Short Story Publishing?

[breezeshadow]

Hello everyone. So I've been a writer for ages, and today, after showing one of my friends my writing and having her like it, I started to consider whether I may actually be good enough to get into publishing. There's just a few concerns about this.

First off, I don't know if I'm actually good enough. I have stuff posted on my DW (here, here, and here are the recent ones), and on my dA are edited/more complete versions of those three stories, along with other things (dA here.). But I know my friends saying I'm good enough to publish does not necessarily mean I am, and I don't want to get ahead of myself. You don't need to read every one, or any, or give any extensive critique if you don't want to; I just want to make sure I'm not jumping the gun.

Second, I am a fantasy writer. As far as I could tell, there are very few publishing venues that are interested in short stories of the fantasy variety. Does anyone here have any experience with magazines, online and off, that accept fantasy submissions? Or know of any? I could write realistic stories, but they aren't my preference.

Also any advice about this would be fantastic. I've never tried submitting anything before, so I don't really know how it goes. Thus, any comments at all would be fantastic.

Thank you! Sorry for not replying much here; don't have much time to think about DW this semester.

Comments

[holyschist]

I haven't published any fiction, but there are a fair number of publications (mostly online) that take short fantasy fiction and pay. Most of them don't pay much, but short fiction in general doesn't pay much. There's also the anthology market.

Off the top of my head, there's

Strange Horizons (http://www.strangehorizons.com)
Expanded Horizons (http://expandedhorizons.net/magazine/)
Crossed Genres (http://crossedgenres.com/)
Fantasy Magazine (http://www.fantasy-magazine.com/)
Abyss & Apex (http://www.abyssapexzine.com/)
Apex Magazine (http://apex-magazine.com/)
Fantastique Unfettered (http://www.fantastique-unfettered.com/)
Lightspeed (science fiction only, http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/)
Clarkesworld (http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/)

Realms of Fantasy (print, currently not accepting submissions, http://www.rofmag.com/)
Cricket Magazine publishes short fantasy for younger readers if you do that; Cicada publishes short YA fantasy. They pay pretty well and are very competitive.

There are quite a few others! All of them have different tones/genre preferences/focus.

Tor.com publishes short fiction sometimes (http://www.tor.com/page/submissions-guidelines).

I'd suggest picking up a copy of Novel and Short Story Writer's Market (or checking one out of the library--doesn't have to be the current edition). You can also subscribe to it online. The Science Fiction Writers of America (http://www.sfwa.org/) is another good resource. This page in particular has resources you might find helpful, including some market listings. One good way to find paying SFF markets is to check the websites of your favorite SFF authors and note down magazines and anthologies they've been published in. Some anthologies are recurring; others aren't, but the publishers may be good to watch for future submissions calls.

[breezeshadow]

Ahhh, I always forget about the Writer's Market stuff. Thank you for all of the links and tips. :)

[prisoner_24601]

Just so you know, Crossed Genres is shutting down short the e-zine side after this last call. They're not shutting down entirely, but apparently they want to focus on themed anthologies instead.