Enough with the envelopes, paper, stamps, special text and HTML – submitting a short story to 'Mused', Bellaonline’s Literary Journal, is quick and easy – as I found out this week.

The traditional snail mail option is still acceptable to many literary journals, and is even preferred by some writers. But there are those, particularly young writers, who wonder why, in today’s instantaneous and high-tech virtual world, we still have to endure this lengthy postal rigmarole – not to mention the interminable wait (3-6 months in some cases.)

The wait is often eventually followed by the inevitable rejection slip – from the reputable literary journals, that is. The less professional ones often do not even acknowledge receipt of the material, let alone send a slip. Others are more encouraging, exhorting their subscribers to ‘keep trying.’

‘Mused’ on the other hand, is simplicity itself – even when compared with other ezines which use electronic submission. Some require the writers to submit their short story in the body of an email, or ‘wrap around’ their text or advise that they do not accept attachment e-mails.

Submitting to ‘Mused’ I found to be a simple four step. four minute, no-fuss system.

I located the piece I wished to use in my documents folder, brought it up and minimised it.

I then brought up Bella’s Home Page in my Internet browser and clicked on ‘Literary Journal’ in the Member’s Area on the right.

I checked the Mused main guidelines for my genre. I had picked out a very short Flash Fiction piece which I wrote for my collection last year, but which has not been published (yet!) even on the internet. Sadly, I did not have to think very hard when checking that I qualified age-wise (I am well over 18! Sigh!)

Although my short story is a murder mystery, I decided the material could not be deemed offensive under any of the categories listed. It was well under the word count limit of 1500 words.

I was happy with the copyright arrangements which said that BellaOnline expects first worldwide electronic rights, but that after publication, rights revert to the author.

All that remained was to click on the submission form to submit. The form was pleasingly minimal – just a name and an email address (double-checked for typos!) Lo and behold, the text-box could not have been more user-friendly. All I had to do was to copy and paste my story into the box.

I duly clicked ‘submit’ and received a friendly and encouraging acknowledgement. ‘Mused’ tries to get back to writers in one to two months, but it can take longer.

There is no payment for accepted pieces, except in terms of exposure, publicity and any ‘fame’ which that might bring.

So for any writers tempted to give it a try, it couldn’t be easier – it’s a great way to get noticed and, by the way, they also accept poetry, plays, artwork and non-fiction writing! Mused is published on each solstice, so that gives plenty of time to ponder, peruse, write and submit for next time.