In the twilight of Twilight and 50 Shades of Grey, sometimes it is hard to believe that there are any sources of quality literature left. As resilient as man himself, however, literature persists through these dismal days of throwaway pop fiction seemingly made for the sole purpose of further brimming our worlds abundance of landfills. For this reason alone, the government should probably subsidize authors who still write with dignity in magazines that publish short stories.
The days of magazine publishing live on through the digital age, and there are many an online magazine publisher who read submissions with a critical eye, who are more concerned with craft that cash. Online magazine publishing has become increasingly popular in the infancy of the 21st century, plus there is a substantial amount of online magazine publishing software, where a writer has the ability to create his or her own online literary magazine if they cannot find magazines that publish short stories which fit their style or thematic concerns.
It has never been easier to find and submit to magazines that publish short stories. A simple Google search will leave you scrolling until you are dizzy with literary magazines. As a published author of short fiction myself, I have developed some of my own techniques when it comes to submitting short stories.
When looking for magazines that publish short stories, I make a list of the top 10 which are likely to publish a given story. I usually include 2 to 3 “reach” magazines (ones which are significantly difficult to get work into) and the rest I choose based on the tone, style and themes of the story. For example, if my story thematically leans toward controversial (which it often does), I will seek out edgier magazines that publish short stories; if the style is more poetic then I will send the piece to publications accordingly.