How to publish your writing with Duotrope

Are you a writer looking to publish your work? Having trouble finding markets that follow the nature of your writing? I’m often amazed at how many writers don’t use Duotrope. Although it may seem a bit daunting to anyone who hasn’t used it before, it is a beneficial resource for any writer looking to get published. Here are some strategies to help you utilize this crucial publishing resource and bolster your portfolio of published work.

Duotrope.com is a resource for writers that allows you to enter details of your story or poem into a search engine, find potential publishers for your work, and track your submissions with a free profile.

The search engine is divided into options for genre, style, length, theme, pay scale, media, and more. Below are the key sections to focus on to find markets that want to publish your work.

• Browse through the genres.It may take a few tries to find the right market for your work, as some writing is difficult to classify. Let’s say you want to publish a story about fairies kidnapping children. You can list this under the “fantasy” genre, the “fairy tale” subgenre, and the “dark” style, and if that doesn’t result in a sufficient list of publishers, you can try the “horror” genre with a subgenre. such as “horror creature”, “cross-genre”, or “dark fantasy”. Keep experimenting with these selections as needed until you find a good market for your story.
• Set your pay scale.Some markets will pay you to write. Although paid marketplaces tend to reject more manuscripts than others, there are some journals with acceptance rates of up to 40% that pay their contributors.
• choose your medium. When I started publishing, I only sent to print magazines. They seemed more legitimate to me. However, if your goal is to increase traffic to your website or blog, publishing online is the way to go. Follow the links to the listed marketplace websites to see which medium is right for you.
• Start easy and work your way up. You may find it rewarding to submit articles to journals with the highest acceptance rates and gradually work towards journals that accept a more limited range of manuscripts. This will boost your confidence (and your portfolio) as well as your writing skills as you post more of your work.

Finally, don’t forget to track your shipments with Duotrope’s handy shipment tracker and apply these strategies to see your personal acceptance rate increase.