GUEST BLOG: Gargi Mehra on Short fiction Markets

Where do I put my shorts?

If you’re anything like me, the first time you finished up a piece of short fiction, you asked yourself, ‘Where can I send this stuff?’

The answer to that question is: plenty of places. The internet will throw up a slew of markets where you can submit your fiction, but how do you dig up the places best suited to your story? Here are a few of the resources you should use to locate the best home for your piece:

Duotrope.com: This is the one-stop shop for all things fiction. It serves as the ultimate resource for writers who want to search a market for their fiction. You can specify the genre, sub-genre, literary style, word count, and even whether you are looking for high-paying or low-paying markets.

One of the highlights of Duotrope is that response times are detailed out for each magazine, as also their acceptance and rejection rates. Duotrope has risen to such high levels of popularity as a referral source that most magazines encourage their contributors to refer their response times to Duotrope.

Ralan.com: Targeted specifically towards humorous and speculative fiction, Ralan.com has proved an invaluable resource over the years. This site too lists response times for each magazine.

NewPages.com: In addition to market listings it also provides reviews of literary magazines.

When you finally do zero in on a list of markets that suit your work, do take a moment to read the current and past issues which are almost always available online. Reading a few pieces might give you an idea of where best your work will fit.

Gargi Mehra is a software engineer by profession, but a writer at heart. Despite the best efforts of her family and friends, she writes humor pieces in a determined effort to unite the two sides of the brain in cerebral harmony. Her fiction has appeared in Everyday Fiction  and Six Sentences. She blogs at http://gargimehra.wordpress.com/