I Hate Duotrope

For duotrope, I wouldn't use the subgenre feature too much; it limits things too far for me. You can get more accurate readings by just doing genre and doing the rest yourself.

I planned to make some submissions today. Duotrope makes it so simple to compare markets, so I headed there first thing this morning only to find that the site's down.

You'll be able to get other things done today besides checking stats!

ETA: 11:20. It's back up; I just posted a response there. I do rely on it a lot for market comparisons, more than I realized. I'd planned to look at markets this morning, and while the site was down and I was ploddingly going from site to site I fervently wished it would come back up.

Shelley

Got a rejection today on one of my first subs. (Only subbed about five now, I think.)

I should be editing -- don't tell the other Mods cause they'll kick me out -- but I've played on Duotrope for an hour now.

It's crack rock, I tell ya...

I love duotrope

I can give it up anytime I want to...

It is very useful and I have got very good over the years at ignoring annoying things...

I've been using Duotrope for almost two years now, and I've only just now discovered the "check recent responses" feature. It really is way better than the average response time stats, because it gives you actual response times. Go check Lightspeed's listing. They have a 7-day response this month, and it's considered an outlier. That's how efficient JJA is at getting back to folks.

And I've also just recently noticed that they tell you when their last response was, and how recently subbed the piece they responded to was.

I enjoy the way Duotrope is organized. I have gotten som e nice responses by submitting to obscure markets through them, but nothing solid. Here's a blog I sometimes visit that does interviews with fiction editors. It's called SixQuestionsFor and the author does interviews with current editors.

DA (Duotrolics Anonymous)

My name is Squeaky Pram, and I'm a Duotrolic.

It does feel better! Admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery.

So, what's the first of the twelve steps?

I would have wasted more time finding journals to submit to without Duotrope. The info there is quite good.
I don't use RSS or the digest. Just use Duotrope when I have something to submit, or to find info on markets. Not more than 2 hrs a week. I guess once I understand the market (I'm new to shorts) I'll cut down on time.
I don't waste much time there. Spend more on AW actually.

Wow! I'm so glad I'm not the only one addicted to Duotrope! I feel guilty though because I haven't donated anything to them.

This thread looks seriously dead since Duotrope went to a subscription model. Anyone think it's worth the money to find paying markets?

I used it more for the response time data, which with a shuttered membership I presume is greatly reduced in quantity.

Calla Lily said:

I use it as a convenient Costco-like warehouse of markets. Also, like veinglory, for response times.

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HEY LILY! So you think it's worth the subscription fee? I'm tired of trying to track down all the calls, so I was hoping for something more streamlined.

How is it for romance/erotica, since I do that mostly other than the occasional ghost story.

JustSarah said:

I actually primarily use the grinder, so I'm unaware of all the going on at duo trope. (I can't afford the payed subscription service.)

It would be nice to know the current market acceptance rate though.

(I'd be leery of anybody that has a 0.1 acceptance rate.)

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I've been EXTREMELY lucky so far with acceptance rate. EXTREMELY. I've even had one say "Not right for this, but can I hold it for this other?"

Of course!

JustSarah said:

Well like my uncertainty is still going.

Of course rejections is fine, I'm still a beginner. Or at least have no way of knowing otherwise. I hardly ever submit.

Plus sometimes you have to find the best market for it, as its not always going to be a perfect match.

(I do adult fiction with middle grade protagonists.)

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I also do things backward, for the most part: I write TO the call in a lot of cases. Or I'll edit to a call. I think one time I had a flash rejected (that was assigned) and rather than retool it for the assignment, I wrote a new one, and expanded the flash to a full-length short for a call I felt might fit it better than the assignment.

It definitely helps to get in at a certain place, especially if you do anthos, because editors will also rec you/trust each others' judgement.

JustSarah said:

I actually primarily use the grinder, so I'm unaware of all the going on at duo trope. (I can't afford the payed subscription service.)

It would be nice to know the current market acceptance rate though.

(I'd be leery of anybody that has a 0.1 acceptance rate.)

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Some of the very best markets out there have a 0.1 acceptance rate. Sometimes lower.

I think the silliest thing a writer can do is even think about the acceptance rate at a magazine. If the magazine does reject your story, so what? The next market down is still waiting.

You break into big, tough, name-making market by submitting to those markets until you start getting feedback.

Limiting yourself to high acceptance rate magazines can seriously harm your chance sat big,m really good magazines. Two o rthree smaller sales are fine, but there comes a point when you have nothing but small sales that you start giving top editors the idea that you simply aren't good enough for their magazines.

Just submit to the best magazines, and don't even think about such stats as acceptance rates. Most often, when comparing magazine type to similar type, the higher the acceptance rate, the worse the magazine.

The magazines that really help you are most often the ones with very low acceptance rates.

At first I balked when duotrope went subscription, but then I thought about it. For $5 I get an up-to-date short story fiction market search engine that saves me a ton of time versus trying to search for markets using Google or an outdated library copy of Fiction Market. Plus it keeps track of my submissions. To me, $5 is a bargain in aggravation-free submitting.

Shadow_Ferret said:

At first I balked when duotrope went subscription, but then I thought about it. For $5 I get an up-to-date short story fiction market search engine that saves me a ton of time versus trying to search for markets using Google or an outdated library copy of Fiction Market. Plus it keeps track of my submissions. To me, $5 is a bargain in aggravation-free submitting.

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Have you looked at the Grinder? It's free.

When the site was free I found it very helpful. It's a good place to seek out pubs. There are some really interesting ones. Many that pay little if anything, not that that's bad or anything. And yeah, the stats for the ones that do can be intimidating. Just remember though. If your stories are good you'll always have a chance no matter how great the odds b/c ultimately there are very few writers who write good stories. The majority of us are just so-so at best. Rise above that and you've got a real chance.

JustSarah said:

To clarify: I meant I'm skeptical of anything with an acceptance rate of 0.1 or higher. Lower is absolutely fine.XD

I wouldn't be proud of myself if I sent and got accepted to a zine that had say, ... a 0.5 acceptance rate.

I wouldn't have found Cricket without the grinder, its a life saver.

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Except that Cricket buys all rights. I sold them one story that was already at the end of its life cycle, but most of the money in short stories is in reprints and subsidiary rights. I think I've sold all right to a story only three or four times in thirty-five years, and the stories were always end of the life cycle.

I had a friend who sold all rights to a story for a couple of hundred dollars, and the buyer then optioned movie rights for a heck of a lot more. If the story is made into a movie, my friend may drink himself to death.

Haggis said:

Have you looked at the Grinder? It's free.

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I agree. The Grinder just keeps getting better.

The Grinder is awesome. I really think a free market listing is important to a healthy short fiction/poetry/non-fic market.

To be fair to duotrope, though, upkeep and maintenance on such a listing is incredibly high.

Liosse de Velishaf said:

The Grinder is awesome. I really think a free market listing is important to a healthy short fiction/poetry/non-fic market.

To be fair to duotrope, though, upkeep and maintenance on such a listing is incredibly high.

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It is, which is why I did donate to them and promote their site when it was free. When they decided to charge for their services, I looked at their fees and decided it would cost more than I felt the service was worth. For me. There was concern, too, about the validity of their data, considering the smaller sample they'd be working with. I switched over the the Grinder so have no way of validating whether or not Duotrope's data is as good as it used to be. I'd love to hear from those who are still using it.

I backed out of short stories for a bit but am now starting to crawl back in. If I keep it up, I will surely be donating to the Grinder folks and be doing all the promotion for them I can.