[Market Listing] Duotrope

nkkingston · Dec 1, 2012

Duotrope, which lists markets and stats, is finally moving to a subscription service. Considering how long they've been running it at a loss I don't blame them, though it's a still a shame. There's a lot of people asking why they haven't tried running ads or charging markets to appear; I'm not keen on the latter, but I'm surprised they didn't try the former.

When it says most services are going paid early, I think they mean all - I certainly can't see how the site would have much functionality for someone who hasn't paid. It's going to lose a lot of users, which could affect the stats.

I'm up in the air at the moment. It's not like it offers me anything I couldn't do myself, though it is more convenient. It's been a while since I've found any new markets that have been of much use to me (compared with markets I've previously submitted to) but I still use it to keep track of deadlines and anthology calls. So, yeah. I've always preferred duotrope to most of the other market listing sites, and it's not like it's that expensive, but I just don't know if it's a service I use enough to make it worth paying for regularly.

(thanks to the mods for the forum move - I wasn't sure it was important enough for BB&BC so I played it safe

)

Calla Lily · Dec 1, 2012

Oh, well. I subscribed because I use it continually. I would've preferred annoying ads, but eh.

Jamesaritchie · Dec 1, 2012

If I have to pay, I can find better market guides.

veinglory · Dec 1, 2012

I use it intermittently for short story markets, but not enough to make much more than the 50 dollar a subscription would cost. So subscribing would make not financial sense for me.

Haggis · Dec 1, 2012

Jamesaritchie said:
If I have to pay, I can find better market guides.

When you find them, please share them with us, James.

Krazykat · Dec 2, 2012

Haggis said:
When you find them, please share them with us, James.

I just wanted to second this request. Or if anyone else can recommend another resource that's similar to Duotrope, I'd certainly appreciate it; I haven't found anything truly comparable yet, especially with regards to the search features they offer . . .

Kitti · Dec 2, 2012

I've been hearing good things about Writersdb.com

Also, for $30 you can get the 2013 Writer's Market book and a 1 year subscription to Writer's Market Online (through Amazon).

triceretops · Dec 2, 2012

Well, not comparable, but I have fallen back on Ralans more than once to get updates on new markets and check out the status of certain publishers. I also get the editor's name up front there and whether they pay any type of advance, do reprints, or require an agent (all at a glance).

lastlittlebird · Dec 2, 2012

What a shame. I use them quite a lot and I always felt bad when they were running in the red (which seemed to be every month) although I had donated a few times.

Saanen · Dec 2, 2012

I used Duotrope a lot when I was first starting out and didn't know where to send my stories. I still use them occasionally. I also donate, and I'll probably subscribe once the option to use Paypal is set up on Jan. 1. I don't mind paying for things I find useful.

It's a shame that the most useful aspects of Duotrope is the response times logs, which will become less useful once fewer people are using it.

LaylahHunter · Dec 2, 2012

Saanen said:
It's a shame that the most useful aspects of Duotrope is the response times logs, which will become less useful once fewer people are using it.

Exactly this. I really like the combination of features that Duotrope has, but it does seem likely that they'll have a lot less data to provide when they move to this model.

Project Deadlight · Dec 2, 2012

Saanen said:
It's a shame that the most useful aspects of Duotrope is the response times logs, which will become less useful once fewer people are using it.

This.

blacbird · Dec 2, 2012

Duotrope only for paid subscribers

Perhaps I've missed an earlier thread, but I just learned from their site that Duotrope will be available only to paid subscribers beginning January 1. (A mod please send this to any pre-existing thread on the topic, or delete if appropriate.)

So how does this now differ from, oh, say an agency charging a reading fee?

caw

NicoleJLeBoeuf · Dec 2, 2012

I always tried to submit my response times both to Duotrope and to Submitting To the Black Hole. I'm not sure whether Black Hole is running off as many data points as Duotrope was, but it is an alternative for the response times thing.

Project Deadlight · Dec 3, 2012

If anyone is interested, I sent my concerns to DT and they very kindly responded and allowed me to post on my blog. You'll find the conversation in the comments section of my blog below. Hope you find it useful.

LaylahHunter · Dec 3, 2012

Thanks for the update, Project Deadlight. I do fear they're being too optimistic about subscription rates, but I hope they're right.

stormie · Dec 3, 2012

Thanks for the heads-up. I trust Duotrope's listings over Writer's Market. When I had subscribed to WM (last time was about five years ago) the digital version of WM didn't always seem to be as up-to-date as DT.

$50 per year is a lot of money, at least for me.

Jamiekswriter · Dec 3, 2012

blacbird said:
Perhaps I've missed an earlier thread, but I just learned from their site that Duotrope will be available only to paid subscribers beginning January 1. (A mod please send this to any pre-existing thread on the topic, or delete if appropriate.)

So how does this now differ from, oh, say an agency charging a reading fee?

caw

It's different because Duotrope is basically a big database. So you're paying now to use the database. You give them the $50 and you can access the searchable features, use their query tracker, find out response times, etc.

An agency charging a reading fee is not obligated to give you anything for your money. You pay the $20 and send in your manuscript, if they get busy they can just pocket the cash and all you get for your money is a rejection slip.

Duotrope at least provides a service.

Unfortunately, the $50 subscription seems a little too steep for me because I don't use it enough to warrant the investment. Although when you think about it Publisher's Weekly is $19.99 a month, IIRC so when you compare it to that it's a bargain. :: shrug ::

Lady MacBeth · Dec 3, 2012

I use Duotrope and have donated every year for several years, but $50 is more than I can afford. I wrote to them expressing my disappointment at the rate, but I doubt it will do much good.

For anyone interested, you can get information, reviews and links to literary magazines on New Pages.

http://www.newpages.com/literary-magazines/

nkkingston · Dec 4, 2012

Really, to make it worthwhile a user has to get $50 or more wortth of leads a year from Duotrope. It's made me some money, and it's put me onto a lot of paying markets I've yet to crack, but I'm not seeing enough of a return to make it worthwhile.

(there's people commenting on the facebook announcements who've never made anything from their writing - the urge to tell them "start at the top" is strong)

stormie · Dec 4, 2012

Lady MacBeth said:
I use Duotrope and have donated every year for several years, but $50 is more than I can afford. I wrote to them expressing my disappointment at the rate, but I doubt it will do much good.

For anyone interested, you can get information, reviews and links to literary magazines on New Pages.

http://www.newpages.com/literary-magazines/

I had forgotten about newpages. Thanks

Lady MacBeth · Dec 6, 2012

I just came across this post on the Missouri Review website talking about Duotrope's new user fee. He brings up some good points and lists other websites that provide similar services.

http://www.missourireview.com/tmr-blog/2012/12/duotrope-digest-announces-fee-based-system/

dolores haze · Dec 6, 2012

I've decided to pay the $5 monthly fee for a few months and see how it goes.

Lyv · Dec 6, 2012

dolores haze said:
I've decided to pay the $5 monthly fee for a few months and see how it goes.

Me, too. I've donated in the past, though not fifty bucks in one year. That amount seems high. Then again, I'm reluctant to sign up for an automatically renewing subscription so I might just do a gift certificate to myself to get around it.

I track my submissions via Excel spreadsheets, so I wouldn't lose any information, but I still like using the tracker at Duotrope (partly because I have felt I've been helping compile stats that helped the whole community; if that changes, I may not ).

Ralyks · Dec 22, 2012

blacbird said:
So how does this now differ from, oh, say an agency charging a reading fee?

caw

It's nothing like an agency charging a reading fee. Agencies typically make their money off of commission on what they sell. A market listing resource doesn't sell anything other than the resource itself. Duotrope charging is no different than Writer's Market charging for online access. It's the resource that is being sold.

Query Tracker does this better by charging only for expanded features but allowing tracking and data collection for free. But Duotrope isn't charging for expanded features they've recently added, they're charging for features that used to be free, which will no doubt dramatically reduce their user base and therefore make their statistics considerably less valuable, so paid subscribers will actually be getting less than when the service was free. Making a once free product less useful and then charging for it is not a very good marketing plan.

Sure, they have to make money somehow, but they ought to try advertising first (i.e. selling add space to authors and publishers). $50 a year is too high for a market resource, and the value of the data will be greatly diluted when a large percentage of users jump ship. I fear Duotrope is going to tank itself, unfortunately.

[Market Listing] Duotrope

Bemused Girl

On hiatus

volitare nequeo

Evil, undead Chihuahua

Positivilly Movillis . . .

procrastinatrix

avem narrans

Posting on AW instead of writing

a work in progress

Posting on AW instead of writing

storm central

USA Today Bestselling Author

Out, damn'd spot! out, I say.

Bemused Girl

storm central

Out, damn'd spot! out, I say.

international guttersnipe

I meant to do that.

Untold stories inside