M.A.Gardener said:
I know, I know. You're saying "You'll get published if the writing is great," or something like that. But my critique group likes my writing (and is very vocal when they don't like it!), but I haven't yet had a story accepted! How many times does it take? Do you have to be "in" at Ellery Queen or Hitchcock to get published?
Whah, whine, etc.
Well, to be honest, the opinion of a critque group generally doesn't amount to much when it comes to what is and isn't salable. They can help you with mechanics, with grammar, with punctuation, with whether or not the story makes sense, they can tell you they like or don't like a story, and it just doesn't matter. No critique group can't tell you what is or isn't a salable story.
It takes as much time as it takes, and that's the only real answer there is. I sold my first short story. William Saroyan, a better writer than I'll ever be, received almost 4,000 rejections before selling a short story.
No, you don't need an "in" at Ellery Queen or Alfred Hitchcock. You don't need an "in" anywhere. What you must have, however, is a story that's better than 99% of all the other stories the editor receives the month she reads yours. I think I had three or four rejections from Ellery Queen before selling them a story, but believe me, every one of the rejections I received was deserved. The stories simply were not good enough.
But Ellery Queen does have a "Department of First Stories" reserved for writers who haven't been published before, and this is a real advantage. But your story still has to be very, very good. And it must be something the editor doesn't see all the time.
I believe the best chance a new writer has of breaking into a good magazine is to first read at least a couple of dozen issues of the magazine, and then give the editor something you didn't find. A different plot, different characters, a unique location, etc.
How hard is it to get published? I can't recall who said it, but one of the wisest comments I've ever heard was, "Getting published is easy. Writing something publishable is, however, extremely difficult."