Missing Access to Duotrope? Here Are Some Alternatives

If you relied on Duotrope to find publications for your fiction, essays, poetry and more in 2012, this year may look a little gloomy. That is, unless you want to pay the yearly fee for full access to the site. Personally, I'm a cheapskate and even if I did have the extra money to spend, I probably wouldn't do it. The information is out there and usually for free, so I find it hard to justify paying for convenience in this case. However, if you are willing to pay the fees and you are writing full time, it can be a tax deductible expense.

So--if you are still looking for the convenience of a database or set of listings to search through, here are a couple of options.

Poets & Writers
This magazine's website has a list of literary journals under the Tools for Writers tab. The listings are pretty straightforward, giving you the information you need when it comes to submissions, payment and the reading period. From what I can tell, it has a mix of mid- and high-level literary listings, good for those who may have already been published once or twice before.

Ralan.com
If you are looking specifically for markets that want spec fiction or humor, this is the place to go. The listings are categorized by the amount of pay offered. The website is also updated regularly to keep the listings fresh.

Those are actually the only two websites I have found so far that do a similar job to what Duotrope did, but I will be on the lookout for more websites like this so we can all be frugal writers together.

Labor Day

I know it's Labor Day and everyone is kicking back, enjoying a short vacation. I'm not. I slept in though. That counts as a mini-vacation, right?

Since it's a vacation, I'll keep this post relatively short and just point you to this:

If you missed Saturday's post on TSW, here's a quick recap:
Just Published in Luna Station Quarterly

Issue 11 is out at Luna Station Quarterly and my short story "Second Shadow" is published in it. Go and check it out, then let me know what you think. :)

So, if you haven't checked it out already... what are you waiting for? :)

It's funny. Luna Station Quarterly is an online magazine that specializes in speculative fiction written by women authors. About two years ago I was asked to read and review a book of speculative fiction short stories. Diving into the book, I had no idea what speculative fiction was and couldn't really get a solid definition anywhere else. Although I didn't really enjoy the book, I did finally get an idea on what it was all about. Then I realized I actually had some speculative fiction of my own. The story now published under that umbrella was actually something I had presented to a class workshop in college. Who knew I was writing in a genre I didn't know about yet?