September 2, 2022

Imagine: you’re a new writer. You’ve been working really hard to refine your craft and style. You’ve finally polished a draft of a pretty good short story, and you want to see if you can get it published. What do you do?

If your answer is “I have no idea”–congrats! You are in the same boat I was in 7 odd years ago. Don’t feel bad. I think a lot of new writers (and veteran writers) end up in this boat. For all the discussion about the craft of writing, there is very little time spent on the business side of writing. How to get published, how to make money, how to read contracts, how to further your career. I mean, I’m still figuring it out myself, and Lord knows I have made some big mistakes in the past due to a lack of knowledge about the industry. And while I may not be able to advise you on every aspect of the business yet, I do have some tips and tricks to help you find places to submit your work.

So, how do you find magazines to submit to? I actually get asked this question a lot. You can rest assured the answer is not Google “short story magazines” and hope for the best. There are actually many resources out there for this specific purpose, more than I am going to list here. But, here are some of the resources and techniques I use day-to-day to find magazines:

Submission Grinder

The best of the best as far as I am concerned, Submission Grinder has been my one stop shop for magazine submissions for about two years now. Not only does it have an extensive database of magazines that it is constantly updating, but it also has numerous search filters to help you narrow down the selection by genre, word count, payment, turnaround times, award eligibility, etc. Furthermore, if you fave and follow magazines, you can be kept up to date on their open and closed periods, and if you sign up for the newsletter, you can receive tailored updates about magazines related to your interest sent directly to your email. And if that wasn’t enough, you can also log your stories and their submissions and updates all right here too! I keep track of everything in the Grinder, and it has really streamlined the process and prevented me from making silly submission mistakes. 

Submittable

Submittable was the other database I used the most pre-Grinder. I was introduced to it in college, and they came out with their Discover feature pretty soon afterward. Submittable has a pretty extensive database with search filters to help tailor the results. I don’t personally find it as extensive as the Grinder, but I also noticed that it leans more toward literary fiction than genre fiction, so if that is your jam, you might want to check this out. Also, a lot of magazines use Submittable as their submissions manager, meaning you will need an account anyway to submit to them. You can also track your submissions via this account. It’s free, so there’s no harm in it, and the Discover feature is pretty handy for finding new magazines.

Social Media

Not all magazine finding comes from dedicated databases. A lot of the magazines I found actually came from some internet sleuthing, and the best places to sleuth are social media platforms, specifically Twitter. Many magazines have Twitter accounts where they post their updates, connect with their authors, and follow other magazines. Once you find a magazine you like, check out their Twitter account and see what other magazines they are following. Chances are, those magazines are in a similar genre as theirs and could be a new place for you to submit your work.

Authors’ Bibliographies

More internet sleuthing, and probably my favorite: author websites. Got a favorite author that you know writes short stories? Check out their website and see if they have a list of publications there. Not only will you get to read their awesome stories, but you’ll get a nice curated list of magazines for you to check out. This is especially helpful if you are not sure where to submit something of your style. You can find an author who writes in the same style as you or close enough to it, and see which magazines look favorably on it. I did this with the amazing author John Wiswell. His style and mine are decently close for some of my works, but I wasn’t sure where to try and submit them. I checked out his bibliography and got clued into some of my fave magazines like Flash Fiction Online and Fireside.

Brick & Mortar Stores

Ooh, time for a road trip! Head on down to your nearest bookstore and they might just have a magazine section for short story mags. These are going to be (duh) print magazines, but let me tell you, there is nothing like having a hard copy of your work, bound and published, so print magazines still totally have it going on. One favorite of mine is F(r)iction. I found F(r)iction via my local Barnes & Noble, and while I still haven’t landed their print publication (fingers crossed! I have stories on sub with them!), I now have 8 publications with them on their website. This section of the bookstore also tends to have a decent mix of literary and genre magazines, so if you’re looking for both, here is a place to start.

And there you have it. Those are my top 5 ways I find new magazines to submit to. I use all 5 of these methods regularly, sometimes in combination, and I am constantly finding and following new magazines. It’s not something you really ever stop doing. 

You’re probably going to pick up on the heavy hitters first because they have the largest followings. That means it’ll be harder to land an acceptance from them. Submit to them anyway! I submit regularly to Clarkesworld even though I’m fairly certain I’ll die long before I land an acceptance. You never know. They might like something of mine someday. 

But don’t get yourself so locked into the big mags that you disregard the semi-pros or even non-paying magazines (I know, I know. But hey, if you like the magazine, the contract is solid, and it doesn’t bother you to be paid only in publication credit/copies, do it. I just wouldn’t recommend making non-paying your majority of subs). I personally don’t go for non-paying anymore, but some of my past pub credits were non-paying, and I have no regrets about any of them. Plus, you can always send a story for reprint to a paying mag later.

The best advice I can give if you are still stuck on what to do with a story: ask. Anyone in this business knows how hard it is to break in, stay in, and navigate the complete lack of transparency, and they want to help. So ask. Ask me. Ask a fellow writer friend. Ask an author you admire. Ask the magazines themselves. Ask someone. In my experience, there are very few people who won’t help you/point you in the right direction.

The world only gets better the more stories that are in it. So, go out there and submit your work.

More places to find magazines: