Selling Short Stories (pt 2)

Do you know of any markets for short stories?

Magazines are the largest markets for short stories. Check the current Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market. You can usually find these at your local library. Some libraries will let you check them out, others won’t—so bring pen & paper, or change for the copy machine.

Not only does this resource book list places to sell your short stories, it also contains writing tips and hints for polishing your work and how to submit.

As for anthologies, try googling “short story anthology submissions” to find sites that are looking for stories to publish. You can also google “short story contests.” Many of these contests are seeking submissions for an anthology or will publish the winners. While contests will often have a submission fee, a legit publisher simply calling for anthology submissions will not require an entry fee, an edit fee, or that you purchase published copies of the book. Some of these anthologies pay cash, others pay in copies.

A few annual contests and anthologies that are particularly interested in LDS writers are:

There are also some national contests, like:

This is a quick and very short list I found by googling “short story contests”. You can also google by genre, for example “romance short story contest”.

Readers, if you know of a call for short story submissions that is open right now, please put the link in the comments.

Amazon’s Best Book Covers of 2009


Amazon is doing “Vote for the Best Book Covers of 2009” contest HERE.

They’ve narrowed it down to ten covers and you vote for the one you like best. You get a chance to win a copy of the winning book.

Cool. What a great idea!

In fact, I think it’s such a cool idea, that I’m going to do it over on the LDS Fiction site.

I’m going to pick the Top 10 Covers of 2009 (IMHO) from the LDS Fiction site.

Then you get to vote on your favorite—and get a chance to win the winner!

I’ll post the T0p 10 next Friday, so if you know of a fiction title by an LDS author that’s come out this year, and it’s not on LDS Fiction, send me an e-mail ASAP so I can consider it for the contest.

Summer Reading Thing 2009!


Join us for the Summer Reading Thing 2009 reading challenge!

SRT 2009 is a low-pressure, easy challenge where you set your own goals for reading fiction by LDS authors.

We did this last year under the title Summer Book Trek. It was a lot of fun.

This year’s reading challenge starts in exactly one week. That gives you time to come up with a goal.

Click HERE for details.

Introducing the Contest Site

Networked with this site and the LDS Fiction site is a Contest site. (The Contest site was formerly the LDS Fiction site, but we did some juggling. You’ll need to reset your bookmarks and readers.)

The Contest site is where I’ll post all the contest information for the LDS Publisher and LDS Fiction sites. (As suggested by a reader. Thanx.) You’ll want to check the Contest site often because it helps you earn entries for the free book giveaways on the other two sites.

For example, starting today and continuing every Tuesday, we’ll have Trivia Tuesday (an amazingly clever title illustrating why publishers get paid the big bucks for thinking up book titles). Go play.

I’ll introduce another contest beginning this coming Friday, called Friday Favorites—another way to get an entry for a free book.

Of course, you can also leave a comment on the LDS Fiction site at any time and be entered to win one of the free books.

In addition to the LDS Fiction contests (for more details, click here), we’ll also announce the winners of the LDSP Monthly Comment Contests on the Contest site.

AND (this is the good part), if you’re doing a book giveaway on your blog or website, you may send me an e-mail with all the specifics (start and end time, book title, contest requirements, links to your contest, etc.) and I’ll post it over on the Contest site as well. (Yea!)

As always, leaving a thoughtful comment anywhere on this LDS Publisher site earns you an entry for the free book giveaway here. (See books at the top of the sidebar.)