How to Submit a Short Story to UK Literary Magazines: A Step-by-Step Guide
You have finished the story. It is as good as you can make it on your own, and now the work turns practical: getting it in front of an editor who might print it. The UK has a healthy spread of literary magazines, from long-running print journals to small online zines run by a handful of volunteers. Each one has its own rules, taste and reading habits. Following those rules will not guarantee a yes. Ignoring them is an efficient way to earn a no.
Read the guidelines properly
Every magazine's submissions page is a set of constraints, not a set of suggestions. Before you write a cover letter or rename a file, read it twice. You are looking for:
- Word count limits, and whether they are firm.
- Whether the reading window is open, and when it closes.
- Whether simultaneous submissions are allowed (many magazines permit them; some do not).
- Whether the magazine charges a reading fee, and what that fee covers.
- What they want in the subject line of an email.
- Response times, and when it is reasonable to nudge.
- Anything unusual: a theme for the next issue, a ban on certain genres, a limit of one story per author per window.
If the guidelines say 3,000 words maximum, do not send 3,200 and explain that the story needs the extra two hundred. It does not. Cut it. If they ask for a bio of fifty words, write fifty. Editors read hundreds of submissions in a window; the ones that respect the brief get read more generously.
Send the story to the right place
The fastest way to improve your odds is to match the story to the magazine. Read three or four pieces from a recent issue before you submit. Not the submission page — the actual writing. Ask yourself where your story would sit on that contents list. A 4,000-word ghost story does not belong with a magazine that caps submissions at 2,000 words and prints quiet domestic realism, however good the ghost story is.
If you write in a specific mode — flash fiction, speculative, crime, experimental — look for magazines that publish it. General literary magazines will occasionally take a genre piece, but a specialist magazine is more likely to have readers who want what you have made. Keep a short list of ten or twelve magazines that feel like a genuine fit, ranked in the order you would like to appear in them.
Format the manuscript so nothing distracts
Formatting is not about looking clever. It is about making the story easy to read on a screen at the end of a long day. Most magazines want something close to the standard manuscript format.
- Use a plain, readable font at 12 point, and double-space the text.
- Put your name, email address and the word count at the top of the first page.
- Add the title in the centre of the first page, then start the story below it.
- Include your surname and the page number in the header of every page.
- Use italics for emphasis rather than bold or capitals; mark a section break with a single centred hash or asterisk.
- Send the file type they ask for — usually .docx, sometimes .rtf or plain text pasted into the body of an email.
- Name the file exactly as instructed. If there is no instruction, use something like Surname-Title.docx.
Do not add photographs, coloured headings or a decorative border. Do not typeset the story as a PDF unless the guidelines ask for one. Save the artistry for the prose.
Write a cover letter that behaves itself
A cover letter is a courtesy, not a pitch. It should be short enough to read in fifteen seconds. Address the editor by name if the magazine lists one; otherwise use "Dear Editors". Then give the essentials: the title, the word count, and the genre or form. Mention one or two relevant credits if you have them, and nothing more. If you have no credits, leave that part out rather than apologising for it.
Do not summarise the plot. Editors are about to read the story; they do not need the ending explained first. Do not explain what the story means, and do not tell them it would be perfect for their next issue. If the guidelines ask for a bio, keep it in the third person, one or two sentences, and include anything genuinely relevant — where you live, what you have published, what you are working on.
Title, word count, one line of context, thank you. That is a complete cover letter.
Keep a record of every submission
Once you have more than two stories in circulation, memory stops working. A simple spreadsheet will save you from sending the same story twice, missing a response, or forgetting which magazine asked to see more of your work. Track the magazine, the story title, the date you sent it, the reading window, the expected response time, and the outcome. Add a column for notes: who rejected it, whether the rejection was a form email, and anything you learned about the magazine's taste.
When a rejection arrives, note it and move on. A form rejection tells you one thing only: not this story, not this time. A personal note — "we liked the voice, please send something else" — is worth recording and acting on. Send that editor another story, and mention the invitation in your cover letter.
What to do while you wait
Response times at small magazines can run from a few days to several months, depending on whether they are reading submissions or working through a backlog. While you wait, do two things. If the magazine accepts simultaneous submissions, send the story to the next name on your list. Then start the next story. The most useful cure for submission nerves is having something new to work on.
Set a calendar reminder for the magazine's stated response time, padded by a fortnight. If that date passes and the guidelines say queries are welcome, send one short, polite email asking whether the story is still under consideration. If they say no queries, wait.
Send it before the window closes
Nothing in this process is difficult. It is just unglamorous, and it takes an hour you would rather spend writing. So block that hour. Read the guidelines, check the formatting against the list above, write four sentences of cover letter, and press send. Then write down what you sent and where. Do it again next month. Submitting is a habit, and like most habits it gets easier once the first one is out of the way.
Photo: Jason Deines / Pexels
