Getting short stories published (with a UK bias)

Let’s face it, short stories aren’t popular in the UK. In 2002 "fewer than 25 books of short stories were produced by mainstream publishers. And two thirds were by writers from abroad" (Debbie Taylor, Mslexia). Things have improved since then – mostly because of small presses. Even so, when a collection does well it’s because the author’s already famous - Jojo Moyes, Tom Hanks, etc.

Before you try to publish a story collection (or publish it yourself) it’s a good idea to get individual stories published (not least because publishers look in magazines for authors). There are several ways to find the right place for your stories -

• Each year Salt publishes “Best British Short Stories”. All the stories have been previously published, so you can find out where the stories come from. Alas, none of the 20 stories in “Best British Short Stories 2024” came from English literary magazines, largely because hardly any exist (Scotland’s “Postbox” is the only UK paper-based story magazine I know). The best-represented magazine was US-based (online) “Fictive Dream” with 3 Flashes from UK-based authors.
• If you like a short story collection, look at its Acknowledgements page to get ideas for where to send stories.
• There are several online lists of magazines that accept stories. One of the most useful ones is Brecht de Poortere's, freely downloadable from https://www.brechtdepoortere.com/rankings which tries to rank them objectively, 1st being “The New Yorker” and 1126th being “Witcraft”. It’s a spreadsheet with many columns of information so you can add your own formulae to search etc.
• “Stand”, “London Magazine”, “Granta”, “Dream Catcher”, "Confingo", “Orbis”, and “Under the Radar” are about the only UK print literary magazines that print stories between poems. In the USA and Ireland the situation is much better.
• There used to be quite a few themed anthologies – SF in particular. Nowadays they're not usually open-submission - they tend to be themed around illness, ethnicity, LGBTQ, etc
• There are Facebook groups that tell you what opportunities are available – e.g. “Submissions: Magazines and publishers”
• Many magazines use Submittable to deal with submissions. Magazines have to pay if they get too many monthly submissions. Some magazines stop accepting submissions once they reach their limit, so submit early in the month. Duosuma - is an alternative to Submittable, more focussed on writers’ needs. They have details on over 7,500 publishers/agents which can be searched using over 20 search criteria – free for a trial period.
• You often need to pay to submit nowadays - $3 is typical. Sometimes you get money if your story is published. If you’re going to pay, perhaps you might as well enter competitions. Several produce anthologies of the long-listed pieces, and publishers notice prize-winners. I wouldn’t bother entering competitions unless the 1st prize is at least 100 times the entry fee.
• Flash is the big growth area. There are many online options available, and collections are increasingly common. Flash can be as long as 1500 words - a short story!

Warning – for any decent magazine, acceptance rates are likely to be below 1%.