Ruyi's World of Books & Stories

Lots of us write short stories. But when we think of making money from our writing, we tend to get hung up on the idea of publishing a novel—or, better yet, a series of novels. Short stories are ways to explore new ideas and techniques or are giveaways for our email newsletter readers, but they don’t pay the bills. Not so fast. For a long time, short stories were actually a fiction writer’s best way to break into paying work, and they can still form a strong part of your author career. Selling short fiction into paying markets nets you exposure, new readers, and, oh yeah, some cash! Sure, most literary magazines and fiction markets don’t pay a ton, but it never hurts to add another tool to your kit, giving you another distribution channel and a way to bolster your professional career. There are new literary magazines opening all the time, especially online, and so it’s impossible to come up with a definitive list of all the paying markets currently accepting submissi...

Getting paid to write is the goal of every dedicated author—and it’s even better if you can get paid to write only a couple of words at a time. That frees you up to go write more things elsewhere, keep your releases coming regularly, and always be providing your fans with new work to enjoy. This is one of the reasons flash fiction is so great. We’ve talked before about what flash fiction is and how you can use it to promote your books, but did you know you can also get paid to write super-short stories? Paid Flash Fiction Markets Believe it or not, there are actually quite a few paying markets for flash fiction! You’ll never make as much as you would selling a novel or a short story, but you can get paid to write flash fiction and start building your publishing credits up. If you belong to a writing marketplace website like Poets & Writers , Writers Digest , or Duotrope , you can search their listings for magazines and journals that are currently accepting flash fic...