Two Free Fiction Submission Sites You Don’t Want to Miss

Posted on July 7, 2008 - by Monica Valentinelli

Two Free Fiction Submission Sites You Don’t Want to Miss

Now that we’ve talked about the cost of writing fiction versus nonfiction, let’s look at how we can make money. One way to make money, is to write fiction and get published. But how? There are two ways to get published. The first way is to have an editor come to you; the second is to submit your work, unsolicited, to a publishing venue for their review. Most fiction writers start out by submitting unsolicited work to people they don’t know. This is, by far, the most time-consuming and pain-staking process that often requires more time spent on researching your market than you might finishing your story.

Ralan.com

Most writers are aware of the Writer’s Market, a paid subscription service offering publisher listings for several fiction and non-fiction markets. I have also mentioned, quite extensively, the virtues of using Ralan.com, who is an army of one.

Here’s a quote from my post entitled, “Ralan.com Writing Resource Recommendation.”

The truth, the cold, hard truth, is that small press publishers and newly-established publishing companies are an excellent place to start. However, like many writers, you probably don’t want to run the risk of submitting a story and never hearing anything back again. Enter Ralan.com, a site run by Ralan, a writer who offers his information for free. Yes, you heard me correctly. For. Free.

On Ralan.com, there is a host of information you just can’t find anywhere else. Things like response times, payments, deadlines, submission guidelines, etc. are all published and updated frequently.

If you do use the tool, I can’t tell you enough how important it is to show your support through his annual fundraiser in August.

Duotrope

Duotrope is another free resource for fiction submissions. Here’s a quote from their homepage.

Welcome to Duotrope’s Digest, a database of over 2225 current markets for short fiction, poetry, and novels/collections. Use this page to search for markets that may make a fine home for the piece you just polished. Use the menus at the top and right to explore the rest of the free services we offer writers and editors, including a free online submissions tracker for registered users. We usually make several updates per day, and we check all the current listings every ten days to ensure the most up-to-date database possible.

The interface is coded and allows you to filter by what’s important to you. For some, award-winning publications offer validation; for others, it’s a high rate per word. I should note that this site is experiencing some technical glitches as they go through an update. Duotrope’s Digest also offers subscriber benefits when you log-in to the site, including a submissions tracking feature mentioned in the quote.

Depending upon what’s going to work for you, each of these tools has its own drawbacks and benefits but both are offered by writers who have been through the submission process before.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 7th, 2008 at 5:50 pm and is filed under I Recommend..., Resources. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

6 Comments

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July 8, 2008

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Nicki B. said:

There are a couple more sites that you can also submit your stories (and other writings) to. I’ve tried out Helium, which highly categorizes your content into very specified categories. The downfall is that because of this, plus the layout, the site is not so easy to navigate around. The other place I’ve tried out is Triond, where I’ve had more success (in regards to both recognition and earnings, although the earnings for creative writing are a bit lower). The site is easy to use and Triond has some sort of system where they will go over your writing to double-check that it looks good before publishing (but it takes no more than a day to be published, whereas Helium can take up to a couple of days). Neither are services that you need to pay for, so these may also be worthy of checking out.
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July 8, 2008

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Matt said:

I’m a bigger fan of Duotrope than Ralan, because of the search features. Its easier to narrow down the categories markets fall into, rather than look through everything.

Ralan has advantages too, as it seems to be geared more toward spec fic, where Duotrope covers everything.
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July 8, 2008

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Monica Valentinelli said:

Nicky B: Thanks for adding your thoughts about those two resources. I’ve heard of Helium but haven’t tried it yet. Triond sounds pretty interesting, and I appreciate you taking the time to share your tips.

Matt: Good to hear that Duotrope is usable for you; sometimes I prefer to browse through the listings because I’m not 100% sure what I’m looking for. You’ve reminded me just how much usability is important for these sites, too.
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July 8, 2008

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Terry Finley said:

Thanks for this information.
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August 28, 2008

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Red Cedar said:

A small blogging tip: when you reference a previous post, please link to it. I would like to know what you are referring to in the first line “the cost of writing” but can not figure out which article you are referring to. Since I “stumbled” on this post, I don’t have a relationship with your site enough to know whether this topic was discussed a month ago or a week ago.

Otherwise – interesting blog and topics. Thanks for putting the info out there! Cheers.
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August 28, 2008

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Monica Valentinelli said:

Thanks for pointing that out Red Cedar. I typically do link, but sometimes I overlook it. I fixed the link in the post, per your recommendation.