: Should a short story be submitted to a publisher in order to know if they would be interested in a book based on it? I wrote a very compelling science fiction short story. I am currently

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A very good short story --or better yet, many of them --can definitely lead to a publishing contract for a novel. (In fact, that's been the classic path for generations of science fiction writers.) But not unless it's published. An unpublished story does less than nothing for you (submitting it as a sample of an unwritten novel is more likely to hurt than help).

Submit your short story to any of the many great outlets for science-fiction short stories, starting with the most prestigious, and working your way down. If it's as good as you think, it will make it into print. (Contests are fine too, but frankly, publication in a reputable magazine is better.) At that point, you're perfectly welcome to try to expand it into a full length novel --Ender's Game, Flowers for Algernon and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep being among just a few of the notable science-fiction books that were previously published in short-story form.

Once your story is published (to universal acclaim, of course!), include that fact prominently in your query letter (together with any significant positive response, such as a review, an award, or inclusion in an anthology). Better yet, ask your editor to recommend you to agents or publishers. As a established, published writer of good short stories, you'll have a huge advantage over unpublished writers in making your way out of the slush pile. (Science fiction writers have a step up in this regard, because there's a healthy market for science-fiction short stories that doesn't necessarily exist for all genres.) This route also has the feature that it gives you an advantage querying for either book --it doesn't necessarily commit you to the one based on the original story.

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I agree with Standback that submitting an unagented short story to a publisher is not likely to entice them to ask for a novel. I believe the answer to your question is no.

But I would modify this to say that publishing short stories and other forms of fiction, and winning contests, are good ways to improve your query letter when you seek representation for your novel.

Agents are unlikely to represent a short story (I've never heard of this) and many writers cut their teeth writing and publishing short stories so that when they seek an agent they can list their relevant publications--including short stories.

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Alas, no.

As an unpublished writer, you absolutely should not submit anything less than a complete novel.

A few quotes to this effect:

You have to have a finished novel.
There are no exceptions to this.

The first step for writing a query letter is to finish the novel.

-- Query Shark

When you send your query, do not send an unfinished manuscript. If you’re writing fiction, agent will want to see a completed manuscript if they are interested in the project. They don’t want to wait for you to finish.

-- Diamond in the Slush

Q: I’m currently writing my first novel and am about halfway finished, but I have completed an outline and synopsis. Can I start querying agents now?

A: Being a first-time novelist, it’s important to finish your book before sending out any query letters. Without a track record, you have no proof that you can finish a novel. And the number of folks who finish writing novels is dramatically smaller than the number of folks who start them (I’m certainly guilty of having three unfinished novels taking up valuable space in my underwear drawer.)

Agents are inundated with submissions and they don’t want to deal with unfinished work. From their perspective, it makes no sense to waste time getting excited about a story that may never get completed (or may not fulfill the promise made in a query letter).

-- Writer's Digest

An additional note here is that you speak of submitting to publishers. I'd strongly suggest you also look into submitting to literary agents. Getting an agent opens a lot of doors for you, and puts somebody else, hopefully a pro, on the task of actually selling your book. And many publishers don't even consider un-agented submissions. So, if you're not familiar with the concept or the potential benefits, definitely familiarize yourself with how agents work and how to find one.

But as you can see, you absolutely need to complete your book before submitting to basically anybody, whether agent or publisher.

But Consider Submitting Your Short Story

It sounds like you have a strong SF or fantasy story on your hands -- and that's something that absolutely has a market in its own right. You can submit it to magazines -- and if you publish it, that will be a solid writing credit to your name. That'll do you a lot of good on submissions for novels as well!

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