When I went to Archon, a conference for writers in St. Louis, a few people advised me to start submitting shorter items, poetry and short stories, as the novel market has been so capricious. One person tipped me off to Submittable, a web page/app which helps writers identify potential publishers (literary journals, writers' web pages, etc.) and streamlines the submission process.
What I've discovered from using Submittable:
1) Many journals have submission fees, so submitting in bulk can cost some money. The lowest fee I've seen is $5.00, the highest fee I've seen is $30. The more "literary" or exclusive the journal, the higher that fee.
2) There are a lot of themed calls for submissions -- fantasy, horror, romance, cross-genre and more. Some of these offer a prompt -- one of the ones I entered had the prompt "Catch up".
3) The journals/contests range from small blog posts to contests offering $1000 grand prizes.
4) The process to enter is pretty easy -- upload, answer a few questions, pay the fee via PayPal or credit card. You should have a cover letter available just in case the contest/journal require it.
5) I wished all contests/journals used Submittable, because it helps me keep track of what I've entered and the status of the item.
So I'd recommend Submittable for an exploration of publishing shorter works.
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