Duotrope's Digest
Welcome to Part Two in my Submission Tracking for Writers series. You can read Part One here.
An entire community, forums and chats are fantastic options to keep you motivated, but they may be a little distracting for others. If you would rather focus solely on the markets and your submissions, Duotrope’s Digest may be just what you’re looking for to track your manuscripts this year.
Part Two in my Submission Tracking for Writers Series will spotlight Duotrope.com and their extensive market listings.
A popular choice for writers
Considered by many to be the Holy Grail of market resources for writers, Duotrope’s Digest allows users to track their submissions, view upcoming theme guidelines and see response times from over 2750 fiction and poetry markets.
Filter your finds
This free resource makes finding the appropriate market for your writing a snap. With filters for genre, theme, and payscale, to name but a few, Duotrope makes it easy to get your stories into the inboxes of your chosen editors.
In-depth tracking
The Submissions Tracker at Duotrope is more than a simple listing of your manuscripts and where you’ve sent them.
After adding your submission, you can track the dates you submitted it and received a response, and the admin panel also allows you a quick glance of how long your story has been out and the average response times for each particular market.
For those that like even deeper statistics, users can now see similar markets that their fellow writers have submitted to and were accepted by, a great way to hone in on other publications that may be a good fit for your own pieces.
Keeping your subjects straight
If you’ve got a piece that suits a specific subject, Duotrope’s Deadline Calendar lists upcoming themes by date, and allows you to view tracked deadlines in your control panel.
Bang for your Buck
With saved searches, favorite markets and detailed statistics, it’s easy to see why Duotrope’s Digest has such a rabid following - and it's free (though donations are welcomed). Try it once and you'll quickly become a Duotrope enthusiast.
Share your thoughts
What has your experience been in using Duotrope’s Digest to track your submissions? How has it helped you as a writer? Are there any other features you would like Duotrope to add?
Share your thoughts and suggestions in the COMMENTS section below!
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Comments
When I first discovered Duotrope, I was blown away by how resourceful it was. I love the submissions tracker tool and the gauge they have to show how long it took for submitting authors to receive response from different zines. Such a great resource. More people should know about it, and now they will!
While it isn't the only tool I use to find submissions I do try to keep track of everything I send out with them. It is much easier than my other system of separate notebook pages for each story. Faster as well.
I admit it, Jennifer - I've become hooked on Duotrope too! The tracking, the stats, and I love being able to subscribe to the feeds for individual publications, especially ones I am waiting for a response from :)
Thanks for your comment, Jamie! I, too, try to keep track of all my outgoing submissions with Duotrope. What other methods do you use to find markets? I'll be covering that in a later series, so feel free to suggest resources you feel other writers could benefit from.
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