Searching For a Home For a Short Story

 by Sybil Johnson

I mentioned in my last post that I was putting the finishing touches on a short story. It’s done now. The husband has read it. He said he enjoyed it and didn't give me any comments. This is very unusual. He usually tells me when he doesn't understand who is speaking, if something is confusing, if I have a typo, if a man wouldn't say that, etc. He does not hold back. The fact that he didn't have any of those comments is great, but I admit it makes me a bit uneasy. I mean, no short story is perfect. On the other hand, I did do a lot of work putting the finishing touches on it. Maybe I'm getting better at that.

I’m ready for the next phase: finding a home for my short story. 

This story started as a possible submission to a Malice Domestic anthology. I didn't get it done by the deadline, but even if I had, I think it’s too long for their guidelines. This story features a retired police detective turned library volunteer who first appeared in my story "Fatal Return" that was published in the Sisters in Crime/Los Angeles anthology, "Angel City Beat". I hadn't planned on doing another story with her until I was on a short story panel at Malice Domestic and the moderator, Barb Goffman, (who, btw, edited the anthology) asked me if I planned on doing another story featuring her. I said no, but it got me thinking. Then I thought of an idea and here we are.

The story in a nutshell: Retired police detective turned library volunteer, Michaela Franklin, organizes a talk on scams targeting seniors that starts a chain of events with deadly consequences. 

So now the search commences for a publishing home for this story. At 6900 words, it's on the long side. I've never written a short story that long, let alone looked for a market that would be interested in it. I don't think there's anything I can cut or want to cut. I believe that each story has its own natural length. For my cozy mysteries, 75,000 words is my sweet spot. Short stories, though, go all over the place.

AHMM and EQMM are my usual first thoughts. I haven't cracked those markets yet, but hope springs eternal. The problem with AHMM is that it can take a year to hear back. I don't submit a story to more than one market at a time. So my usual process is to try EQMM first since it has a shorter rejection time.

I'm a member of SMFS (Short Mystery Fiction Society) so I hear of submission calls through that. They also have a list of markets for members to peruse so I'll be checking those out.

Most of the markets I've sold to before aren't around anymore or are on their way out. Makes me sad because they were all great markets.

These days I prioritize paying markets over non-paying ones. I have certainly had my work published in online e-zines that don't pay. Especially when I first started writing. But I always made sure that they were well-respected. Another rule of mine: I won’t pay to submit a story for consideration. Doesn’t seem right to me.

I also have a shorter short story that I haven't submitted anywhere yet. I will look at places to send that one as well. 

I've written half a dozen other short stories over the years. I've managed to place all of them though sometimes it took a couple years. Writing is not for the faint of heart! 

If anybody has any suggestions about a market, let me know. Wish me luck!

The Book Contest/Book Festival Hustle

As the editor for Rama y Raíces, The Best of CALMA,  I'm always looking for opportunities to promote our work. With that in mind, I entered our book in the 2026 San Francisco Book Festival. We took first place in Compilations/Anthologies, however since there was only one other finalist in that category, I thought the competition was rather thin. As I'd never heard of this festival, before entering, I did my due diligence, noting that this wasn't the first year for this festival. I spot-checked some of the previous finalists, finding that all I looked into were self-published. Well, so was Ramas y Raíces. In fact, in many such contests and festivals, the majority of entrants have been, in my experience, self-published. What we all seek with these competitions is the validation of our efforts and a recognition of our place in the literary world.

 Source: San Francisco Festival of Books

My Spider-sense did tingle. After signing on for this festival, I started getting emails for festivals with similar names: Hollywood Book Festival. New York Book Festival. New England Book Festival. Horror Book Festival. And even during the writing of this blog post, I received an invitation to the Southern California Book Festival. All the webpages had almost identical layouts. Turns out the awards ceremony for all these festivals would be at the Los Angeles Book Festival (not to be confused with the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books). Some CALMA members expressed concern this endeavor might be a scam, selling tickets to a nonexistent event, and this prompted me to do more sleuthing. The ceremony venue was listed as the Roosevelt Hollywood Hotel. I couldn't find any mention of the Los Angeles Book Festival on the hotel website and my voice mail to the hotel went unanswered. 

But more digging around led me to the The Los Angeles Book Festival's Facebook group and their webpage.  

Turns out that these festivals are hosted by JM Northern Media, LLC, and click here to read what the National Writers Union says about them. And there's more vitriol here. Not to defend JM Northern Media, but these posts were written years ago so perhaps much has changed since then.

From last year's Award Ceremony we have this group photo of JM Northern Media's finalists.

 

Source:  Facebook-Los Angeles Books Awards 

The main accusation against such contests and festivals is that they can be an awards mill hustle. An organization announces a contest with a fee of $50 per entry--100 entries means $5,000. To some, that is a nice haul. Keep in mind that $50 is on the low end of entry fees. The International Impact Book Awards asks $79 for one category entry with a sliding scale going to a five-category deal of $259. Shelf Unbound's 2026 Best Indie Book is asking $130 for early bird pricing. Some of the more prestigious awards, like the Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America, charge no entry fee but MWA is a large organization funded with membership dues in addition to gifts and grants.

Also, some contests and festivals sell packages offering more media exposure, tables to sell your books, etc., but that's all par for the course.

Then there's griping about paying to attend the award's ceremony. The Colorado Books Awards charges to attend their awards ceremony, in addition to their $60 contest entry fee. Hosting award ceremonies ain't cheap, especially if you add a wet bar and banquet services, even if it's simply hors d'ouerves. And hotels are notorious for pulling fast ones. (You didn't know there's a separate charge for AV setup?) 

Finally, people complain about getting their hopes up, thinking that whatever award they win will provide a life-changing leap forward, only to get a certificate to hang on the wall and another line to add to their author bio. Whether you think any award is worth your time, that's up to you. Buyer beware.

Finishing Touches

 by Sybil Johnson

My apologies for missing my last posting date. I was in Seattle for my mother’s 104th(!) birthday. I’m home now and putting the finishing touches on a short story I’ve been working on for far too long.

Whenever I work on a story, whether it’s a short story or a book, I have a process that I go through at the very end. When I think I’ve got the story down and it’s about ready for someone to read, I do a final checklist of things. Here are some of the things I do:

• Look for awkward wording and fix it. I read the story to myself out loud. That helps me catch these.
• Look over the timeline of events and make sure it all makes sense.
• Read the dialog in each scene out loud without the surrounding prose. This helps me pick out things that don’t make sense or are awkward.
• Make sure that all important questions have been answered. Check for anything I need to clarify for the reader.
• Check consistency of words. Things like “back yard” vs. “backyard” or “T-shirt” vs. “t-shirt”. I don’t much care which I use, just that’s it consistent throughout the story.
• Check to make sure there are no two spaces where there should be one. Look for missing periods at end of sentences. Run it through spell-check.

After I’ve done all that to my satisfaction and, after a final read-through, it’s ready to hand over to my first reader, usually the husband. He tells me when he doesn’t understand something or if he doesn’t know who’s talking in a dialog sequence. Stuff like that.

For the writers out there, what kind of process do you use to put the finishing touches on a story?