How to write and sell flash fiction and short shorts

When a Little is a Lot
Writing and selling flash fiction and short-shorts


What is flash fiction? Why would anyone want to write it? Is there a market for it? Wouldn’t my time be better spent on a longer work that’d produce a decent financial return?

As President of our local writing organization I introduced a program to the group on the subject. I had never considered doing it myself before. Flash fiction is a complete story with a beginning, middle and an end, written within a very short number of words. The most common are the 55 fiction which can be up to but not exceed 55 words, and the flash fiction which does not exceed 100 words. Short-shorts run 1000-2000 words.

As part of the program we wrote a 100 word piece as an exercise which I soon found published by the Roswell Literary Review. We followed that up with another program on very short fiction. The presenter told us that we had all seen one shoe lying by the side of the road at one time or another. We were to tell the story of that shoe in 1000 words or less. I did and it was immediately published by The Palace of Reason online magazine. Hmm, was I missing something here?
I’d written and published non-fiction articles over the years, but this was different. I had written book length fiction but never considered the shorter works. Still, I recognized a wet towel when it slapped me in the face. I began to research the market and to write and submit pieces for it.

What a surprise. Writing the shorter works turned out to be excellent for my writing and very beneficial on the progress of the longer works. Mark Twain said it, “The difference between the almost right word and the right word is the difference between the lightning bug and lightning.” Sure, it’s easy to convey an idea with unlimited words to work with, but everybody knows lengthy exposition is death on a longer work, and there simply isn’t room for it in the short ones. The best tool for learning to control exposition is writing the short pieces, the shorter the better.

Not that I mean to suggest it’s easy. It’s very demanding. The first draft can be produced in one sitting, but then comes the polish. A single word can be vital, and often must do the work of a couple of sentences of description. To be a salable product it has to flow, and as a rule should not be predictable, not take the reader where they thought they were going.

So it’s good for streamlining writing, does a market really exist? I suppose I’d never thought about pursuing it because I didn’t think so. I was raised on the short fiction in Saturday Evening Post, particularly the stories of O’Henry. My favorite short story of all time has to be “The Ransom of Red Chief.” But didn’t that market go away? Didn’t it disappear with the radio mysteries and the Saturday morning matinees? Surprisingly I found it stronger than ever.

So I’m behind the curve here. These little stories have been gaining in popularity since the 1980’s. I figured I’d better do some catching up.

I subscribed to a newsletter dedicated to the sale of flash fiction and short-shorts. It’s a good source of markets for these works. Anyone interested in subscribing can do so at http://home.att.net/~p.casto. Going back in past issues I discovered Writer’s Digest publishes a list of 50 fiction markets annually. Christian writers can find a list of such markets in Sally Stuarts Christian Market guide, or can find much of it at her site at http://www.stuartmarket.com. Good SF markets are listed at http://www.ralan.com./ or quite a nice list of markets at http://www.writerswrite.com/paying/ . These are just samples of what a good online search can produce on fiction markets.

Speaking of online, that’s another source driving this area. There are now quite a number of E-zines that use short fiction, and many of them have substantial readership bases. As in the print medium there are both paying and nonpaying markets here and an online search for keywords fiction, short stories, or magazines can turn up more possibilities than one could possibly pursue.
Whether for online or for print most have an online presence now, and submission guidelines and the specific needs of each entity can generally be found at their online site, plus instructions for submitting a query or a manuscript. The word instructions should not be interpreted as simply suggestions if we wish to make a successful query.
Some of these markets pay very well. Some pay a minimal fee, and very many of them do not pay at all. Lest we dismiss the latter out of hand, consider the following: to get a job in the business world we have to have a resume. Since most of us are not born with one we have to start at a beginning job and work our way up. Gradually more impressive experience replaces the beginning jobs on the resume until it reaches the level we want. A writing resume is the same. Some of the nonpaying markets can help us build that writing bio, and many of them have an impressive record of launching new writers into other, more lucrative publication.

But it can produce a return as well. Most of us spend a substantial period of time working on a book, some a year or better. How many short stories can be written and sold in that period of time? How many in the period of time that it takes to write a single chapter in a book? There are a lot of markets that pay in the $25-$150 range and major publications that pay even better.
Quite a number of them will purchase reprints, which means a good story can be sold over and over again. How can this be? Magazines have very defined readerships and are not afraid of an article that has appeared in a publication that they do not feel reaches their readers. So we have to be sure we are only selling one time rights and insuring that the rights stay with us to make this resale.

In addition to the markets there are an astounding number of contests that love short fiction and have substantial prize structures. While we have to be careful here to avoid the scams that are surely in this area, there are a lot of quality contests that offer some nice financial return. Many offer some excellent feedback on the work, and may be a good steppingstone to publication and recognition in the right places. Let’s face it, winner of the XXXX award doesn’t look bad on the old writing resume.
I’m not much of a fisherman. I don’t have the patience for it. If I were, however, I would probably not want to be using a light flyrod and spiderweb line trying to find and entice that one elusive trout out of the water. Actually, I’d be more likely to put a trotline across the end of the lake with a large number of hooks on it, each with the best bait on them I could find. That’s my idea about writing and marketing in a nutshell.

There are a lot of different markets, different genres and a multitude of publishing possibilities available. I believe in keeping submissions out to as many as I can, and when a negative market response (I don’t call them writing rejections) comes in it is replaced it as quickly as possible. Much easier on the old ego than waiting for one single query to be answered and putting too much hope in it.

That’s the thought process I went through when all this started to dawn on me. Did you reach the same conclusion I did? Writing short fiction is great for our writing technique. A substantial market for it exists. It can be a quick way to build a good writing resume. It can be a nice, steady income, but one last thing, it is very time effective. When I don’t have the time to work on a longer work or when I’m out away from my notes or my computer, it’s a nice break. Maybe when I just have a little time somewhere, sitting in a waiting room or the like, it’s something I can do. It’s very portable.