I love writing short stories. They are quick to write, fun to write and require no research.

And the best part is, you can make a lot of money from writing short stories. In fact, there are fiction writers who earn a regular income from writing and submitting short stories.

But how do you know what to write and where to submit it?

The best idea is to find your markets first and then write a story to fill them. And finding markets for short stories is dead easy.

All you have to do is Google it. Just enter “submit short stories” or “short story submissions” or “short story guidelines” or “writers guidelines for short stories” or something else just as similar, into the Google search box.

It will bring back a wealth places where you can submit your short stories.

Then all you have to do is go through them one by one and make notes as to the genre they’re looking for, the length they want, the submission process (email or snail mail, etc) and who much they pay.

The length of short story required will vary greatly. Some publications consider a short story to be less than 1,000 words, or sometimes, for flash fiction, less than 500 words. Others are looking for stories in the region of 5,000 to 8,000 words. But the longer stories are usually science fiction and fantasy. Women\’s’ publications looking for ‘chic flick’ will usually require shorter stories of under a thousand words.

You’ll find that payment for short stories also varies considerably. Some markets will pay only $20 or $30 while others will pay $200 or $300.

You can also do a Google search for short story competitions and you’ll find that some of these will pay really well for the winners. Sadly, if you don’t win, you’ll get nothing except having your work tied up for several weeks or months while the judges make their decision.

But once you write a story and submit it, if it gets rejected, you can submit it somewhere else, and keep submitting it until it gets accepted. Or if your story gets accepted somewhere, you can rewrite it, or re-angle it, and submit it as a whole new story somewhere else. You can also shorten or lengthen it to suit another market.

And imagine this; if you write 50 to 100 short stories and have them constantly circulating and being submitted to different markets all the time, chances are you can earn thousands of dollars from your stories.

Not only that, but you can go on writing and earning money this way for as long as you want.

There are some fiction authors who, once they get their story accepted for one publication, find themselves writing regularly for them. This is because good short story writers are in short supply so once a website owner or a magazine editor finds a good writer, they’re happy to commission the them to write regularly for them.

So if you’re blessed with a really good imagination and you love writing short stories, take a quick Google and you’ll find hundreds of markets for your work. And once you know the length a type of story to submit, you’re over-active imagination will get to work and come up with hundreds of story ideas that are just perfect for publication.

Start writing today and you could have dozens of stories written and ready for submission by this time next week. And then all you have to do is polish them to perfection and start submitting.

Working as a freelance fiction writer is a great way to earn quick cash from your writing.

And with the power and speed of Kindle publishing, you can also collate your short stories into an ebook and sell it on Amazon.

About the author, Ruth Barringham has been working as a freelance writer and author for many years and runs an inspiring website for writers that includes a huge list of freelance markets to help get you published and paid fast. Sign up for free and receive a free ebook for writers at http://writeaholics.net.

About the author, Ruth Barringham has been working as a freelance writer and author for many years and runs an inspiring website for writers that includes a huge list of freelance markets to help get you published and paid fast. Sign up and receive a free ebook for writers at http://writeaholics.net

Author Bio: About the author, Ruth Barringham has been working as a freelance writer and author for many years and runs an inspiring website for writers that includes a huge list of freelance markets to help get you published and paid fast. Sign up for free and receive a free ebook for writers at http://writeaholics.net.

Category: Writing
Keywords: Short story,kindle publishing, make money, fiction writer,freelance fiction writer,submit story,