SHALLA CHATS with Shannon Wendt

“Duotrope Digest ”

by Shalla DeGuzman

First of all, who’s Shannon?

Shannon Wendt is a published writer and former editor. She works as a software developer and is part of the team that runs Duotrope’s Digest.

Shalla: Hello Shannon. Our big congrats to Duotrope for having been honored as one of Writer’s Digest 101 Best Websites for Writers and The Small Press Exchange’s Pick of the Week.

Shannon: Thank you! I’m honored that you chose to interview me. Before we get started, I’d like to say that I am just one member of the team that runs Duotrope’s Digest. Our team works together, keeping the markets up to date, adding new markets, and developing new features.

Shalla: Please tell us about Duotrope, how did it all get started?

Shannon: A few years ago I was looking for markets where I could submit my short stories, and I was frustrated by the available resources. The publishing world changes fast, and print market guides tend to be out of date by the time they are released. There are some good online resources for genre markets and good online resources for literary markets, but I had a hard time finding a single resource that dealt with both. Also, a few years ago most online market resources were long, long lists. Ideally, I wanted something searchable so I could spend less time finding markets and more time writing.

For about a decade, I had been keeping an Excel spreadsheet of the markets that interested me, along with hundreds of bookmarks in my browser’s favorites. I made that into a database and started programming a basic search engine. It was a personal project that I hadn’t even considered releasing to the public.

After I’d been working on it for a few weeks, I showed it to my colleagues. They thought it was a great idea and that it should be made public. It’s been a partnership ever since. We put it up on our website and posted a few timid announcements on various message boards. We certainly never expected Duotrope to be as popular as it has become.

The first incarnation was nothing like Duotrope is now. We only listed a little over a hundred short fiction markets and offered very basic search options. Later, we added categories for poetry markets and novel & collection publishers and offered more search options. We also developed the submissions tracker feature and started tracking response time statistics.

Shalla: What services does Duotrope offer writers?

Shannon: You can think of Duotrope’s Digest as a matchmaker of sorts. If you write fiction or poetry, we can help you find appropriate markets for your work. It all starts with our search page. Enter what you’re looking for--from genre to length, submission type, the pay rate you’d like to receive, etc.--and we’ll give you a list of markets that match your criteria. From there, you can learn more about each market before you finally go to the market’s website, read their complete guidelines and submit. As of this interview, we list over 1,750 current markets, and we add more each week while keeping the existing listings as up to date as humanly possible.

Registered members have access to their own personal online submissions tracker (currently in beta test). In addition to tracking submissions, they can see at a glance how long their submissions have been out, what the average wait has been for other users, and when Duotrope recommends that they should send a follow-up query to the editor.

We compile response time statistics based on the responses reported to us, including average response times, acceptance percentages, etc. This is a favorite feature of many of our users. Since it is based on what’s reported to us, we encourage everyone who uses Duotrope’s Digest to report their responses to make the statistics as accurate as possible.

In addition to showing the response statistics for each market, we’ve also compiled many reports that can be a great help to writers. For example, we have a list of the “Top 25 Most Approachable Markets” (with the highest acceptance ratios) that might be a good place for newer writers to start, and for those looking for the road less traveled, we have reports that list “overlooked” markets (with the fewest response reports).

Anyone can subscribe to our opt-in weekly e-newsletters, where we list the market additions and significant updates for the week.

Best of all, it is all free, although we do appreciate donations to help us keep it going and keep it free.

Shalla: What’s the easiest way writers can search Duotrope for poetry markets?

Shannon: The easiest way to search for poetry markets is to go to our main page and make sure the “Poetry” tab is selected. Then enter your search criteria from among genre, length, pay scale, type of publication, preferred submission type, etc. Finally, click the search button and you’ll get the results. If you get too few results, we generally recommend removing some search criteria. If you get too many results, you can try out the new “word or phrase” search feature that we’re currently testing. For example, if you’re trying to find a market for a haiku you wrote, you could try entering “haiku” in the “word or phrase” box.

Shalla: Finally, do you have anything coming up at Duotrope?

Shannon: We have a long (and ever-growing) wish list of features we’d like to tweak, improve, and add. We welcome suggestions from our users too, and many of those get added to our list. Unfortunately, we have limited resources. We have “day jobs” and just keeping the market listings up to date takes a few dozen hours each week. We add new features when we can find the time.

Shalla: Thanks Shannon! For more on Shannon Wendt and Duotrope, please visit: http://www.duotrope.com

Shalla DeGuzman's short stories have appeared in Poetic Diversity, the Mosaic Literary Journal, the Mad Hatters Review; her articles in The Scriptorium and L.A. Freepress; her skits at the Stella Adler Theatre. Shalla, a former writer and producer of a health and fitness cable show, is currently writing a new novel. She is President of The ShallaDeGuzman Writers Group; the Senior Editor of SHALLA Magazine where she interviews literary agents, publishers, editors, and authors; and the Publisher for SHALLA Publishing. News! Shalla has been nominated for the prestigious Pushcart Prize. SHALLA Magazine, which features short stories and excerpts from top, award-winning writers, now sold at www.amazon.com! For more on Shalla: www.shalladeguzman.com