Writing Short Stories for Middle School Readers
by Mary Kole | Former literary agent, now a freelance editor, writing teacher, and IP/story developer for major publishers and creators.
There are so many creative ways to write for children, including writing short stories for middle school readers. Many writers worry whether they have an idea that can be turned into a full middle grade (LINK: https://marykole.com/how-to-write-middle-grade-fiction ) novel. If not, there might be a market for short stories for middle school audiences to pursue instead. Let’s dig into the possibilities.
Publishing Short Stories for Middle School Readers
Short stories are a popular form of writing. They demand a lot of craft—don’t get me wrong—but they also take less time (unless you’re shooting for The New Yorker or the Paris Review, but that’s outside the scope of this article). And sometimes an idea has enough substance to only support a short story instead of an entire novel. And that’s okay. But you might hear this feedback from a literary agent or publisher: is there enough here for a MG book, or should you try writing short stories for middle school instead? Often, literary agents will wonder whether an idea should go into novel format, or maybe there’s more realistic potential for a short story or article instead.
Middle grade writers should remain open to the notion that they might be writing short stories for middle school audiences instead of a complete novel. (Or a narrative collection of interconnected episodic stories eventually, like the Sideways Stories From Wayside School.) There are a lot of options here to turn that piece of middle grade writing into something. You could choose to assemble a compilation of stand-alone short stories for middle school readers, or a single, cohesively-told narrative, otherwise known as a novel.
But let’s put it out in the open. It can be tough to gain footing in publishing with a conventional novel. Some writers wonder whether writing short stories for middle school readers or teenagers (readers of young adult fiction) is easier.
Use Cases for Short Stories for Middle School Audiences
Unfortunately, the short story approach to getting publishing credits can be even tougher. Short story collections by multiple writers are rarely published. When they are, for instance, the Guys Read anthologies, these editors generally capitalize on well-known names in their short stories for middle school contributions. (Collections of short stories for middle school readers by one writer are almost unheard of, especially for a debut.)
Don’t get me wrong, short stories for middle school audiences can be great for reluctant readers, or kids who only have twenty minutes to read a story at a time. This is a great approach for short stories for middle school readers, but it doesn’t have a big share of the publishing market.
Well, then, is it possible to sell individual short stories for middle school audiences? The market for these is different. You’ll have to approach individual magazines, the most notable of which are published by the Highlights Foundation and Scholastic. (The Children’s Writer’s and Illustrator’s Market resource has some leads for short story markets.)
Each magazine you’ll find when you want to try publishing your short stories for middle school readers will have their own submission guidelines. Some of these markets are open to submissions, some aren’t. Submissions face various levels of difficulty.
The good news is that these magazines don’t usually require that writers have literary agents in order to submit. The bad news is that the money is pretty modest if you publish your story in one of these outlets—but publishing credits can help you climb a ladder toward bigger and more ambitious goals.
Adding Short Stories for Middle School Audiences to Your Resume
The best way to advance in your writing and publishing career is to stack up writing clips. If you’re having trouble attracting literary agents with your longer writing, adding some publication credits to your resume might help you get some attention in the slush pile. Consider expanding one of your favorite short stories for middle school readers into a novel, or working on a fresh novel concept. The experience you’ve already had by writing short stories for middle school readers will help you here.
Try your hand at writing short pieces for this audience, and see where it takes you!
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