With Chiswick Book Festival over – it has been fun – @W4BookFest – it’s a return to this autumn’s main task. To polish and submit short stories. The question of finding publishers of short stories came up more than one during the Festival’s sessions.

There are 2 main destinations for short stories: competitions and submissions to Indie presses. Unless, that is, you are intending to publish your own anthology, in which case you have the choice of submitting to Indies or self-publishing.

Competitions can be sub-divided into those run by writing magazines and those run by others.

Writing Magazines

Mslexia: A quarterly magazine aimed at women writers, subscription only. It offers a short story (£10) and a flash fiction (£5) competition. Both of these now have a deadline of 30 September. See the website www.mslexia.co.uk/competitions.

Writing Magazine: A monthly issue aimed at the more commercial market but I think worth reading. If you think you’ll take it regularly, or like me, aim to enter the competitions, subscribe. The September issue asks for entries on: Modern Speculative Fiction (£6, £4 subscriber) and The Single Character Story (Subscribers only, free). Closing date: 15 October.  www.writers-online.co.uk

For other writing competitions try this site:  The Big List of UK Writing Competitions https://www.neonbooks.org.uk › big-list-writing-competitions

My two favourite Indie Presses are : (big publishers only publish stories by big names.)

The Fiction Desk has an original, but good, attitude towards competitions and submissions. They don’t run competitions. The fee for submissions is £3. They explain all on their website is: https://www.thefictiondesk.com 

Galley Beggar Press  deadline 29 September  Find them at https://www.galleybeggar.co.uk ›

Or Google Indie Presses submissions  but don’t be taken in by the adverts placed by self-publishers.

Mslexia Magazine publishes a guide to Indie Presses. (£14.99) A good investment https://mslexia.co.uk › products › indie-press-guide › indie-press-guide

 Spread the Word: if you live in London this is a brilliant organisation to follow. Their Life Writing Prize opens in November. Entry is free. https://www.spreadtheword.org.uk

I hope the above helps. You will always more information on what to do with your short stories. Read it all carefully, consider the costs, decide exactly what YOU want to do. Best of luck. I once won £1000 so it can be done.

If you would like a 1 page sheet of comments on your story or an edit of up to 5K words respond through this website and we’ll discuss terms.