Paying Markets for Storytellers

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Land of Opportunity

America is a land of opportunity, especially so for writers. With a large population and a high literacy rate, the audience for fiction is huge and there are a staggering number of publications in the USA accepting writers' submissions.

With so many options to choose from it is not easy for a writer to know where to begin. For this fortnight's column, I decided to start at the top and investigated the three most recent winners of the prestigious National Magazine Award in the category of Fiction.

The Virginia Quarterly Review, which won the award in 2006, is a quarterly literary publication with a long and illustrious existence. Since its inception in 1925, its pages have been graced by the works of such authors as H. G. Wells, Thomas Wolfe, Gabriel García Márquez, Joyce Carol Oats, Peter Taylor, D. H. Lawrence and many others.

If you think you have what it takes to add your own name to this list, visit the VQR website using the link at the bottom of this article. You will find detailed submission guidelines, and a handy web-form through which you can send your submission. Stories between 2000 and 8000 words are accepted. Be sure to read some of the stories posted on the site to get an idea of what they are looking for. Excerpts are available for free but you'll need to become a subscriber to read the stories in full.

Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern is a relatively recent addition to the American literary set. Edited by Dave Eggers, it was first published in 1998 and has attracted a respectable following for trying to turn preconceived ideas about literary magazines on their head. Each issue attempts to be a unique creation, for instance issue 17 was made to resemble a bundle of mail; issue 22 came as a three paperbacks held by magnets within an imitation hardcover.

Submission guidelines are available through the McSweeney's Website, but you'll find they are not particularly instructive. Read through some of the content on the web-page, or better, get a hold of one of the McSweeney's anthologies, to develop for yourself idea of material that they go in for.

Last but not least is Harper's, which won the National Magazine Award for Fiction in 2008 as well as numerous times in the past. First published in June 1850, it is the second oldest continuously-published monthly magazine in the USA. Since the beginning it has published literary fiction, including the works of such authors as Henry James, Mark Twain, William Dean Howells, and Booth Tarkington. Political and cultural essays now take up the bulk of the magazine's space, but they continue to publish works of fiction.

Unfortunately, the Harper's website doesn't provide much in the way of submission guidelines, except for a small note asking for all submissions to be sent by mail and with a stamped self-addressed envelope. For a small fee you can access the complete back-catalogue of Harpers' online, I suggest reading a few of their more recent issues to get a feel for what they are looking for.

In the case of all three magazines, by no means should you ever assume that your work is not good enough. If you set your sights high and practise writing every day, you may yet take your place amongst some of the most highly acclaimed writers ever published.

Links: http://www.vqronline.org/submission/introduction
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/submit/print.html
http://www.harpers.org/harpers/submissions