A Couple of Resources to Help with Submitting Work…
Thursday, November 27th, 2008
I just finished a story and am in the midst of the submission process. For those of you out there who are in the same boat, or who plan on coming aboard soon (lame metaphor alert), I figured I’d take a few minutes to plug a couple of resources that might help to reduce the burden of getting submission packets together. Maybe you’ve already heard of them, maybe you haven’t. If you have, then this post will be a big waste of time for you, and you can just skip it and tune in next week to see what new and innovative ways I’ve come up with for wasting your time.
**I guess I will preface this by saying that I have no personal or professional connection to either of these companies/organizations(?). While this may at times sound like a paid infomercial, I promise you that it is not…
Duotrope’s Digest (duotrope.com):
Duotrope is, according to their website, “a database of over 2275 current markets for short fiction, poetry, and novels/collections.” You can browse through the listings alphabetically, or you can use an internal search engine within one of three main categories: “Short Fiction,” “Poetry,” and “Novels & Collections.” While they do have numerous listings for anthologies and small presses, there is a strong emphasis on literary journals, reviews, and magazines. For instance, a search for “Short Fiction” publishers that are based in the USA and are “Open to All/Most Genres” brings up 1,427 listings. That is a daunting number of listings to try to wade through, but you can significantly reduce the number of listings by narrowing the parameters of the search. You can narrow the search by any combination of “Genre,” “Length,” “Payscale,” “Media” (“Print” or “Electronic”), and several other criteria, including whether or not a publication accepts simultaneous submissions and/or electronic submissions (an increasing number of print publications are accepting electronic submissions, which saves paper and postage fees). You can also choose to “Hide temporarily closed markets” so that you don’t have to bother checking the deadlines for each of the listings… I just performed a “Short Story” search for “Print” publications that are based within the USA, that are “Open to All/Most Genres,” and that accept electronic submissions and simultaneous submissions. That reduced the number of listings from 1,427 to 224. Clicking the option to “Hide temporarily closed markets” drops it down to 164. That is still a lot of journals, but it is a much easier number to work through, and you could narrow it even further if you wanted to. You can also search for publications that are currently hosting contests.
While the listings themselves are nice, what is extra super nice about Duotrope is that each publication listed has its own page within the Duotrope website—you just click on a link. These pages summarize each individual publication’s submission guidelines, acceptance rates, and average response times, the latter two based on voluntary surveys submitted by Duotrope users, and they provide a direct link to the official website of the publication.
There are other sites that provide listings of journals and contests, etc. New Pages is an excellent online resource for writers, and they provide some services and information that Duotrope Digest does not. And there is The Writer’s Handbook and similar publications. But, for me, Duoptrope is the most convenient, comprehensive, and interactive source for researching publications to submit my work to. I recommend it to every writer I know whenever the subject of submitting work arises. So far, I’ve gotten negative feedback from only one person. That person thought the site was too busy, that there were too many journal listings to try to sort through.
Writer’s Relief, Inc. (writersrelief.com):
This is a resource that I’ve never personally used. I’ve just seen ads, visited the company’s website, and heard people talk about it, so please don’t take this as a personal endorsement. I just think that what Writer’s Relief does sounds interesting, but all I know about them is what I read on their website and heard from others. You take the information and do what you will with it.
Writer’s Relief is a “submission service.” They work with poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. If I understand it correctly, they research potential publication markets, proofread your manuscript, write all the query and cover letters, and then submit your manuscript to the venues they think are the best fit. They’ll also track your submissions and create “itemized expense lists for tax purposes.” In many ways they work like an agency; you submit an initial writing sample to them, and they “review your work and contact you with a letter that tells you what [they] believe [they] can or cannot accomplish for you.” But they charge an hourly rate rather than commissions, a one-time fee rather than an ongoing percentage of royalties. This may or may not be to your benefit, money-wise. If they sell a novel or collection for you, paying the one-time hourly fee would probably work to your advantage in the long run. If they’re placing poems and short stories for you, you’ll basically be paying them to save you time, since almost no publications pay for poems or short stories, and most of those that do pay very little. On the other hand, they know the market, the industry. If you’re having trouble placing work, they might have a better understanding of how to get you started or get you through a slump. If Duotrope Digest sounds like too much trouble for you, then Writer’s Relief might be another option. If I had the money, I would give them a shot. But I don’t, so I can’t. But I’d love to hear feedback from anyone who has worked with them. They have numerous testimonials on their website, but we know how that goes….
Next week…more talk about submissions…or some talk about applying to MFA programs…or some talk about how tedious the final revisions of a story/poem/essay can be…and, yes, I did say “extra super nice” earlier…
Happy Thanksgiving!!!