I know no one cares about short stories and everyone wants to sell a novel(!!1) for fame and fortune, but I'm a) bored b) sold a whole bunch of stories recently c) novels suck so if anyone wants me to go on about writing/selling shorts just shoot me a Q below.

well my only real tip is, write science fiction. It only accounts for about 1/3 of submissions so it's always in short(er) supply. There's a lot more fantasy.

your ideal short story length to sell is 4000 words. 2000-6000 is a good range. anything above or below is a bit of a gamble.

maybe avoid pandemic stories in the near future, though I just sold two so who knows. just make it different to any other pandemic story out there?

oh, one useful tip, doesn't matter HOW obscure you think you are, if you published a short story or two, PLEASE have SOME form of easily found online contact so editors can get in touch with you for reprints!

I say this as someone who does the occasional reprint anthology and it drives not just me mad but every other editor I know when we can't get hold of someone

if you want to know where genre is now you have to read short stories, not novels - it's always where the cutting edge is and where change happens

what else do i know... statistically british writers barely if ever submit to the top magazines. no idea why, but there you go.

electronic submissions were a game changer for international writers. it was a slow and painful process but it's here now (i say that as someone who still remembers International Rreply Coupons).

one last thing (personal bugbear) i hate it when writers call magazines/anthologies "markets". I know it makes us sound really business-y and stuff to talk about "the markets" but come on. we're not stockbrokers in an 80s movie montage.

what else. there are actually only a handful of top-level magazines. the mid-levels ("semipro" to use a not particularly pleasant term i dislike) are almost all gone. lots of token/no-pay magazines, some v. good.

crime is almost impossible to sell, you may as well write a novel. horror is a tough sell too.

the names of your characters REALLY matter. always think about the names!

you don't really need a "hook" first line/para. It's more about confidence - letting the reader know you know what you're doing. it's more about tone i guess.

also, read old stories. useful to know the history of your genre - equally useful to steal from old dead writers! it's the highest form of compliment.

most story submissions aren't actively bad - they just don't stand out.

get used to rejections! they're just a part of the job. sometimes you have to wait until the publication for your story will come into being.

and sometimes you just need to put that story away in that big, big folder of trunked stories

a 3-rejection day is no big deal. a 4-rejection day will always hurt though.

sometimes your story sucks. sometimes editor ARE wrong about not buying your story but what are you going to do, it's their money.