value

by Kent Bridgeman
published in Writing

I just read Playing the Short Game, by Doug Smith.  It had some very valuable insight about the short story market.  Over the next few articles, I’ll be distilling some of his insights about short stories, as well as adding a few of my own.  This week I’ll be preparing the soil, so to speak, by busting some myths and getting you in the right frame of mind.

What’s so great about short stories?  Everybody knows that novels are where it’s at. Right?

In short (pun intended), starting out writing short stories or adding them to your writing practice is a fantastic way to get your chops up as a writer.  You’ll get street cred by publishing in well-known and professional fiction magazines.  You’ll hone your craft by considering and reconsidering every single word.  To paraphrase Aristotle: “An unexamined story is not worth writing”.

You’ll even get a tougher skin by bouncing back from rejections (and there will be rejections, especially at first).  But you’ll be getting paid.  That’s right cash dinero. Don’t quit your day job just yet, as it takes time and patience to get published, but when you do, it’s a nice boost to the ol’ bank account.  Nothing like a pay check to make you feel like a real writer.

Ready to go?  Great!  Here are a few things to keep in mind as you embark on your short story journey.

Be Professional

A professional market is defined by the SWFA (Sci Fi Writers of America) as one that pays at least 6 cents per word.  You may scoff, saying that there’s nowhere that pays that much.  Trust me, there is. You’re just looking in the wrong places.

Semi Professional Markets pay between 0 – 6 cents a word. Unpaid or “Token” markets generally pay you with a copy of the magazine, a by line or in other words exposure.  Remember, people die of exposure. There are also royalty markets that pay you a royalty percentage of the number of magazines sold.  This is usually a raw deal for the writer, so just don’t do it.

For the most part, you are going to focus on the Professional Markets.  There are a few very good reasons for this:

  • Prestige – When you are writing a cover letter to an agent, the last section is normally a bio (if you’re new, you can skip this bit). Nobody cares if you have published in a literary magazine or anthology that isn’t a professional market.  What’s going to sound better?  The Kansas City Schooner or a publishing credit in Asimov’s, Cicada or The Atlantic?
  • Moola (yep, again) – Writing is work (duh). You should get paid for your work.  Your hard, hard work.  You know that whole suffering thing we writers do so well?  Well, I’m a firm believer in getting paid for that heart blood that we spill on to the page.  There are some caveats to this, moments when you might want to give it away for free (see below).  But, for the most part, get paid a professional rate for your work.
  • Career Building – If you want to write novels, building a career as a short story writer in professional markets will gain you experience, knowledge and street cred. There’s some overlap with the way rights and contracts work in short stories and in novels.  So, you’ll be learning business tactics for your career that you’ll have in your back pocket down the road.   Giving away short stories to Token markets will get you precisely no where.

Stop working for free (aka slavery).  Your career will thank you.

Be Persistent

Maybe you’ll get shot down at first, and the temptation to submit to an unpaid market will be strong.  Don’t give in.  Instead, work on improving your writing while looking for other professional markets.

There’s not that many professional markets (more about finding them in a following article), so it may be that you reach the end of your list of paid markets that would be a good fit for your story.  At that point, you may think you should start going for semi-pro and Token markets. I’d argue strongly against this.  First off, it’s like your saying to yourself, “Yep, time to settle.”  Don’t do that.  Just don’t.  Secondly, it doesn’t do your career any good.

What you should do instead is three-fold:

  1. Wait for new professional markets to open up.
  2. Wait for new editors to take over your target magazines.
  3. Keep improving your story and write new stories to send out.

Be Strong, with a few caveats

There are a few moments when you might want to give away a short story; I would always err on the side of getting paid though.

  • It’s a bonus for buying an eBook or something on your already established writer’s website.
  • The story is in the world of book series you are trying to draw attention to. I’m not an expert at this technique, but I’ve heard cases where this can work well, especially if you’ve just launched the first book of a trilogy or series.

Before you give away your stories, try the “five year” test.  In five years, will you look back on this decision as a good idea, or will you be kicking yourself.  What are some of the possible consequences and outcomes?  If the answer is: “Doesn’t matter too much”, then you probably should not give your story away.

Coming Up

In the follow-ups to this article, I’ll be looking more at how to find professional markets and also take a look at how short story rights and contracts work.  Till then, go get paid!

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HeadshotKent Bridgeman is a freelance writer and marketing strategist who also writes short stories, screenplays and poetry.  He helps his clients clarify their marketing messages and craft potent content. He lives in Chicago with his lovely fiancée D, and a grumpy parrot named Poncho. Check out his work at thewritejazz.com

 

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