Short fiction is where most writers learn how to write, and where many writers do their best work. The question of where to submit it is genuinely complicated — the landscape has changed significantly in the past decade, and the right answer depends on what you’re writing and what you want the submission to accomplish.
Literary Magazines
The traditional path: established literary magazines with submission windows, editorial review, and publication in print or digital format. The best of these — One Story, Tin House, The Sun, Ploughshares — offer genuine editorial relationships and the kind of cultural placement that matters for a writing career.
The practical reality: response times are long (often months), acceptance rates are very low, and most do not offer payment that compensates for the time invested. You submit here because publication matters, not for the money.
For genre fiction: The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Clarkesworld, Lightspeed have built serious reputations for SF/F short fiction. Strange Horizons publishes online and pays competitive rates. The horror short fiction market has strong venues in Nightmare and Dark Matter Magazine.
Writing Contests
Contests offer several things literary magazine submissions don’t: a deadline (which is useful), a prize (which is useful), and often a specific editorial focus that tells you exactly what the judges are looking for.
When evaluating contests, the relevant questions are: Who are the judges? What is the entry fee relative to the prize? What rights are acquired? Legitimate contests have clear answers to all three.
A note on finding contests: Aggregator sites and directories that compile writing contest listings are worth bookmarking. A well-curated contest directory will separate the legitimate opportunities from the vanity operations — the test is whether the judges are real writers or editors with established reputations, and whether past winners have gone on to publish elsewhere.
Online Venues
The internet has created a tier of literary venues that didn’t exist fifteen years ago — publishing high-quality short fiction online with genuine editorial standards and real readership. Electric Literature, The Rumpus, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency (for humor and experimental work) are examples of venues that operate outside the traditional magazine hierarchy while maintaining editorial seriousness.
The Submission Strategy
Most working writers submit to multiple venues simultaneously, maintain a submission tracker, and treat rejection as information rather than judgment. The standard industry advice — send to your first-choice venues first, then work down — remains sound.
The more useful advice: read the venues you submit to. Know what they publish. The writers who succeed in short fiction do so because they understand the specific aesthetic and editorial preferences of the places they target.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the best literary magazines for short fiction submissions? The guide names One Story, Tin House, The Sun, and Ploughshares as offering ‘genuine editorial relationships and the kind of cultural placement that matters for a writing career.’ For genre fiction: The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Clarkesworld, and Lightspeed for SF/F; Strange Horizons for online SF/F with competitive pay; Nightmare and Dark Matter Magazine for horror.
What are the practical realities of submitting to literary magazines? The guide is honest: ‘response times are long (often months), acceptance rates are very low, and most do not offer payment that compensates for the time invested.’ The framing is: ‘You submit here because publication matters, not for the money.’ This is positioned as useful context for writers entering the submission process without false expectations.
How should a writer evaluate whether a writing contest is legitimate? The guide identifies three relevant questions: ‘Who are the judges? What is the entry fee relative to the prize? What rights are acquired?’ Legitimate contests ‘have clear answers to all three.’ The test for aggregator sites is ‘whether the judges are real writers or editors with established reputations, and whether past winners have gone on to publish elsewhere.’
What online venues publish high-quality short fiction? The guide names Electric Literature, The Rumpus, and McSweeney’s Internet Tendency (for humor and experimental work) as venues that ‘operate outside the traditional magazine hierarchy while maintaining editorial seriousness.’ These represent a tier of literary venues ’that didn’t exist fifteen years ago — publishing high-quality short fiction online with genuine editorial standards and real readership.’
What is the most useful advice for a short fiction submission strategy? Standard advice (send to first-choice venues first, maintain a submission tracker, treat rejection as information) is described as ‘sound.’ But the guide calls the more useful advice this: ‘read the venues you submit to — know what they publish.’ Writers ‘who succeed in short fiction do so because they understand the specific aesthetic and editorial preferences of the places they target.’
Further Reading from Authoritative Sources
- literary magazines — Wikipedia’s literary magazine article contextualises the submission landscape the guide is describing, helping readers understand the history and function of the literary magazine ecosystem that short fiction writers are navigating.
- short fiction — Wikipedia’s short story article provides context for the form being discussed, including its history, conventions, and relationship to literary publishing, helping readers understand why the submission landscape has the structure it does.