What to Expect When You’re Submitting
By: Margery Bayne
Tags: Mbs Short Story Series, Short Stories, Writing Advice, Submission Guidelines, Publishing

What to Expect When You’re Submitting

Photo by Chris Blonk on Unsplash

When you jump into the world of submitting short stories to literary markets for the first time it can be overwhelming. (To see what literary markets are and where to find them read my previous article here.) There are a lot of unknowns. Even more, there are a lot of rules of etiquette and best practices involved that are not always obvious. While some literary markets spell out their expectations very clearly in their submission guidelines, others are vague and expect you to just know.

So, to clear up any misconceptions and mysteries, here is an annotated list of what to expect, from both sides of the transaction, when you submit short stories.

Your story is ready

Every writer has a different process and every story has its own needs, so there is no prescription for how many drafts, rounds of feedback, or other steps a story needs before it is deemed ready. The only definite thing that can be said is that it should be a ‘clean draft.’ In other words, free of spelling and punctuation errors, typos, and formatting issues.

If you believe your story is well-crafted, well-edited, and well-proofed, and thus ready for its chance out there in the great big literary world, that is the standard you the writer has to go by for deeming a story ‘ready.’

You read and followed the submission guidelines

Each literary market has its own submission guidelines, although many share a lot of factors in common. However, those differences in the margins are important and are often ‘make or break’ points with the editors. Many submission guidelines clearly state that if x or y rule is not followed, the story will be rejected automatically. Following submission guidelines increases your chances of acceptance and wastes less of the editors’ time.

So what kind of guidelines should you be expecting?

Story guidelines

Short stories should be matched to their literary markets, and submission guidelines often make it very clear what the market is looking for.

Short stories should be within the word count parameters the guidelines provide. Unless the guidelines explicitly state there is wiggle room, do not assume there is. Most guidelines explicitly state there is not.

Short stories should be the correct genre. The broad strokes of this are easy to follow. If it is a children’s magazine, the submissions should only be children’s stories. If the submission says no graphic horror, don’t submit graphic horror. However, magazines also sometimes list some elusive qualities they are looking for in stories that are hard to be sure of, or be looking for a vaguely or weirdly defined subgenre (which is very common in sci-fi/fantasy magazines). If you feel your story might fit although you’re not one hundred percent sure, it is still worth a shot.

Guidelines sometimes include a list of specific things the market is not looking for in stories. They can range from specific and innocuous story tropes that the editors are tired of seeing to things they are taking a moral stance on, like violence against women or political grandstanding. For either, you are not going to convince the editors that your story is the exception, especially when they have hundreds of stories that are following their rules to consider instead. Save that story for a market that will be more receptive.

Formatting guidelines

This includes the type of file format they want and how they want the words themselves arranged on the page. Standard manuscript format (link) is, well, pretty standard, but variations exist. For example, if the market wants blind submissions, you have to make sure to remove all traces of your name from the manuscript, including the title page and the header.

Whether formatting nitpicks are due to technical limitations on the editors’ end or as a way to weed out those who didn’t read the guidelines, just follow them. It usually only takes a minute or two of formatting alterations to have your story ready to go.

Method and time of submission

Send your submission to the market in the way they want to receive it. The major two are snail mail (yes, some markets still do this and even some that exclusively accept postal submissions) and electronic submissions. Electronic submission can vary from email, submission manager software (with submittable being the most prominent), google forms, and more. Send it how they want it and follow the directions, especially in an email in which not compiling could end up with your story caught in the spam filter.

Also, send it within the submission period, please. Some magazines are always open with rolling submissions. Some have limited submission periods. Some have to close at unplanned times. If closed or if there is a limited submission period, they will almost always be at top of the guidelines.

Cover letters, bios, and other auxiliary information

Most guidelines will ask for you to include a brief cover letter and do they mean brief. This is not the page length cover letter of applying for a job or the equivalent of a novel query letter. A short story cover letter is a few sentences at the most.

In email submissions, the cover letter should go in the body of the email. In form submissions, there will usually be a text box on the form for the cover letter. In snail mail submissions you need to format your cover letter in proper business letter format, print it as a separate page, and put before the story manuscript in the envelope.

What should be in the cover letter? Required are your story title, word count, and name. Optional is your publishing history. Some guidelines ask for you to specify the genre of the story or some other quality of the story.

What you should not include is a summary or explanation of your story. Literary markets do not want it; they want the story to stand on its own.

Here is a quick cover letter format you can feel free to play with:

Dear Editors,

Please consider my (#) word short story (story title) for publication in (magazine title). I have had short stories previously in (two or three of most recent or most notable story publications).

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Your Name

Sometimes guidelines will also ask for you to provide a short, third-person bio. (And if they do not want it then, they will want it when your story is accepted for publication.) For these, you should spend just a couple of sentences to explain who you are as a writer, as a person, and where they can find more of you.

Things you should include: your name, where you are from, what you write, what your writer credentials are (important degrees, awards, publications, etc.), something personal or fun fact about yourself (other hobbies, pets, career, etc.), and where else they can find you (author website, social media, etc.)

You are patient

While there are some magazines with short response turnaround times after you submit your short story, for many, it is expected that you will wait weeks or even months to hear if your story is accepted or rejected. Please realize that these literary magazines and anthologies are mostly labors of love by the editors that are doing the work of running it for free. They have other jobs and responsibilities that are dividing the time. They might even be putting their own money into printing, upkeep of the website, and paying authors. They deserve some realistic patience.

Plus, they receive hundreds of submissions they have to read, evaluate, and decide between.

How long can you expect to wait? Well, most markets mention an expected turnaround time in their submission guidelines, so use that as your guide. If they don’t, you can use statistical aggregates on websites like the Submission Grinder to get an idea. Magazines that have limited submission windows will generally not send out acceptances and rejections until after the close of the window; if you submit at the beginning of a three-month window, don’t expect to hear back until after those three months plus some.

In general, markets that accept exclusively shorter works like flash fiction and poetry will have a faster turnaround time than those who accept longer short stories. However, there are many exceptions.

If you need to query about the status of your story, only do so after the stated or expected turnaround time for that specific submission has passed, although you might want to give them a little wiggle room as well.

You have reasonable expectations

Don’t expect to get detailed reasons why your story was not accepted by the market (if not accepted). Once in a while, you will have editors who give feedback for free, but most of the time you will receive form rejections. On the same note, do not argue with the market after receiving a rejection. That is the type of behavior that can get you blacklisted.

Don’t expect structural or story editing. In the submission phase, don’t send a half-baked story thinking the editors will see the raw potential and be willing to work with you on large story issues. If accepted, don’t expect to go through a long, in-depth editing process. Generally, most story markets only do line editing for grammar, typos, and clarity.

Don’t expect special treatment just for yourself for whatever reason you make up in your head. If the market offers any special treatment such as priority reading for magazine subscribers or preference for local authors, they will state that in their guidelines. It is only in those specific circumstances if they apply to you, can you expect said preference.

You act respectfully

This should go without saying, but unfortunately, it doesn’t go without saying. Be respectful and professional in your dealings with literary markets throughout the submission process. The majority of readers and editors for literary markets are doing so on a volunteer basis. It is not their job and they are not getting paid. They are doing it because they love literature and the literary community; do not give them a reason to start hating it.

Following submission guidelines to the best of your ability is respectful as it respects the editors’ time. Using polite and professional language in your communications is respectful because we all know that it only really takes one jerk to ruin your day. (Additionally, sarcasm and humor do not always translate in text form so you are doing yourself a favor by not making yourself look like a jerk.) Accepting rejections with grace is being respectful. It isn’t that hard to be respectful.

You are respected

As much as this article so far has told you the writer what to do and how to behave as well as how sympathetic you should be to the editors of the literary markets, all that respect is also owed you as the writer and as a fellow human being.

You don’t deserve to be scammed. You don’t deserve to be treated unprofessionally. You don’t deserve to throw your story into a black hole to never be heard from again. You are more than allowed to have standards for yourself and how you are treated, fairly and professionally, as long as they are based on reality.

You are given clear terms

A literary market should be clear and open about what the terms for publication are: On how they plan to use your story, what copyright they are licensing, and when the copyright reverts back to the author. If you are being paid, this information includes how much, how you will receive it (PayPal, check, etc.), and when you should expect it (upon signing of the contract, at publication, 30 days after publication, etc.).

Sometimes all of this information will be in the submission guidelines. Other times only an overview will be in the guidelines, and the nitty-gritty details will be provided in contract form after a story is accepted. You are completely within your rights to not sign and decide not to publish your story with the literary market at that point if you can’t agree to the contract terms.

Just because you publish with a non-paying magazine doesn’t mean you should not care or worry about the terms. Paid for or not, your story is still your intellectual property that you should want to protect. These magazines should still be clear how they plan to use the story. (Will it be a print or digital or audio publication? Will it only be published for a short period or will it remain in perpetuity? What exclusivity is the magazine asking for and for how long?)

In my experience, most magazines do try to be good members of the literary community in being forthright and fair with their terms. It is usually the extremely disorganized and the outright scammers that obfuscate their terms.

Everyone is a good communicator

The market should write clear submission guidelines. You should do your best to follow them. If the market is slow or has some sort of significant delay in its turnaround, it should let you know. If you need to withdraw your story, you should let the magazine know as soon as possible. Markets should provide a way for you to query after submission.

Be fair

Mistakes happen. Email and spam filters gobble emails. Family emergencies occur. Even the most well-established magazine with the best submission software will slip up sometimes. And you will slip up too. This whole process is not about being perfect. It is about being polite, professional, and trying to operate on a common ground of understanding what the standard expectations and behaviors are.

Hopefully, this guide has helped demystify the process of short story submissions.