How to Achieve Early Publishing Success in Short Fiction Writing

Learn the essential elements — from talent to delusion — that catapulted my first 15 out of 20 short stories to publication

I wrote my first-ever short story back in September 2023. To date, I have written a total of 20 short stories — 15 of which have been accepted for publication. That is not a terrible batting average for a completely new writer of short fiction.

I do not consider myself an expert at all, but I did learn a ton in the first few months of my fiction writing and publishing journey.

There is no secret formula or silver bullet that would guarantee publishing success, but in my experience as an emerging writer, I believe that these 5 “ingredients” contributed to some of my early work getting published sooner than I had even anticipated.

1. Talent
2. Discipline
3. Resilience
4. Luck
5. Delusion

Talent

You need not be a Pulitzer prize-winning writer to get started. However, while this may sound obvious, it’s worth mentioning anyway — there is some base level of writing talent needed in order to succeed as a writer. After all, you are subjecting your work to review and scrutiny by editors that are often established writers themselves. Yes, you need to have a good command of grammar and syntax, but more importantly, I believe you have to find your own style and voice because that unique talent will set you apart from the thousands of applications that editors have to read through.

For some people, writing comes naturally to them, and they often can rely on gut and instinct. For several others, the writing potential can be harnessed and improved upon over time — through constant practice, feedback from other writers, writing workshops and courses, and even reading! By reading a lot and often, you get to learn by osmosis. It won’t happen overnight, but at some point, you will realize that your writing has been shaped by many of the stories you have read.

Talent is numero uno on the list — without it, no amount of submission attempts will get you published by a reputable magazine or journal.

Discipline

For many of us, we have full-time jobs outside of writing. Writing then becomes more of a hobby or a side hustle, which means that it doesn’t get the same amount of time and attention as our full-time jobs. So we instead try to sneak it in — in the mornings before we start work, during lunch breaks, in the evenings when our work laptops are finally shut off.

I’ve found that intentionally blocking off time for writing, whether that’s daily or weekly, and following through on it consistently has accelerated my writing outputs. Some people prefer to set writing goals of X number of words per day or week. If you find a word count goal to be motivating, then go for it; otherwise, I don’t think the additional pressure is necessary as long as you commit to writing something — even if it ends up being 2–3 sentences.

Discipline has worked wonders for me in publishing as well. I maintain a spreadsheet with a list of stories I’ve submitted, the publications I sent them to, the submission date, and the publisher’s decision. In addition, I have a growing list of over 250 publications from scouring the internet for literary magazines and journals with open calls for submissions, the type of writing they’re looking for, their submission guidelines and windows, and their usual response time. I keep this list up-to-date weekly, constantly adding as I find new opportunities.

With this wealth of publisher information, I try to be strategic about where I submit stories to because “fit” with the publication is a huge factor in increasing the chances of your story getting accepted.

Resilience

It is no secret that the publishing world is brutal, where rejections are the norm rather than the exception. You will receive a lot of rejections. A LOT. There will come a point where you’ll get used to it, but it doesn’t mean it stings any less. I expound on this topic more in this other article on coping with rejection letters.

We are all humans, and understandably so, there will be times when the imposter syndrome will hit us hard and we will question ourselves on whether or not we are good enough to keep writing.

This is why resilience is key. You have to learn to compartmentalize, weather the storm, and embrace the discomfort. Don’t let the horrible odds and the vague rejection notes break your spirit. You have to keep writing and keep submitting — to only the relevant publications, of course.

If you don’t think you can deal with the harsh realities of rejections in the publishing world, then I’d advise self-publishing in places like Medium instead if you so deeply believe in your work; otherwise, maybe writing isn’t for you and you can consider delving into other interests outside of writing.

Luck

Luck is the only ingredient in this list that is not within our control. But it’s a big factor nonetheless. Unless you also act as a reader or editor for literary magazines and journals, most of us do not know what goes on behind the scenes when our writing pieces are reviewed, deliberated and decided on.

Sometimes the person that gets assigned to your piece could have a bad day, where no amount of beautiful prose can get them to say yes to your work. That can totally happen and we most often will never get an explanation as to why our piece was not good enough.

When I think of luck, I consider it going hand-in-hand with discipline. I believe that if you are disciplined enough to keep reading, writing, publisher-searching, and submitting, you increase the odds of Lady Luck bending towards your direction.

When you read more, you might find inspiration for your next piece of writing that could be the one to get accepted. When you explore more publishers, you might stumble upon a niche publication that seeks the type of writing that fits exactly what your piece is all about. Luck will come if you do the work and put yourself in a position to succeed.

Delusion

I am a firm believer that a healthy, but not abnormal amount of delusion is helpful when one is only starting to get their feet wet in writing — or in any new endeavor, for that matter. With delusion comes naivete, and I think even a tiny dose of each can propel you into the right direction.

I was a new writer back in September and had zero clue about how to get my short fiction published. But I read my pieces and truly believed that they were good — not only good enough for me, but good enough for editors to accept for publishing.

That kind of delusion will give you the audacity and courage to submit and put your work out there, rather than being stuck in analysis-paralysis and ultimately self-rejecting your work because you didn’t think it was good enough. Delusion gives you that confidence to send in work and the extra push to pick yourself back up and try again if you don’t succeed the first time.

So go on and keep writing. With talent, discipline, resilience, luck, and a little bit of delusion, you’ll crack the code eventually. ✍️✨

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How to Achieve Early Publishing Success in Short Fiction Writing was originally published in The Writing Cooperative on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.