The Short Story Market - Don't Quit Your Day Job!

by Jim Bernheimer

Many writers, including yours truly, who are trying to break into the writing business start by writing short stories and shopping them around.

It’s a recipe for heartbreak, usually in 5000 words or less.

First off, many will think it’s easy. Those illusions are usually shattered fairly quickly. It’s still a story. Your work must be coherent, tight, entertaining, and complete. All of this must be done under the ever-present constraints of word count. You don’t have three chapters to introduce the character and explain why he or she has issues with authority. You get a paragraph or two at the most to inform the reader that your character is a rebel without a cause.

Once you’ve finished, go back and read every line. In a novel, you’d ask if this scene really fits into the overall story and serves a purpose. Considering your short story might be shorter in length than a scene in the novel, every sentence must be relevant to what you are doing. If it isn’t, cut it or replace it with something that is.

Okay, so now you’ve got a story written. Now what? It’s time to find someone who really wants to rip it to pieces, but will still tell you if they were entertained or not. Most of us budding writers have other writers as friends. Initially, send it to them and have them mark it up. Prepare yourself for the idea that they might actually not like it, because they might not or, heaven forbid, they might have a completely different idea of how to execute your story.

I would also advise that you need to be able to separate your friendships from what your friends could possibly say about your story. Remember, you asked them to look it over!

Once they’ve given it back to you, let it stew for a couple of days before you really do anything conceptual with it. Go ahead and fix those grammar and punctuation issues, but I recommend not jumping into rewrites for at least a day or two. After all, it’s going to eventually leave your hands and sit in someone’s slush pile, so a bit of patience on your part is in order even at this early stage.

Once you get around to any rewrites, go solicit someone else’s opinion. I find my writing works best if I show it to different types of people. With some, I just want to know if they like the story or the concepts and get their opinion of whether or not the story will entertain. With others, I want to know what they think of my mechanics and if the story “reads” well.

Not only does each sentence in a short story need to be relevant, but each sentence needs to be in the right spot. Read every paragraph on its own and dissect the paragraph. Is it as tight as you can possibly get it? Do the sentences in each paragraph keep the flow in the story? Here’s where you need to make certain that you are telling the story chronologically and not doing poor timekeeping.

My greatest personal sins against the written language are tense changes and a nasty tendency to slip into passive voice. Always review your work for passive voice. Replace any "passive" verbs with "active" ones and your writing will come alive!

Always check your work for passive voice and then have someone else double check if for you. It’s that important, when there is so little space to tell your story.

So now you have a tightly written, coherent short story that stays in tense and tells a story chronologically in a manner that the reader will follow. Now, make certain that it’s still a good read. Go back to the first group of people who read it and make sure they still like it with all the changes.

If the story is still entertaining, what do you do next? Prepare for rejection. It’s just that simple. It’s a buyers’ market in the wacky world of short fiction. Everyone’s hungry to make a name. Assume that every other story that is competing against yours in a contest you found on www.ralan.com or for space in a magazine or anthology is as good as, if not better than yours. Your story might be a diamond in the rough, but if the editor has a thing for rubies or emeralds, then you get another rejection letter to add to your collection.

Remember, there’s no “real” money in it either. Pro rates are considered 3 to 5 cents per word. So, that short story might net you a whopping $250. That’s not a huge payoff for all the sweat you’ve put into it, but like everyone else trying to make their own name out there, it’s not about the money, but the exposure. Just remind yourself of that fact every now and again. The editors and judges for these contests get to sit back and choose from a slew of hungry writers churning out their best work and most days, your best might not be what they’re looking for.

I submitted a story titled “A Sharp Mind” for Apex Digest’s Halloween contest. It’s a great story (trust me), but it didn’t even make their short list to go to the final judges. In his blog, Editor Jason Sizemore talked about how he broke down the 152 entries.

“16 were eliminated for exceeding the word count. Assume they are dead serious about the rules of their contest. Don’t think they’re going to give you a free ride if you’re not going to follow the format. In submissions, each publisher puts out their format. Most follow the popular Shunn manuscript format, but if they list deviations, then assume they are just as serious about that.

“The next ten were eliminated for typos in the first paragraph. Quite frankly, that’s inexcusable with the widespread availability of spell checkers. That’s 26 potential masterpieces that haven’t even been read beyond the first paragraph because the author was careless and didn’t follow the rules, manuscript format, or were just plain sloppy. That’s 17% of the competition down. Now all I had to worry about is the other 83%.”

Think about it. People like Mr. Sizemore spend their days and nights reading stories. He has no investment in your story or mine. It’s our job to spark some interest in him. This brought him to the next cut, where he read the first 100 words of each story and cut 24 more.

You’ve only got a few thousand words to tell a story. What makes it worse is you’ve only got a few paragraphs to sell the editor on that story. Your start needs to be compelling and grab their attention, because we’re now getting into the realm of the subjective. My story was about a zombie apocalypse. It’s quite possible that he may have rolled his eyes and gone, “Not another zombie story! That’s the fifth one today!” and cut it right then. If not, well, it went on to finish somewhere between 13 and 102. Out of the 12 that were shortlisted, there’s only a first and second place. For the other 10, it’s just like the great Howard Jones used to say, “You can look at the menu, but you just can’t eat.” I didn’t even get into the restaurant this time – maybe next time…

Did I mention that you need to be able to handle rejection already? It’s worth repeating. You need thick skin because you’re going to get pounded often – better get used to it.

Best of luck in your writings,
Jim