Go to the library to begin your search for possible markets for your story. Think about the types of magazines that you like to read. Start there.

Look carefully at the covers of magazines. They give you clue about their readers. Is the person on the cover smiling directly at you, kicking a soccer ball, or working on a computer? The publisher knows readers identify with cover illustrations and will pick up the magazine, look through it and hopefully buy it.

Check out the Table of contents which is found a page or two into the magazine. Does the magazine publish short fiction? How much? What do the story titles tell you about the types of fiction they're interested in publishing? You'll also find the name of the editor and the address of the publisher in the Table of Contents.

Another way to find out who's reading this magazine is by looking at the ads. If the ads show cute guys with pierced ears riding ski-boards, this is probably not the place to submit your historical romance. Ads reflect a target age and readership.

There are two more ways to find specific market information. One is to write the publisher directly and ask for a set of Writer's Guidelines. The other way is to use a number of writer market guides.
The Novel and Short Story Writer's Market is a good place to begin. This book gives valuable marketing tips and updated information as well as the names and addresses of publishers.
The annual Writer's Market published by Writer's Digest gives publisher guidelines for magazines, books publishers, script buyers, and submission procedures.

The Market Guide for Young Writers, written by Kathy Henderson comes out regularly. This is tailored especially for young people through high school and gives magazine and newspaper market information. All of these guides and others can be found at your local library.

Now let's talk about Manuscript Format.
1. Always type of your story on 81/2 by 11-inch white paper.
2. Use a paper clip to hold pages together.
3. The first page in the upper left corner list:
Your name
Your address
Phone number.
The first page in the right corner list:
The approximate word count and copyright symbol.
4. Do not number the first page.
5. Center the title in capital letters one-third the way down on the page.
6. Double space and then type "by"
7. Double space again and type your name.
8. After the title and your name, drop down four spaces and begin your story.
9. On every page after the first, type your last name and the page number in the upper left or upper right hand corner.

Copyrights
When you write your story down, it is immediately copyrighted. To copyright your story, use the symbol © and the date on the page one of your story.

When you submit a story to a publisher, the editor will assume that the story has not been published anywhere else. Publishing a story for the first time is called first rights.

Magazine publishers often ask to buy all rights. Talk to the editor about selling first rights in the event your story can be resold at a later date to another publisher.