Where to Get Paid Writing Short Stories

Recently I wrote a story, a short story. It was about death, my father’s death. The story was neither morbid nor moving, it was a walk down memory lane.

I was reminiscing about life, the few days we have on earth, and suddenly we are gone, our presence wiped out as if we never existed. And not long after, we become distant memories even to those we loved. But the circle of life continues for those still alive.

I didn’t want it published. The story was a catharsis, I was mourning, in a private but very public sort of way. I wanted to purge past pain.

Every writer has moments like this when all they want is to dig into the recesses of their past and face demons never laid to rest.

My wife read the story, thought it was worth my writing salt, and send it to a publisher. They wrote back offering $500 to publish. That caught me by surprise, I didn’t imagine I could make some money mourning publicly.

I had accidentally wandered into the world of short story writing. And because writers are big-mouthed, — we always scream about our successes.

I thought, “Why not share about this money-making opportunity?”

Before jumping into the intricacies of short story writing and who pays, here are a few things you ought to know.

There are different types of short stories, anecdotes, flash fiction, fables, and mini-sagas. — Different publications prefer different stories.

My wife sent my story to an online magazine, they are hungry for fresh stories with new perspectives.

I realized it might be easier to earn from writing short stories than from writing a novel, frankly writing a novel takes more time and requires detailed groundwork. But you can whip out a short story in one seating.

The trick to getting your short story accepted by online publications that pay is to choose a website that fits your writing style.

Here are 5 online publications that pay for original and creative short stories:

Agni

Essays and poetry are both published in literary journals.

Agni is a literary magazine that specialized in publishing essays and poetry. In their words:

“We look for writing that catches experience before the crusts of habit form — poetry and prose that resist ideas about what a certain kind of writing “should do.” We seek out writers who tell their truths in their own words and convince us as we read that we’ve found something no one else could have written.”

Prospective writers and literary enthusiasts can submit an article to the magazine and get paid. They accept manuscripts between September 1st and May 31st.

The manuscripts are received by post or electronically. There is no word limit for your essays. However, the length of the essay will determine the decision of publishing an essay so don’t write a lengthy one.

When writing your short story or essay, avoid romance, mystery, horror, or science fiction genres. The magazine is only interested in personal essays, memoirs, think pieces, short stories, and poems.

There are a few things about this platform that you should know before you submit your work:

• You can only submit one story at a time and five poems at a time.
• Your writing should not have been published previously or featured anywhere.
• The document must be double-spaced and page numbered.

PAYMENT DETAILS

Agni pays $ $20 per printed (or printed-out) page for accepted prose, and $40 per page for accepted poetry, up to a maximum of $300. Keep in mind, your writing has to be accepted by the magazine before you get paid.

Analog

Are you a science enthusiast? Do you enjoy the compelling imagination of science fiction stories? If yes, then you can publish your own imaginative science world in Analog.

Analog is a leading science fiction publication magazine that publishes some of the best science fiction work with an accurate scientific base. It also publishes factual articles on leading scientific research.

On the platform, articles are published based on merit so you have to be good at writing to get your article accepted. Write well-researched and realistic scientific stories, and you could make good money on the platform.

You can also submit an illustration with your work as most writers do, but it should be visually appealing and related to your story.

When publishing, there are a few things to consider;

• Fact articles and stories are also an option for this magazine,
• They only allow up to 6 poem submissions and 4 stories or articles,
• You should include a cover letter with your manuscript that includes your name and publishing history,
• You’ll need to check the manuscript format on the website before publishing,
• You can submit your work through their online portal.

PAYMENT DETAILS

Payment depends on acceptance. Analog pays 8–10 cents per word for short fiction (up to approximately 20,000 words), 6 cents per word for serials (40,000–80,000 words), 9 cents per word for fact articles, and $1 per line for poetry. They also pay $1200 for colored cover art and $125 for black and white cover.

The Sun

The Sun is a world-famous magazine that publishes personal essays, short stories, and poems. If you can write pieces on various global content, consider writing for the Sun.

Luckily it is open for writers at the moment.

It publishes personal essays, short stories, and poetry — “that’s too personal for any other journal — the one where you’re so unguarded you need editors you can trust and compassionate readers who will honor your vulnerability.”

They encourage submissions from writers whose perspectives are underrepresented. from writers of color, queer and trans, writers with disabilities, incarcerated writers, and others who are marginalized on the basis of their circumstances or identity.

Even though there is no word limit for writing, the magazine hasn’t published anything longer than 7000 words.

You can submit your work either online or via post. If you choose to submit online, you are required to create your ID on the website and use the online portal for your work submission.

PAYMENT DETAILS

Personal essays and fiction stories are paid in the range of $300 to $2000. Poetry is paid between $100 to $250. Payment is after acceptance so do check out the sample essays given on The Sun’s website before proceeding to manuscript submission, so you know what to write.

Clarkesworld

Clarkesworld is an award-winning science fiction and fantasy magazine that publishes stories and articles every month. If you can write science fiction stories this platform suits you.

The magazine accepts stories in — well-written language and style. They should be easy to read on-screen too.

Stick to short and precise paragraphs. Your story should also be suitable for audio.

Submissions should strictly be in the English language.

When writing a story for submission, avoid clichés mentioned on their website and adhere to the manuscript guidelines. Your story should be between 1000 to 22000 words and it should be submitted online.

You can also submit non-fiction articles but, you have to follow the guidelines on the website and avoid topics that will devalue your article. Non-fiction articles should not exceed 2500 words. Besides, you can also submit your artwork if you are a talented artist or illustrator.

PAYMENT DETAILS

The magazine pays its writers through PayPal or Check. However international writers can opt for wire transfers as well. For fiction stories, the company pays its writers 10 cents per word.

Carve

Carve magazine publishes short stories, non-fiction, and poetry on its online platform as well as in print and digital issues. The magazine seeks fresh writing content and poetry that is original and has an emotional depth to it.

They accept submissions throughout the year and there is no deadline for submission. You can submit your work online or by post.

The word limit for fiction and non-fiction is 10000 words, whereas poetry is 2000 words maximum.

Carve seeks literary writing only, it does not publish genres such as horror, mystery, and fantasy.

Before submitting your work, ensure you include a cover letter. And you don’t need to worry in case your writing doesn’t get accepted at Carve. If it gets published elsewhere, the magazine will publish your writing in their magazine as well and you will get paid.

PAYMENT DETAILS

Fiction stories are paid $100; non-fiction and poetry are paid $25.

Final Thoughts:

Now with these glaring money-making opportunities, should you become a full-time short story writer?

The answer is -I don’t know, maybe you should — it doesn’t hurt writing emotive words and getting paid some bucks.

 

This article was first published Here: Where to get Paid for Writing Short Stories