How to get over the hump?

yes, it's all uphill until you get those first few important publishing credits.

with short stories the trick is to target the right mags with the right kind of story. and keep at it, it's the only way you can succeed. never, give up. keep writing and improve your writing with every line.

tylermarab1987 said:

I just don't know anymore. I've written some work that I am proud of, but it keeps getting rejected. Even the best I have to offer.

I understand landing an agent for a novel is difficult, but is getting short stories accepted by magazines just as hard?

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It's harder. The competition at magazines, at least at good, paying magazines, is much, much tougher than the competition at book publishers.

The best short story writers in the world submit to teh magazines, space is limited, and you actually have to beat out one of those writers in order to make a sale. If your story goes in, his does not, so your story actually has to be better than his, because if your goes in, his does not.

It isn't this way in book publishing. There's plenty of room at book publishers, and you don't have to beat out Stephen King in order to sell your book. There's room for his book, and for yours.

If you're trying to sell short stories for any reason other than love, forget it. It's a lot tougher to sell a short story to a good magazine than it is to sell a book to a good publisher.

zarada said:

yes, it's all uphill until you get those first few important publishing credits.

with short stories the trick is to target the right mags with the right kind of story. and keep at it, it's the only way you can succeed. never, give up. keep writing and improve your writing with every line.

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It gets no easier after you have credits. You get credits by being good enough to sell, by being better than your competition, and even after you have credits, this still applies. You still have to be good enough to sell, and you still have to be better than your competition.

And the competition at paying short story markets is far tougher than the competition at book publishers.

I have four published novels under my belt, and my short stories have been turned down by my own publisher! Getting into fiction magazines seems harder, to me.

popgun62 said:

I have four published novels under my belt, and my short stories have been turned down by my own publisher! Getting into fiction magazines seems harder, to me.

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I think any pro writer will agree with you. There's no doubt at all that it's harder, which means people need to stop trying to sell short stories in order to help sell a novel. The only reason short story cerdits help is because they're damned near impossible for the average writer to get.

the answer, as dull as it may sound, is not to fret over not getting published, but to keep writing. through obstinate, unrelenting writing is how you win. you will eventually be published -- but only if you keep writing.

I have no idea what happens at commercial magazines, and I have no idea what book publishers stats are to compare difficulty level. The Missouri Review, where I interned reading the slush in college, gets about 10,000 submissions per year and publishes 40 stories. That's less than a half a percent!

Jamesaritchie said:

It gets no easier after you have credits. You get credits by being good enough to sell, by being better than your competition, and even after you have credits, this still applies. You still have to be good enough to sell, and you still have to be better than your competition.

And the competition at paying short story markets is far tougher than the competition at book publishers.

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This has been my experience. Still getting form rejections despite having stories in pro markets and a Big Five novel on the way.

Write shorts if you love 'em. Keep 'em on the market. Write some more in the meantime. Same old, same old -- the more desks you hit, the more chance you'll hit the right one at the right time.