A writer’s first sale is a big deal. I think only fellow creatives can truly understand how soul-crushing creating art can be, but that moment when someone not only likes your writing but is willing to pay to share it with their readers? It’s enough to bring tears to the eyes.
My Path to Short-Form Fiction
I’ve been writing creatively since high school, but I’ve only been serious about it for eight or so years. For all the countless hours I’ve poured into writing and editing, I hadn’t made a sale in that timeframe. Part of that was because I was fixated on long-form writing. I only wrote novels. I only queried said novels. This is probably the quickest way to get burnt out and lose any sense of self-worth because the odds are grossly stacked against anyone trying to snag a literary agent.
Enter short form and, more specific to this post, short stories.
I wrote short stories back when I was first dabbling in writing. I didn’t have the grand ideas I do now to even have a hope of penning a novel. But I did have little snip-bits that lent themselves well to short stories. Somewhere along the line, I abandoned writing in short form. I figured there wasn’t any future in it. I didn’t know what one did with short stories beyond entering contests. I wish I’d done a quick internet search to see my options because I feel like I’ve wasted a few years toiling away on novels when I could have been sharpening my writing chops on short stories.
Alas. We live, and we learn.
So, why did I suddenly pivot to short stories? Rejection after rejection after rejection. For my novels. But then I had a lovely chat with my graduate lab assistant who is also a fellow writer. She suggested I try my hand at short stories. It had helped her gain some name recognition for her own writing. It wouldn’t hurt for me to try.
I did. I mistakenly focused on contests, failed to win any, and then remembered there are magazines that publish fiction, specifically speculative fiction. Which brings us to Clarkesworld Magazine and my first sale.
I won’t go into the details of the story itself. Suffice it to say, it’s a dying Earth-style tale about a woman on a backwater world. Her husband stumbles on a piece of tech that speaks to her and tries to get her to do its bidding. It was my first real attempt at a science fiction short story for many years. I thought it had potential. Clarkesworld’s editor, Neil Clarke, must have too because he ended up paying for the rights and published it in his April 2025 issue, which you can find here.
The Process
This post isn’t just for bragging rights. It’s meant to pull back the curtain a bit. There are so many aspects to publishing that are mysterious and not terribly well-documented. In an effort to help other writers, I want to dive into how this publication process works, at least for short stories in a genre fiction magazine.
Submission
Clarkesworld has a stellar reputation for a reason. They publish quality content, and they do it lightning fast. They have, without a doubt, the fastest response time in the industry—just two days. Two. Days. That’s insanity, especially when you compare them to other speculative fiction magazines. Here are some of the other big name magazines’ response times (from to their websites):
- Analog: 2–6 weeks
- Apex: 60 days
- Asimov’s Science Fiction: 5 weeks
- Fantasy and Science Fiction: 8 weeks
- Lightspeed: 1 month
- Uncharted: 3 months
See what I mean about Clarkesworld now? The reason this is such a big deal is that the vast majority of fiction magazines don’t allow simultaneous submissions. In other words, you can’t submit you story to more than one magazine at a time. That means you submit it to one, wait around for a response, and once you get a rejection, submit the story to another magazine. Take a look at those response times again. Now, imagine waiting weeks to months for every attempt.
This is why Clarkesworld is great and is a big reason I opted to submit to them first, that and their reputation for high-quality work. I made my story, “The Seed,” as perfect as possible then used their online submission system to draft a brief cover letter and upload my story.
Waiting Game
Then, I waited. One day. Two days. Three days. What was going on?
Round 2?!
I took a look in their submission system. My status read “Round 2” or “Second Round,” I can’t remember the exact phrasing. In any case, I figured that had to be a good sign. Like any tiered system, the longer you’re in the game, the better.
But I’m not a very relaxed person. I’d even go so far to say I’m high-strung. Naturally, that means I did a quick internet search to see what round 2 could mean. Luckily, Neil is a prolific blogger and offers lots of information about his magazine. From his past posts, I found that only about 2–3% of submissions get to round 2. Okay, so, yes, this was good.
More Waiting
I kicked back and tried not to obsessively check my submission status. The days stretched into weeks. The Clarkesworld website suggests reaching out to them if you haven’t gotten a response within two weeks of submission. I let 15 days pass just to seem calm and collected (and because my husband suggested it). On day 15, I emailed Neil and asked for an update. It was all good, but still uncertain, news. He said they were a little behind but were hoping to have decisions by the following week.
Accepted!
A few days later I got a brief email from him saying he wanted to buy the first publication rights to “The Seed.” The pure joy. The raw satisfaction in knowing that my writing was okay, or better than okay; it was good enough to be published in Clarkesworld. I needed the validation. Sorely.
I rode on that high for the next week. In the meantime, Neil sent the contract. I read it, signed it, and sent it back.
Editing
The next day Neil had edits back to me. They were all minor and took no time at all to resolve. I sent the revised version back, and on it went to the proofreader. A little over a week later, Neil sent the final proof copy in the form of an html file. This is how it would appear on the website. I looked it over and sent my approval. I also asked when he expected to publish it. Their usual protocol has publication occurring within three months of acceptance, but since everything went so smoothly and they had a perfect slot for “The Seed,” Neil went ahead and put it in the April issue.
Podcast
Clarkesworld also narrates all their stories and puts them out via their podcast. Within a few days of my final approval of the story, their narrator, Kate Baker, reached out to me via email and asked for a recording of my name, the character names, and any terms with ambiguous pronunciations. I recorded those and sent the audio file back to her. Clarkesworld staggers their podcasts over the course of the month, so my story just came out. It’s surreal hearing someone narrate my story.
The Take-home
All this to say, the publication process for a short story in a fiction magazine was smooth and painless once I got past the hurdle of acceptance. I have no earthly idea how this process compares to a novel, since I’ve only self-published novels thus far.
From what I’ve read, the path to a novel’s publication is lined with rejection. Landing a literary agent is only the first of many obstacles. Given how straight-forward short stories are by comparison, it would be a waste for me not to keep trying my hand at them.
Let’s see how my next short story, “Wireworks,” fares. Asimov’s Science Fiction rejected it very quickly, but it’s been sitting with Analog for over a month now. Fingers crossed!
Have you ever submitted a story to a magazine? How did you find the process? Let me know in a comment.
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