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How hard is it to sell a short story?

Getting your short story published is often more difficult than actually writing the story. Even with thousands of literary magazines accepting short stories for publication, you still have less than a 10% chance of getting your story published any time you submit.

nathanieltower.com - How To Sell Short Stories for Good Money - Nathaniel Tower
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Last Updated on July 17, 2020 by Nathaniel Tower

I recently saw a meme regarding Little Women and Jo’s $100 prize for winning a short story contest. According to the meme, the truly sad part of Little Women is it shows writers that rates for short stories haven’t changed in the past 100 years. While there may be some truth to this, there are definitely ways to make money with short stories. As managing editor at Bartleby Snopes, I hosted a writing contest that once awarded over $2000 for a single short story. Not a bad payout for a single story that was less than 3,000 words. Certainly better than what Jo got.

How to make money with short stories

If you are trying to get rich as a short story writer, you might want to rethink your goals. But that certainly doesn’t mean you should stop writing short stories, nor does it mean you can’t make money from them. In full disclosure, I do not make a living writing short stories. I have made a very good living as a writer, but that has been for business/marketing writing, which is quite a bit different from writing short stories. However, I have had over 300 short stories published, including dozens from paying venues. The most I have ever made from a single short story is $500, and my total income from short stories in the past 10 years is around $5000. Not a ton of money by any stretch of the imagination, but enough to feed part of my vinyl addiction. Upon hearing these numbers, other writers routinely ask me how I’ve managed to have so much success with my short stories. Apparently $5000 from short stories is pretty good. Granted, there are publications that pay a lot for a single story, but the type of writing I do isn’t a good fit for those publications. My shortcomings as a writer aside, let’s dive into how you can make money from your short stories.

How do you sell a short story for money?

First, find paying venues. This may sound incredibly obvious, but if you want to make money with your short stories, you can’t submit them to publications that only pay you with exposure. There are thousands of websites and magazines that publish short stories. About 90% of them won’t pay you a dime. Markets that pay for short stories can typically be divided into these categories:

Pro – Publications that pay 5 cents or more per word

Semi-pro – Publications that pay 1-4 cents per word

Token – Publications that pay less than 1 cent or less per word There are also publications that pay royalties, although this gets a little convoluted when you are dealing with short stories because you are typically going to be sharing the royalties with all the other published authors in a publication. This often leads to a very small amount of money. Some publications also “pay” contributors with an author copy, but since this is an article about selling your short stories for money, we aren’t going to consider that a payment. While some of the highest paying publications are almost impossible to crack with an unsolicited submission, there are some publications with promising acceptance rates that offer more than just a $5 token payment.

Where can I submit short stories for money?

So how do you find these publications that pay money? It’s pretty simple. Use a tool like Duotrope, Submission Grinder, or Poets & Writers. Keep in mind that Duotrope charges subscription fees, but in my opinion it’s the best tool for finding paying venues. And selling just one short story can pay for several years of Duotrope. There are also websites and Facebook groups out there dedicated entirely to finding publications that pay writers for stories. These lists change all the time, so I’m not going to link any of them here, but you can find them easily enough through a Google search. I’m going to refrain from providing a long list of places where you can submit your stories for money for a few reasons:

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Promotion

Submission windows are constantly changing

Publications frequently update payment policies

New paying venues are opening almost daily

Magazines are closing their doors to submissions at an alarming rate

As mentioned above, your best bet is to use a tool like Duotrope that provides almost real-time data regarding paying venues.

My #1 method for selling short stories

Almost every time I’ve sold a short story, it’s been because of a venue I found through Duotrope. Although I’m currently not a subscriber because I haven’t been writing short stories, my secret to doing this is checking the new listings feature and sorting by those that offer payments. These venues typically have high acceptance rates because they are just getting off the ground, and they can offer some pretty decent payments because they are trying to attract new writers and readers. This is the exact method I used to sell a single short story for $500.

Finding a publication that pays is only the first step

Once you find a venue that pays, now the hard work begins. You need to get them to pay for your story. Given that most of these venues receive thousands of monthly submissions and only accept a tiny percentage of them, this can be a daunting task. However, there are a few things you can do to improve your odds: Select your venues carefully – You should only submit your writing to a venue if you strongly feel you have something they will want to publish. This means you will have to read their guidelines thoroughly, and you’ll probably need to study their publication a bit as well. Yes, this takes time, but it also saves time (and the pain of rejection) in the long run. Submit to new venues that are paying – Although these will typically be smaller payments, it’s often much easier to get published by a brand new venue. If you are looking for a quick and easy win, I recommend sending your work to these publications first. Don’t give up – A rejection from one venue is not a rejection of your story as a whole. It’s simply one place telling you they don’t want to invest in your story. Don’t be discouraged by rejection. Continue to send your short story out to paying publications until you get an acceptance. There are other obvious pieces of advice for selling your short stories, which include: Write unique and compelling stories people will actually want to read. Avoid these topics.

Revise, edit, and proofread your stories until they are perfect

Develop your author brand and become a known entity publications will want to publish

Making money by submitting to short story contests

A short story contest can be the best way to rack up a big payday for your short story. It won’t be easy to win, but when you weigh the odds of winning against the odds of getting published by the likes of Glimmer Train, you’ll be better off submitting to a contest about 100% of the time. If you want to win the contest, make sure you study the rules carefully and submit the best piece of writing you can. Again, this should be pretty obvious, but you’d be amazed by how many writers will throw together something quickly just to see if it will win. Spoiler alert: It won’t. You can easily find paying short story contests by using Duotrope, Newpages, or other writing resources. Just make sure you thoroughly vet the contests first, especially if they charge an entry fee. Don’t submit if the contest doesn’t seem reputable. After all, you are trying to make money from your short stories, not waste your time.

Sell short stories on Amazon

Self-publishing and selling your short stories on Amazon is another way you can make a decent side income with your stories. It’s important to start with low expectations, and you’ll need to work hard to get the word out about your stories. I’m not going to give you a tutorial on how to sell short stories through Amazon. It’s actually a very easy process, and you can find a lot of other articles out there that will walk you through the process. Or you can just log in to Amazon’s KDP site and do it yourself without reading any tutorials. All you really need is a well-formatted short story and some decent cover art.

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Short story writer C.S. DeWildt has gone the Amazon route with his short stories, and although he hasn’t gotten rich from his writing, he does have some great advice for writers hoping to sell their stories: “If I had more time to promote my work and could build up a bigger catalog of stories, I know I could be very successful on Amazon. While I haven’t made a ton of money, it’s easy to get your work on Amazon, and it’s a lot more money than I would have made if I HADN’T done it.” One big advantage of publishing a short story through Amazon instead of traditional publishing is that you can stand to make money in perpetuity. Most of the time, when you sell a short story to a publisher, you’ll get a one-time payment. With Amazon, you’ll collect a royalty every time a copy of your story sells. The downside is that you’ll have to do the marketing to get the word out about your story. Don’t just expect people to find it, although you might get lucky. I have published several short stories on Amazon under a pen name, and one of them was picked up by a rather large news website because of the timeliness and outlandishness of the topic. This led to a lot of sales in a very short time, and the story still brings in a few dollars a month.

The final word on selling short stories

Selling short stories is certainly not a get-rich-quick scheme. However, there is growing interest in the short story genre as people want to read more even though they have less time, and you can make some decent money selling your stories if you work hard and find the right venues or channels of distribution. Have you had any luck selling your short stories? Share your advice and experiences in the comments. And don’t forget to share this post on all your favorite channels.

Selling short stories FAQ

Can you make money selling short stories? Yes, it's definitely possible to make money selling short stories. There are hundreds of websites and magazines that pay for short stories. You might not get rich selling your short stories, but this can be a great source of side income. How much can I make from selling short stories? How much you make from selling a short story depends a lot on where you sell the story. A typical range for a short story can be anywhere between $5 and $1,000, but it's possible to make even more if you find the right publication or channel. Can I sell short stories on Amazon? Yes, you can self-publish and sell your short stories on Amazon. You will receive a royalty for each copy of your story that sells. It's easy to set up your stories for sale on Amazon, but you will need to actively promote your stories in order to sell a lot of copies. Should I give away my short stories for free? Giving away your short stories for free or for exposure is one way to get more readers. However, it doesn't often lead to much recognition or future opportunities. If you want to make money as a writer, you need to make sure you get paid for your writing.

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