(—And, SmokeLong Quarterly is also open for submissions for flash narratives – fiction, nonfiction, and hybrid, between fiction and nonfiction of up to 1,000 words. Please see guidelines for the kind of work they like. They also accept reviews of flash collections, essays on craft, and articles on teaching flash for their blog, though there’s no payment for these. Pay is $100/$150 with audio, and the deadline is 15 February 2025. Details here and here.
— Also, Toronto Journal, which publishes in print and sound, accepts short stories from anywhere in the world, and nonfiction pieces about local history – Toronto, the GTA, or surrounding areas – see guidelines. They’re currently accepting submissions for their Summer issue. Submission is via a form on their website. Pay is $50 for up to 7,500 words, and the deadline is 1 March 2025. Details here.)

Black Cat Weekly
Black Cat Weekly publishes science fiction and fantasy as well as mystery stories. Please note, they have one portal for submitting mystery (must have a crime), and another for submitting science fiction and fantasy. They also have separate guidelines for the kind of stories they want in each genre, please read them carefully.  
Deadline: Open now
Length: Prefer 1,500-15,000 words, can accept up to 45,000 words
Pay: $0.01/word up to $50
Details here (mystery guidelines), here (sf & f guidelines), and here (submission portals)

Bio: S. Kalekar is the pseudonym of a regular contributor to this magazine. She can be reached here.

Collaborature publishes one piece of collaborative writing at a time online. They started publishing early in January this year, and they are open to submissions year-round.

Poets may submit up to three poems, 100 lines or fewer each. They accept all forms of collaborative poetry, including call and response, cento, ekphrasis, poems with epigraphs, renga, rengay, renku, and collaborative sestinas.

Authors of prose may submit one piece, 1,000 words or fewer. They accept all forms of collaborative prose, including collaborative flash fiction, haibun, and tanka prose.

Collaborature also holds a monthly poetry contest with a different guest judge each month. They accept contest submissions from the 3^rd through the 17^th of each month. Contest submissions should follow the regular submission guidelines. The winning poet will receive $20 and publication in Collaborature.

Collaborature accepts submissions via email, not online or by post. They accept simultaneous submissions, and they also accept previously published writing. Previous publishers should be credited in the submission. Submitting authors can expect a response within about four weeks.

Collaborature only accepts submissions that follow the guidelines they’ve posted online. Please read these guidelines in full before submitting. They do not accept writing generated by AI.

If you would like to learn more or submit to Collaborature, please visit their website here.  

Bio: Ella Peary is the pen name for an author, editor, creative writing mentor, and submission consultant. Over the past five years, she’s written hundreds of articles for Authors Publish, and she’s also served as a copywriter and copy editor for a wide range of organizations and individuals. She is the author of The Quick Start Guide to Flash Fiction. She occasionally teaches a course on flash fiction. You can contact her at ellapeary@gmail.com.

Writing careers are not made overnight. Almost no one starts by landing a book deal with Random House or, for that matter, scoring a column in The New York Times.

It is about piecing together a mosaic of small wins. Most successful writers had to follow this labored path — tiny, unimpressive victories that barely make a blip on the radar. This, somehow, miraculously, adds up to something bigger.

The Power of Starting Small

Think of building a LEGO masterpiece. You don’t slap a castle together in one go. You start with a single brick—a 500-word article here, a personal essay there. I know, there is nothing glamorous about submitting a short story to a little-known online magazine or pitching an article to a niche blog. Even so, it’s where you learn the ropes. Writing to a word count is a growing skill that you need to learn, same is the importance of meeting deadlines, and building up endurance while dealing with (sometimes brutal) feedback. These are important proficiencies and you’ll need them later when the stakes are higher. These little wins act like training wheels. And let’s be honest, we all need training wheels before we can pop wheelies. 

Confidence Breeds Success

Even if it’s tucked away in the dusty corners of the internet, every published piece feels like a mini award ceremony. That sense of, “Hey, someone actually likes my work enough to publish it!” can fuel your confidence in ways nothing else can.

It’s like the first time I got a poem accepted. Sure, it was for an obscure journal that probably had a readership of a handful, including the editor’s cat, but that acceptance email? It felt like I’d just won a Pulitzer. I strutted around for days, maybe weeks. (Yes, it’s embarrassing, but also true.)

These small wins are like breadcrumbs. Follow them. Eventually, those tiny victories mean much when you’re trying to convince someone: a literary agent, a publisher, or even yourself.

Doors That Open

Small wins aren’t just confidence boosters, rather, take it from me, they’re keycards to opportunity. Margaret Atwood’s first publication was a small book of poetry, and Stephen King’s early work was splattered across pulp magazines.

These early gigs may not pay the bills, but they act as stepping stones. You get your name out there. This is the best way you build a portfolio. You learn how the publishing world works. The best thing here is that this is achieved without setting yourself up for Titanic-level disasters by aiming too high too fast.

Pitch these first, for these are often more approachable than the big leagues: Small-town newspapers, regional magazines, and niche blogs.

Big Wins from Small Beginnings

You don’t have to be Murakami. You just have to start. My journey began with a short poem published in a magazine nobody had heard of. Today, I look back at that moment like it’s the first stone in a pyramid—tiny but essential.

So, writer, aspiring, start small and this article is your permission slip. Write that essay. Pitch that article. Enter that competition. Yes, it’s like assembling IKEA furniture without instructions. Yes, it’s a grind. But remember those little wins? Trust me; they’re the foundation of everything that follows.

Bio: Sabyasachi Roy is primarily a Bengali poet from West Bengal, India. Writes in English from time to time. His poetry has been published in Stand, Poetry Salzburg Review, FourWsixteen, Linq, Quintessence, Voicesnet, Dicey Brown, Mindfire Renewed, The Potomac, 13th Warrior, and several print and online magazines.