In the latest class offered by Carrie Cuinn (Twitter, blog)–seriously, why haven’t you signed up for her classes yet?–we’re looking at various platforms for tracking submissions. Everything from subscription websites, to databases, to apps, to the classic, homemade spreadsheets.
In the past, I used to use Duotrope before it went behind a paywall. It was a lovely service, but I bristled at having to pay for it. So recently, I used a spreadsheet to track submissions for a story. Although it was completely customizable, it was a lot of work to put together. And although I could use website listings like Ralan, SFWA (pro markets only), and Writer’s Market (I have a free membership thanks to my purchase of the 2013 Deluxe Writer’s Market), I felt like I wasn’t getting complete listings.
And so now I’m looking into biting the bullet for a subscription to Duotrope (not only do you get a HUGE database, but you also get the newsletter, which also provides more immediate projects looking for submissions–a great way to use stories in waiting) as well as The Writer’s Scribe database. Writer’s Scribe does look a little smaller than Duotrope, and while the UI might be a little old fashioned, it does have a lot of other functions (I’m playing around with a free trial of both right now).
But what do you use? What have you liked and disliked? Why? I’d love to hear your suggestions.
It has been difficult to find software that does what I want, when it comes to tracking my submissions, but I have blogged about my features wish-list, along with some notes about several of the options out there.
http://nocategories.net/ephemera/writing/writing-submission-tools/