You should know about Duotrope’s Digest

Hi, I’m Carrie.  You may know me from such podcast show notes as ISBW #131-141.  I also have a blog, Heim Binas Fiction, but I’m assuming you don’t read it.  (Yet!)  Which is why I’ve come over here to tell you about the wonder that is Duotrope.

Now, Mur told you about Duotrope in ISBW #86, but that was way back in March 2008, so I think it deserves another mention.

Duotrope is “a free writers’ resource listing over 2800 current Fiction and Poetry publications.”  More specifically, it is a massive fiction and poetry market search engine, searchable by genre, pay rates, length and theme of piece, submission method, and media type.

Want your grandparents (who don’t have a computer) to finally see your fiction in a form other than a print-out from a webzine?  Search for print markets, and get your work into a journal that comes in a form they’ll recognize.

Don’t know what to do with your coming-out-in-space novella?  Search for SciFi markets with a GBLT theme that take novella-length works.  (Nine primary matches!)

Broke, with a low attention span?  Search for paying markets that accept flash fiction.

Agoraphobic?  Search for markets that take email submissions and save yourself that stressful out-in-the-open walk to the mailbox.

Duotrope also has some excellent round-up statistics, like markets that send personal responses and the markets with the fastest/slowest response times and the lowest/highest acceptance percentages. They prudently decline to rank the “most prestigious” markets, but they do provide a list of the markets with the most reported response times (not exactly a measure of popularity, but it at least shows you which magazines most people are eager to report information about), and you can draw your own conclusions about those markets with low acceptance rates. (This can all be found through the section marked “Curious?“)

If you register, you can save searches, start building a list of your favorite markets — and those you want to ignore — and best of all, you get a free submissions tracker. I’ve been using Excel, but this is really a lovely feature, and it helps provide (anonymous) data to your fellow (desperate, hungry for information) writers.

Go check it out.  And, if you can afford it, donate some dough to help keep it free.  The 2010 Writer’s Market Deluxe in paperback is over $30, and it doesn’t come with an online submissions tracker and continually updated data about response times and acceptance percentages.  Just sayin’.

Happy submitting!