I need some advice about a piece I wrote...

[Javaman]

What do people do with short subject fiction these days? Who do I submit it to, etc?

Thanks in advance.

[blm]

1. Genre?

[Javaman]

3. Sci-fi.nt

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. Writer's Market 2024 will be 103 year

https://www.writersdigest.com/getting-published/announcing-the-100th-edition-of-writers-market

[Trueblue Texan]

4. I put mine on Amazon...

...but I've sold exactly 0 copies in 2 years. Anybody wanna read a Christmas story? "Merry Christmas, Mama" by Lanore Dixon. How about a story about old love? "A Time to Keep" by Lanore Dixon.

Good Luck!

[Javaman]

5. How do you go about doing that? nt

[Javaman]

7. thank you for the condescending response. Have a nice day. you are now blocked. Cheers! :) nt

[Trueblue Texan]

9. I know how I did it, but there may be other, cheaper ways.

I put my manuscript in the Vellum software and it generated an ebook for me--Vellum is noted for nice ebooks, but there are other apps that are cheaper. Just google it. Then you can either hire someone to make you a cover on fiver.com or go over to Etsy.com or creativefabrica.com and buy a ready-made, editable cover. You upload it all to Amazon, with keywords, description, etc. You decide what formats and selling price you want to use and hit publish. You can find plenty of YouTube videos and free kindle books on Amazon to walk you through the process. They've made it pretty straight forward once you stick your toe in the water. They'll give you a number, equivalent to an ISBN or you can go buy your own. That's what I did because I've got ambitions to publish more books and frankly I've sold quite a few books in other markets besides Amazon--you can't do that if you use Amazon's number. But if you've got your own ISBN (which you obtain from Bowker) you can sell your work anywhere.

I think you can find a good starting place at kdp.amazon.com. If not just google KDP books.

Everything you need to learn to get the job done is available for little or no money online. Good luck to you and enjoy the learning journey!

[Javaman]

11. Thank you so much for the info!

😀 this helps a lot!

[nuxvomica]

13. How many words?

There are a few flash fiction sites but they have word limits, usually up to 1,000 words.

[Javaman]

14. thanks for the info. I have to check the word count. nt

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

15. And way to many have 1,000 words as their minimum.

Me? I write VERY short. 500 words is a long story for me.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

16. Are you aware of the many short story markets for science fiction?

Plus, many anthologies that are open to anyone who wants to submit. I've edited two such. The trick is to find the open anthologies. Which really isn't all that hard. Google is helpful. Furthermore, science fiction cons.

Do you go to science fiction cons? You need to. I happen to live in Santa Fe and attend Bubonicon in Albuquerque, Mile Hi in Denver, and several others. There are tons and tons of cons. You will get to meet many writers and editors up close and personal. As well as other fans. Oh, and while Comicons are wonderful on their own, they are HUGE, with thousands of attendees, and so getting to really interact with editors and writers will be minimal. Stick to the standard s-f cons. Google "science fiction cons near me" and you may be very surprised at how many there are, depending on where you live.

Honestly, science fiction is almost the only place where there's a decent market for short stories. Every other genre you can think of has almost no short story outlets.

[Javaman]

17. Thank you so much for all the advice!

I haven't been to a Con in a long while. I'm a bit of an introvert and really stay away from crowds. Well, it seems i have a mission now. LOL

[mikelewis]

18. Are you trying to sell it or expose your work?

lulu.com let's you publish anything you want

and

draft2digital is also amazing...

you can either sell them or give them away... check it out... you'll see

[Javaman]

19. primarily for exposure. thanks for the info. :) nt

[catrose]

20. There's Duotrope, $50/year I think. Every Saturday they send you a list of markets. You can keep track of your subs too

There's a Facebook group, Open Call, that has posts about markets.

If you make short books or collections for Amazon, as some have suggested, you can promote them on places like StoryOrigin and BookFunnel, where you can offer people a free story to sign up for your newsletter or direct them to your books on Amazon.

And Writer's Market too is a good source.

Good luck!