  Short Stories
This week: Edited by: Leger~  
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The purpose of this newsletter is to help the Writing.com short story author hone their craft and improve their skills. Along with that I would like to inform, advocate, and create new, fresh ideas for the short story author. Write to me if you have an idea you would like presented.
This week's Short Story Editor
Leger~
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| ASIN: B004PICKDS |
Product Type: Toys & Games
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Amazon's Price: Price N/A
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Publishing Short Stories
You've written a gem of a short story. Now, what do you do with it? Publish it!
Publishing takes time and perspiration. For those of you who think it's just a matter of printing your story and dropping it in the mail, this Newsletter is for you. The chances of getting published in that manner are about as good as getting hit by lightning. Improve the odds of getting published by educating yourself. You can do this without an agent, without reading and editing fees, all on your own!
I'm going to cover a few suggestions to get a new author started in the right direction.
1. Read and Compare! Know your genre and read stories published in that genre to understand the current market and the quality of fiction that is being published. If your work doesn't measure up, postpone submitting it and refine your story. Writing.com is one of the most helpful ways to improve your work. Use your reviews and suggestions from reviewers right on this site to help polish your story!
2. Search! Once you understand what market would be interested in publishing your story, search! Look for companies to submit your story to. Narrowing the field of publishers to the most likely candidates willing to publish your work will save you an extreme amount of time and energy. Submitting your romance to a science fiction publisher is a huge waste of time.
Where? (I knew you'd ask that.)  Some inexpensive places to start are the Novel and Short Story Writer's Market book and the internet.
The Novel and Short Story Writer's Market book is an annual edition just like the larger Writer's Market but only lists publishers for novels and short stories. It's also less expensive than the full version of the Writer's Market.
The internet is another great resource. There are thousands of ezines and websites on the internet, Google is a wonderful tool for finding just the right site to submit your work. I have found http://www.writersdigest.com to be another helpful tool in educating myself and finding publishers. Their Question and Answer section can be very helpful to newbies.
3. Submit! Now don't print your story and drop it in an envelope without doing a little preparation! One of the most important things to do is check the publisher's submission guidelines. Some publishers prefer only a query, some want to see the whole story. Publishers complain that many authors submit work that is not within their guidelines so read carefully.
Put your story together in a professional presentation. Take the time to show the publisher that you care about your work and are serious about getting published. Your submission is your first impression to the publisher. Make it a good one! This means following the guidelines exactly.
While submission requirements are similar, every publisher asks for different specific details. Font size, page number placement, title and author name placement can be some of the details you need to know to make a correct submission. Some publishers only accept submissions during certain times of the year, check for dates. Many submissions can be made online, saving cost of postage and printing, but you still have to follow the submission guidelines.
Keep track of where you submit your work and the date you submitted it. (Submission Tracking right at Writing.com is a good place to keep track, it's another good reason to have a Premium account.) Publishers will usually indicate how long it takes them to consider submissions. If you are submitting to publishers one at a time and don't receive a response from the publisher in a timely manner, send a letter of withdrawal to that publisher and move on to the next submission. Don't let your story languish!
The same goes for rejections, accept your rejections with grace, learn and perhaps revise from the publisher's suggestions (if any are made) and move on. Don't lose confidence after a few rejections, every author gets rejected, keep searching and submitting your work.
4. Save your clips! Clips are photocopies (keep the original) of your published article to keep in your publication portfolio; these help build an author's resume. Clips can be from anything you publish; from letters you send to the newspaper to articles in magazines which you only received copies as payment. Be sure to note the publisher and date it was published on your clip.
So now off you go, with a few suggestions from me, into the great publishing world. Good luck!
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| |  | Partner (13+)
A boy allows a dragon to be a tattoo on his back.
#1094671 by Kotaro  |
Excerpt: The old man lay on his back wheezing, gathering strength to call out to his grandson. He guessed that death was near and was afraid of dying before he could warn his grandson. There was something he had to say concerning a gift that could become a curse.
| |  | Invalid Item
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#1097234 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: The phone started to buzz in the middle of a student conference. I tried to ignore it, but my line of thought kept bending with it. Finally, I answered.
| | Level Up (ASR)
In this not-too-distant future world, two gamers have a difficult choice to make...
#1021631 by Bluestone  |
Excerpt: She found him on the forty-fifth level of the game. It was a barren maze of twists and turns: dark caverns, hidden passages, but not totally devoid of life. His avatar was a little higher than she was, facing away from her, waiting for something. She held back a little, wondering what held his attention in this particular room. Dead end.
Excerpt: There is a painting hanging in my room. A greasy painting that adorns the drab-gray, water-stained walls of the State Hospital. It is of an old man with oily hair—an overly fat man, the Founder of the hospital I think, smirking with a slack canvas face and wearing small pig-like eyes that stare madly.
| | | Invalid Item
This item number is not valid.
#906207 by Not Available. |
Excerpt:
Velvet was a vampire. She wasn’t a big, mean one. She wasn’t even grown up. She was a just a little kid like you -- except she was a vampire.
One day, Velvet Vampire said rather loudly, “I want to play in the sunshine.”
“Don’t be silly,” said her daddy vampire as he took their black capes out of the closet
Excerpt: In the afternoon, I sat with a book on the deck. I liked to be at the cottage, especially at this time of the year. Late August had advantages: warmer water in Georgian Bay, fewer people on the beaches, deeper shadows in the forest. The spots of sunshine filtered through the branches of the nearby trees danced on the porch floor.
| | | Invalid Item
This item number is not valid.
#1107250 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: Bub woke up with the chickens this morning because Grammy was coming to visit and she always brings surprises. He secretly hoped for bubble gum even though Mom didn’t approve.
| | | Invalid Item
This item number is not valid.
#1108102 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: It was a sunny summer day. The sky was a perfect blue and yellow butterflies sprinted among the colorful flowers dotting the lush green lawn in the garden. Seven year old Anna stepped out of her house, clutching a small picnic basket in one hand and a worn-out stuffed at in the other.
| | | Invalid Item
This item number is not valid.
#1102030 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: “r u there? ” types the woman online. She's won the auction and therefore is entitled to the prize. I can tell she's growing impatient with my distraction.
“yep,” I reply in small case type, “just thinking about how I can get that price down for u.”
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https://www.Writing.Com/go/nl_form
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This month's question: Where do you find publications to submit your work? How do you keep track of your submissions?
Last month's question: How do you work humor into your writing? Do you think a writer must be a funny person to be able to write humor?
Reader responses:
Laart1-Season of the Heart :Well done. This article is going to be extremely useful.  Lin
billwilcox:  Great Job, Leger! I have learned that the use of humorous words that begin with the letter 'K' are always funny. Anything that starts with 'K' IS a funny word. Try it!
hdelphyne: Thank you for the list of definitions of written and verbal humor. Amazing number of nuances noted in this list.  Thea
Andromeda : No submission, just a hearty thank you for an excellent newsletter on humor....I love writing it into my stories, but as you explained, if we're not careful...we are the only ones chuckling.
Happy Writing, Andromeda
Strange Wulf : I dunno how well I do at humor. I kind of try for the dry tongue-in-cheek style of Tolkien, since I liked his style in The Hobbit. He had a way of stating things that made me chuckle a little when I thought about them.
Of course, I'll probably put a little American humor in too, since I live here. And why not? A good mix is good to keep things fresh. So long as I don't mix it wrong...
Puditat : Leger, I love your tips on writing humour, which has always been a struggle for me. This issue now has found a home in my favourites. 
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| ASIN: B085272J6B |
Product Type: Kindle Store
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Amazon's Price: $ 9.99
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Short Stories: May 24, 2006 Issue [#1053]
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