get organized with Duotrope's Digest

Organization is just one of the many skills writers need to develop in order to be productive. We’re not all naturals at creating spreadsheets or keeping journals to track submissions, which is why I simply must recommend Duotrope.

Duotrope’s Digest is an invaluable market resource, listing over 2700 print and online markets for creative writers. the service is offered for free and users can search for new markets by theme, genre, region, or many other sub-categories. Duetrope lists markets for fiction and poetry and hopefully someday they’ll include creative non-fiction in their market listings as well.

As a writer, I enjoy the ability to seek out new places for my work. On the main page, the Duotrope site features a rotating “random market” to introduce new markets to writers; this is a great way to find new print and online journals.

I also really like that Duotrope has a log-in system where writers can enter the information about their submissions and successes. For example, I can enter the date and type of submission I make to a specific journal and then use the submission tracker to update the fields with the response I get, when, and if it was a form or personalized response. Why is this such an incredible service?

For one, it keeps a writer organized. You can easily view where you have work submitted, what work is out there, and see how long ago you submitted.

This is also a great resource for the writers using Duotrope. All information is kept confidential, but the data is compiled to reflect averages and medians. This is very for seeing, for example, that X publication takes an average of 45 days to respond.

Whether you’re looking for new markets or need a virtual assistant to help you keep your submissions tracked, Duotrope’s Digest is a great – and free – resource.

Visit their site at http://www.duotrope.com/.