Magazines and Ongoing Fiction

Selling a series like that in one go would be unusual. However, if each story could be read without reading the rest, you can submit them as separate stories. It sounds like that might be the case with yours.

There are a couple of magazines I can think of running serials, but the ones I can immediately think of are in the "women's fiction" shelf - Woman's Own, People's Friend, those types of magazines - but there are probably many more places open to longer fiction if you look hard enough.

Good luck.

If you're writing mysteries, you can create a series with similar themes for either AHMM or EQMM. Of course, you have to sell to them first, which is darn hard, and you have to maintain that high quality for every story you submit. Each story must also be 'stand-alone.' These two magazines take 'longer' stories if they are very good, and they pay pro-rates, which is nice. The same can be said of their 'sister' magazines in the sci-fi and fantasy genres.

Check out Duotrope for other possible places to submit.

Or, write all your stories, put them into an anthology and get yourself an agent. Short story collections aren't easy to sell either, but if they're stand-out stories and well-written, you could give it a try.

You'll have a much easier job breaking in with single, shorter stories. Especially with the pro or semi-pro markets. By shorter, I mean at or under 5000 words for sure, but under 3000 words, even better.

If your stories can stand alone, sub them singly. Then if you sell one, let the editor know you have other stories of the same sort, in case he's interested in a series.

You might also find opportunities in epubbing the stories yourself. I see shorts selling for $0.99 or so. Something to think about, particularly if you can build a fanbase prior to the venture.

You could always edit the stories to fit the market you want to sell to, and keep the longer versions for your collection.

As long as each story stands alone, you're fine. If they don't, very few magazines run serials.

My friend wrote a series of short stories related to a central theme based on experiences she had while a therapist for the prison system. She started querying and has been accepted by a publisher.

She knew that getting a short story collection published was close to nil, but decided to try anyway. Her stories are specialized and pretty dark.

As for magazines, they must be stand alone.

Shirokirie said:

The magazines that I have been researching do not display anyone continuing on with a 'series' of any sort. So I am wondering if magazines are open to this sort of thing at all.

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Serialized stories are pretty much history in print magazines, although online mags often have them. But I think the print edition of Analog science fiction has serialized stories regularly.