Selling Short Stories For Money

luckylouise08

I am wondering if anyone knows of any good agencies that can work for me on my behalf? I write short stories which i would like to get published in magazines. Most magazines accept submissions by post but I would prefer to have an agency that could get my stories accepted at magazines on my behalf (even if this means that they take a cut of my profit), as I fear that if I keep sending my stories off, it will cost me a lot in envelopes especially if my stories are not accepted or the wait will be quite long before i hear from the magazine companies. Any suggestions or tips would be most welcome. Thank you. Louise

lincroft1710

The "Writers and Artists Yearbook" has a list of literary agents amongst its very useful chapters. Not too expensive to buy and probably a copy in your local library's reference section.

Fruittea

Hi there

I agree with Lincroft - when I studied creative writing and this was covered in the course work. It's quite a tough market out there and getting the right agent is critical. I have a year book about three years old - but thy don't change that often. You need to define your genre as there are hundreds of agents with very different remits.

Good luck

heretolearn_2

I can confidently say there are no agencies that place short stories in women's magazines. If you have a look through the Writers and Artists yearbook you'll find agent listings and it tells you what they are interested in representing. short stories are not part of that world as there simply would be no profit in it for them. I don't know what you think stories like these earn but it's usually less than £100, even in the major magazines. What agent is going to waste their time reading through hundreds if not thousands of short stories that would be submitted to them to find the one that might possibly if they were lucky earn them £10?

You'll just have to put the work in yourself. Even then few people actually make any money much out of it if you work out your hourly rate, it's more of an interesting hobby.

Gazing_On_Sunsets

Absolutely what heretolearn said. No agent will do it. But - you're worried about envelope costs? Some markets now take email submissions. The magazines that do take short stories, and actually pay, are diminishing all the time. Articles are a better bet for income. But, if it's short stories you want to do, make sure you read the magazine you're submitting to, and also read their guidelines - often online, and the "Womagwriter" blogspot is very useful.

Here are the markets I've found that take short stories and pay:
People's Friend. They like heartwarming stuff and have not raised their payrates in at least 5 years. It's £75 per story, regardless of wordcount. However they publish loads every week.
Take a Break weekly magazine has "meh" stories but the monthly fiction feast is fabulous and totally not what you might expect, and they pay a sliding scale on word count from £200 up to £400. Postal only.
Woman's Weekly I've not yet managed to get in - but they do pay. They have a monthly fiction collection too.
The Weekly News pays and publish about 3 stories a week, but they have a long backlog apparently at the moment. They accept email submissions.
Beyond that, the markets are few...I think The Lady might take some, or they used to. Woman's Own don't anymore, nor do Best or Bella.

heretolearn_2

Woman's Weekly do not look at submissions from writers unknown to them any more. It's down to just Take a Break, The weekly News, and People's Friend pretty much for newbies.

they all have submission guidelines on their websites or on request - very helpful so at least you can give what you send them the best chance. Womags blog extremely helpful too as GOS said.

The_Write_Girl

You WILL NOT get an agent to sell short stories on your behalf. It's difficult enough to get an agent, having written a novel. And even then, they receive hundreds of fiction submissions each week and only take on 2-3 new writers a year.

Short stories do not pay good money - it's purely pocket money. I don't even bother submitting short stories as the money is rubbish.

You have to be prepared to spend some cash in the initial submission phase if you are a novelist. Posting an ms can cost several pounds per time.

Getmeoutofdebt

Have you thought about maybe doing a book of a collection of short stories and uploading it to Amazon to sell as one of their Kindle e-books? I have no idea what's involved but my cousin write short horror stories and is selling them in this way and she is only 16 years old and making money out of it. She only sells them at £1 a time but if say 100 people download it then you're not doing too badly. I asked her about it a while ago and she says its really easy, it tells you how to do it somewhere on the Amazon website.
Just an idea? Hope it helps.
Good luck!

lincroft1710

Yours magazine publish short stories from "amateur" writers. But it is a fortnightly and there's usually only one story per issue.

cally6008

Getmeoutofdebt wrote: »

I asked her about it a while ago and she says its really easy, it tells you how to do it somewhere on the Amazon website.

Links - https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A29FL26OKE7R7B

Links - https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/signin

I was bored so hunted the links out

Elaine_Wilson

You might want to keep your eye on the Alfie Dog site (link here).

It is an interesting concept but hasn't started selling the stories yet and payment is by commission only.