How To-20: "How to Submit a Story to a Magazine"

How to Submit a Story to a Magazine

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

You've written a story and want to submit to a magazine. Where do you start?

Steps

1. Pick up a copy of the Novel and Short Story Writer's Market. This is a book that is published each year and lists magazines that specialize in publishing fiction.
   
2. Identify potential magazines where the story might fit (i.e., if your story is fantasy, then look for magazines that accept fantasy stories).
   
3. Obtain a copy of the magazine's guidelines. Many now have them online.
   
4. Read samples of the magazine to get a feel for if your story will fit.
   
5. Format the manuscript in proper manuscript format, including any requirements listed in the magazine guidelines.
   
6. Write a letter to the magazine and send your story.
   
7. Record the details of the submission for later reference.

Tips

• Reading several copies of the magazine will help keep you from submitting to magazines that may not be a good match.
  
• Use Courier/Courier New for the submission letter
  
• Always be professional in all correspondence

Warnings

• Avoid fancy paper, fancy fonts, or graphic headings. It's the story that should stand out, not the paper.
  
• Submit only what the magazine is asking for. If you submit a 5,000 word story to a magazine that only takes 3,000 word stories, no matter how good the story is, it's going to get rejected.
  
• Pay attention to the editor's name! It is bad form to spell their name wrong.

Things You'll Need

• Novel and Short Story Writer's Market
  
• Formatting and Submitting Your Manuscript

Related wikiHows

• How to Manage Your Magazine Subscriptions

Sources and Citations

• A Quick Guide to Manuscript Format: http://www.writing-world.com/basics/manuscript.shtml
  
• Template for recording submissions (Microsoft Excel): http://www.hackman-adams.com/articles/articles.xls

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Submit a Story to a Magazine. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.