I Hate Duotrope

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Polenth

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I used to get past SH's slush readers. Not anymore, it seems. Won't stop me from trying, though.

How do you know? I've always assumed forms meant it didn't get through the first reader, but maybe that's not how they do it.

I've had one personal rejection from SH. I get the feeling my writing isn't literary enough for their tastes, as I'm much more plain spoken than most of the stories they publish. I still send them stuff though, on the off-chance.
 

Izz

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How do you know? I've always assumed forms meant it didn't get through the first reader, but maybe that's not how they do it.
My latest rejections have had slush reader signatures rather than editor signatures, though it's possible slushies signing an R is relatively new.
 

Polenth

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My latest rejections have had slush reader signatures rather than editor signatures, though it's possible slushies signing an R is relatively new.

Interesting. I looked through my rejections. From the ones I still have, they all have an editor name on them. Including one I got yesterday. I didn't think that was significant, because it'd be odd for all the stories to get past the first readers.

Maybe it was a recent change and the last story happened to be one that got a bit further. Or maybe slushers have always been signing and I never knew. Now I'm going to go all rejectomancy on it.
 

MatthewWuertz

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One of my favorite parts of having a story accepted somewhere is to report it on duotrope. I think, "Huzzah! I have raised your magazine's acceptance rate by some non-zero amount!" I've never taken a zero acceptance rate magazine out of the hole, but that would be even more entertaining.
 

MattJ

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Thanks. Now checking Duotrope is a four part process:

1. Check sub days (no, I can't just plus 1 in my head)
2. Check the market for avg times
3. Check the RSS feed for up to the minute avg times
4. Run a market search for giggles
(5) Wake up four hours later, alone in a seedy motel in Mexico, with a bottle of tequila in my hand and no idea how I got there.

And don't forget: you can subscribe to an RSS feed that'll send reports of each response for the markets you currently have stories out to directly to your feed reader...

(i love duotrope so much--probably because i'm a stats man)
 

alexshvartsman

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(5) Wake up four hours later, alone in a seedy motel in Mexico, with a bottle of tequila in my hand and no idea how I got there.

Don't forget to perform the obligatory "are both my kidneys still there" check :)
 

Shadow_Ferret

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Maybe I'm the weird one, but I use Duotrope as a tool for submitting my writing and nothing else. I didn't even realize there were other time wasters on there.

I do a search for my story's genre. Start at highest paying magazine, click on it, click on the magazine's link, read the submission guidelines, prepare the email, hit submit, then log that in to Duotrope, and I'm done. I submit it then forget it, on to the next story.

What else is there to do there?
 

Chris P

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I'm with the joker rodent (and this won't make any sense once the avatar gets changed). I use it as a tool to find markets and nothing else.

I love Duotrope just as much as any other tool that increases my efficiency. Googling prospective markets goes nowhere fast.
 

MattJ

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Obsess about your submissions. It's fun if you're an obsesser. Duotrope can give you editors preferences, response times, all sorts of stuff.

Maybe I'm the weird one, but I use Duotrope as a tool for submitting my writing and nothing else. I didn't even realize there were other time wasters on there.
[snip]
What else is there to do there?
 

Chris P

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Does it count as obsessing if I constantly relive sections of a story I've already subbed? Or is that narcissism?
 

Jamesaritchie

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Duotrope is good, but unless you're actually reading the magazines you find there, chances are Duotrope really is just a time waster.
 

Chris P

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Duotrope is good, but unless you're actually reading the magazines you find there, chances are Duotrope really is just a time waster.

James, I've wanted to ask you this for a while. Don't I lose money reading past issues from the current editor if I have to order back issues or subscribe to see the content? By the time I research two or three markets I've spent more than the $75 I'm going to get for a 1500-word short. Aren't I behind even before I send the story anywhere? And what about my time spent reading? Don't get me wrong, I understand and wholly agree with the approach, but when does it cross the line into all research and no action? New writers are prone to analysis paralysis enough as it is.
 

Nathaniel Katz

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James, I've wanted to ask you this for a while. Don't I lose money reading past issues from the current editor if I have to order back issues or subscribe to see the content? By the time I research two or three markets I've spent more than the $75 I'm going to get for a 1500-word short. Aren't I behind even before I send the story anywhere? And what about my time spent reading? Don't get me wrong, I understand and wholly agree with the approach, but when does it cross the line into all research and no action? New writers are prone to analysis paralysis enough as it is.

I'm not James, but I can take a shot at answering: presumably, you're going to be writing more than one story. So while I'm spending more reading F&SF, Asimov's, Analog, DSF, SH, etc, than I could possibly make from one story, it's not just helping me sell that one story but every other SF/F story that I write, and there will presumably be dozens of those so that the cost isn't even comparable with the gain. As for when to read the magazines, don't most writers read? Why would you be driven to write if you don't like to read as much as possible?
 

Chris P

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I'm not James, but I can take a shot at answering: presumably, you're going to be writing more than one story. So while I'm spending more reading F&SF, Asimov's, Analog, DSF, SH, etc, than I could possibly make from one story, it's not just helping me sell that one story but every other SF/F story that I write, and there will presumably be dozens of those so that the cost isn't even comparable with the gain. As for when to read the magazines, don't most writers read? Why would you be driven to write if you don't like to read as much as possible?

I suspected this was the case, in that I would have a number of stories ready to be sent, and I could choose which story to send to which market. The research I do for Story A will help find a market for Story B. Or, I can tailor an existing story to the market or write a new one entirely. As for the reading, there's "study reading," in which I make note of the POV, tense, theme, etc. the market seems to prefer, and then "pleasure reading," where I read for the love of it. The first one sounds like work but fun in its own way. :D
 

Nathaniel Katz

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Well, the first of those isn't necessarily needed, depending on how deep you want to go. I just read the issues like I'd read any short stories, and then I spend five minutes afterwards just flipping back to each story opening to see how fast the author gets into the meat of the plot, the rough length of the stories, that kind of thing.
 

Izz

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I tend to read sample fiction (around awards time it's pretty easy to find entire sample stories online that've been previously published in pro-mags), rather than entire issues. I'll also shell out for a Year's Best-of Anthology or two, and make note of where the stories were published.

That being said, if i like what a zine typically puts out, and it's not free to read, i'll buy copies (generally a digital copy if possible; shipping physical stuff to NZ is an expensive PITA--yay for Asimov's now offering digital).

Though, that being said, even if i don't think a story's a good fit for a venue but all the good fit options are taken i'll sub it there anyway. :D
 

Gray Rose

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I send stuff to magazines I like to read. In my case this means Strange Horizons, Weird Tales, Fantasy, Lightspeed, GUD, LCRW, Clockwork Phoenix, Apex, and Jabberwocky. I also submit to anthologies edited by people I like, especially if they pay pro. I submit to other pro markets occasionally if their response times are reasonable and if the material is appropriate.
 

juniper

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So, I must be doing something wrong. I just checked Duotrope for the first time and used these parameters:
Genre: mystery/crime
Subgenre: cozy
Style: any
Length: novel (yeah, I know this is the SS forum, sorry)
Theme: any
Payscale: any
Royalties: any
Medium: any
Sub type: any
Sub details: left all unchecked
Pub frequency: left unchecked
Exclude: temp closed checked, restricted unchecked

So, that seemed pretty open to me as for possibilities. But for primary markets, only 3 matches found! Bell Bridge Books, Five Star/Tekno Books, MuseItUp Publishing.

Really? That's all the publishers who want cozy mysteries? Then why are they all over the New Fiction shelves at the bookstores?

Granted, for the secondary markets the list was much longer. But still discouraging.

(should I post this in M/T/S instead? not sure)
 

Polenth

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Really? That's all the publishers who want cozy mysteries? Then why are they all over the New Fiction shelves at the bookstores?

Duotrope only lists places taking unsolicited and unagented submissions. Most of the publishers putting books in the bookstore only take agented submissions. Your best bet is to look for an agent, which Duotrope can't help you with.
 

juniper

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Oooohhhh - I didn't understand that bit. (I should have looked at the fine print.) Thx for clearing it up for me.

Where's the "embarrassed" smiley?:e2hammer:
 

Izz

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Oooohhhh - I didn't understand that bit. (I should have looked at the fine print.) Thx for clearing it up for me.

Where's the "embarrassed" smiley?:e2hammer:
Never anything silly about asking a question if you don't know the answer. Much more silly to not ask the question, imo. :)
 

juniper

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I've got some short stories I'm reworking (why I'm hanging out here) so maybe I'll get up the nerve to send them off. Good info.
 
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