Flash Fiction Writer, are you paying attention to the right lit mags?
You wrote a new story (yay!), but now you have to decide where to submit it.
If you’re like most writers, you have one or two favorite lit mags you always submit to, but after that it’s pretty much throwing a dart at the wall. Maybe you google “flash fiction publishers” or check submittable or duotrope for calls for submissions, but you don’t have a consistent strategy.
You’re wasting hours on research every month.
Worst of all, even if your story does get accepted somewhere, you’re left with the lingering worry that it could’ve gotten accepted somewhere better, if you’d known to send it there first.
Writer, I’ve got you.
I spent years stuck in this same pattern. And then I created my Flash Fiction Lit Mag Ranking.
You Need This.
My 2025 Flash Fiction Lit Mag Rankings is a Google Sheet with four tabs of data-driven rankings:
Top 10 Lists – Quick snapshots of the leading lit mags featured in the Wigleaf Top 50, Best Microfiction, and Best Short Fiction yearly anthologies.
Top 26 Overall – A combined ranking of the magazines that appeared most consistently across all three collections.
Full Ranking (All 262 Magazines) – Every single journal that published work appearing in these anthologies, ranked and sortable.
Raw Data – The underlying dataset so you can dig into the details or recalibrate to suit your own preferences.
Why I created the Ranking
Over the last 10 years I’ve taught flash fiction to hundreds of writers and the #1 question I’m asked is “where should I send my work?”
As a flash fiction writer myself, I struggled for years to find a ranking of the best flash fiction lit mags and publishers. Despite a half dozen rankings for short story and poetry lit mags, I never found one for flash.
So I created my own.
What’s Inside
The Secret Sauce
For my rankings, I compiled data from the top 3 flash arbiters: the Wigleaf Top 50 ranking (and longlist), The Best Small Fictions anthology, and The Best Microfictions anthology for the last 2 years. I gave extra weight to lit mags whose nominated stories were featured multiple years in a row, and lit mags whose stories were featured across categories.
Is this Ranking Definitive?
Of course not! Quality is subjective, and every writer should decide for themselves their own personal ranking (taking into account factors like editorial taste, payment, and submission fees). But, I think my list is a great starting point, especially for flash writers who would like their own work to get attention from these year-end Best of lists.
Just the Facts.
This ranking isn’t shaded by subjective judgements about taste or editorial decisions. I compiled the data using a straightforward algorithm, included in the data tab on the google sheet. From there, you can tweak the list to create your own personal best rankings.
The Fine Print.
The information contained in this class is for general educational and informational purposes only. Any information shared about the success of former students is true and accurate but merely demonstrates what is possible and does not provide any promise or guarantee about your results.