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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!
News From Poughkeepsie – Day 140
Just wanted to point out there is one day–ONE DAY–left to win the fine shirt below. All you have to do is write a story with an October prompt. That’s all. The winner will be posted on Sunday.
Tomorrows Ghosts
Old Mason knows all the stories. But the ones the children like best are the scary ones. The ones with the unstoppable monsters who destroyed haunting after haunting with their terrible lightning.
“It’s not easy being a ghost in this here world,” Old Mason would say. “You’ll learn about that soon enough. But these creatures made in harder. Their hunched backs would fire a strange, gripping energy, that would draw you into their one of their jars. Then they’d seal you up and put you on a shelf!”
The young phantoms were horrified. “Where did these creatures come from?” one of them asked.
Old Mason scratched at his ethereal chin. “No one rightly knows. They say the humans summon them. They say, that when there’s something strange, in the neighborhood, who you gonna call?”…
The News From Poughkeepsie – Day 99
A woman gets on a bus…
…of the dead.
Charon smiled and tipped his hat at Yuri as she got on. She paid her fare—two copper coins—and sat down next to the kindly old woman with snakes for hair and gleaming brass hands. A fresh scar that wound around her neck like choker.
The old woman was an easy talker, going on about her sisters, how she couldn’t do a damn thing with her hair and how much polish she went through on any given week to keep her hands shiny. Yuri started to space out, and it wasn’t until the old woman asked where her where Yuri intended to stay that she snapped back into the world of the bus.
“Oh, I won’t be here long. My boyfriend will come and get me. This is temporary.” Yuri brightened. “He’s a singer.”
The old woman feigned being impressed for a moment, and then placed her cold metal hand on Yuri’s knee.
“That’s sweet and all, doll. But if you’re serious about leaving Hades, you best make your own plans. No point waiting on a man, singer or no.”
Yuri hadn’t thought of this, that Orpheus might not be coming for her. So she started to plan…
ISBW #110 – Courtney Summers Interview
Yes! ISBW has depth this week as we discuss YA with new author Courtney Summers!
Sponsored by Author Boot Camp – sign up with the code MUR1 for a discount!
- Promo: Author Boot Camp, February 21, 22 in San Francisco.
- Interview with Courtney Summers.
- Promo: Sun Run Homes
- I’m being deluged with backup solutions! Jungledisk, Mozy, Apple’s Time Capsule, Zoho, Google Notebook, Evernote, and apparently you can use iPods for backups on the PC.
- More map software here: Rachel Udin’s site
- The Nanomonkeys website has expired and an unsavory site has picked it up. Don’t go there.
- There’s a Valentines Day Poetry Contest with a fascinating prize at Shapeways.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Writing and marketing around the web
- Chris Brogan had a wonderful post today about marketing your book online. The best thing about the post are the comments, though, so take the time to look through those.
- Nathan Bransford talks about the leap from small press to big publisher, something I’m quite interested in.
- And NaNo is coming up, and I’m still… conflicted. Ready for someone to convince me one way or another.
Writing advice, and video update
I’ve received several complaints at the latest video I’ve posted, mainly because the files won’t play on iPod, or Zune. And here’s the problem – frankly, I don’t know what I’m doing when it comes to the technical end. First, my Final Cut is acting up horribly, dropping frames no matter what I do. So I did the files in iMovie. When I had the option to save, I saved to MOV (iPod compliant) – which apparently was a lie. So I’ve asked for help in how to format video for podcast, and if I get the help I need, I’ll post friendlier files. Till then, I’m sorry.
In other news, we have two very important pieces of writing advice. First, Kristin Nelson has something to say about romances, and secondly, the brilliant webcomic XKCD has some comments about fantasy writing. Read. Learn.
Argh – more feed issues
With the help of Chris Miller, I discovered that Feedburner and Libsyn are no longer speaking to each other (regarding my feed, anyway). So I’ve send requests to Feedburner to look into it, and Farpoint Media (who deals with libsyn on my behalf) to talk to Libsyn. Now we hope.
And wait.
In other news, I’ll be recording a new ISBW tonight.
Thanks for your patience.
Feed Validates
Sorry for you guys who haven’t been able to download the last two shows, I screwed up the feed. It should be fixed now (thanks to Command Line!)
New ISBW tonight. Until then…
…watch this video.
Thanks to Grant Baciocco from Throwing Toasters and The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd!
