Thursday, October 15, 2009

Duotrope Digest

Thought I would let everybody know about a free online resource for writers that I use a lot. Duotrope Digest has a number of great features. They catalog writing markets (magazines, zines, websites, anthologies, some publishing houses) in a database searchable by a number of parameters:
- Genre
- Theme
- Length (in pages or words)
- Payscale (token to pro)
- Royalties
- Media (print vs. online)
- Sub Type (post vs. electronic)
- Reprints accepted or not
- Simultaneous submissions accepted or not
- Multiple submission accepted or not
- Their reading period is open right now, or not
- Country
- Response time
- Acceptance to rejection ratio

Even better, if you create a free account with them, you get access to a host of new tools. My favourite is the submissions tracker, where you can log all of your submissions to various markets - the piece(s), the day you submit it/them, the day you receive notification, the day you receive rejection or acceptance, and the type of rejection or acceptance. In one handy table, these are then compared against anonymous statistics of every user, past and present - how long it took people to get a response (longest, shortest, and average) and what percentage of them had acceptances or rejections. The table also includes the timeframe that the publisher gives.

Without an account, you can still see these statistics as part of the profile of each market.

The account also allows you to track deadlines for specific contests or theme issues that you plan to submit to, or receive a general list of upcoming deadlines (for poetry or fiction) each week. You can also have your favourite markets highlighted in your search results and permanently exclude markets from your searches.

Duotrope functions entirely on donations. So if you end up loving it as much as I do, donate or buy one of their startlingly presumptuous T-shirts.

5 comments:

  1. Very cool resource, Kim. Thanks for the post. I wish I had had this info when I was submitting my novel/short stories and scouring websites and Writer's Markets.

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  2. This is such a good resource...dont suppose anyone knows an equivalent for non fiction??

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  3. Hell yeah. I love Duotrope. It's been a huge help when organizing my submissions and tracking when I *should* hear back from people.

    Also, if you play around with the advanced search, you can build queries like: "show me all markets for literary fiction that pay professional rates and which accept online submissions." Very handy.

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  4. Kim - this is great! I'm definitely going to look into this. Thanks for helping to organize my brain/life.

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  5. Kim - you're a doll. A total doll for posting this. I can't wait to set up an account, especially since Keith Maillard says we have to show him at least one acceptance/rejection letter before class is over.

    Chris - I know what you mean about having one for non-fiction. That would be a great resource for our upcoming assignment in Andreas' class. Seriously.

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