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Testimonials What People Say About Us

Ethics: The following testimonials have been sent to us by people unaffiliated with anyone on our staff. While we welcome testimonials, we do not require them from anyone. No payment or gifts are offered for testimonials. We do not edit the testimonial text in any way.

Just started exploring Duotrope and really appreciate their service. For a writer/poet who needs to work through the day, it is very challenging to keep up their important hobby. Thank you Duotrope.

Anna Reyes

This is just a kind thank you for all the work you do. Duotrope is an amazing site and a bargain at twice the price. I started submitting my work to journals with the help of Duotrope about two years ago. I would never expected to have over 500 works in print and online, including a first prize, an honorable mention, a long-list and 2 short-lists in major international contests, and multiple award nominations (I've honestly lost count). I could not have done it without you FULL STOP. The Duotroopers are without exception kind and wonderful to deal with (despite my frequent pestering).
Thank you so much you are literally changing the world!

M. C. Winter

In the past 15 years, I've published 134 original stories, and I KNOW that a lot of this was possible due to Duotrope. I've been using this website almost exclusively for my submissions. There was a time coming out of my MFA program that I have seven stories out to over 100 places. I never could have kept track of it all. These days, I can see where I've been accepted, where I've been rejected, how many times, who is paying pro rates, and what new markets are out there. Worth every penny.

Richard Thomas   Website Twitter

I thought you might be interested in a letter I just sent to a friend:
"Dear Karen -
The website I have found so helpful in submitting poems for publication is Duotrope. It is not free, but has an amazing amount of data and helpful tools. It lists over 7,000 publishers and agents. You can see why they have to charge for it.
Duotrope lists probably every literary periodical in the country, gives a description of what they are looking for, has links to their websites, shows the percent of acceptances they take, and on and on. If you want to submit to one of the top periodicals like Poetry, or The New Yorker, or The Georgia Review, you just look for those with very low acceptance rates. If you want a better chance of being accepted, look for higher acceptance rates. If you want those that are looking for LGBTQ poems, you can find them, of those featuring only women writers (for some reason there aren't as many featuring only males), you can also find those The categories are a little vague, of course, because editors often are looking for anything that appeals to them instead of specific categories. But that's the real world.
It also shows the periodicals that have gone out of business and those that have just opened or reopened.
So the list of periodicals and their criteria is the first benefit, with a direct link to each website available to make it easy to get further information.
The second major benefit is Duotrope's tracking system to keep track of your submissions. It records when you made each one and what response you received and when. It even keeps track of all the poems you submitted to a specific since you started using it.
Just google Duotrope and take a look at it. I have found it well worth the money, both for the time it saves and the new magazines you will find that you might not have known of before.
Good luck. I wish you many acceptances. Let me know what you think about Duotrope.
Love,
George"

George Stevenson

Woman with stroller walking past street art mural saying 'The Best Gift is You'
Duotrope simply wouldn't be as awesome without the support of our members. Thank you!
Photo by Dakota Corbin.

I just want to say how much I adore Duotrope! It's easy to use, and as a librarian I am blown away by its indexing in a myriad of ways. Kudos! Since subscribing about 2 years ago I've sold a chapbook and had 22 poems picked up by poetry/literary journals. I rely upon it to keep my submissions in order--I'd go zany otherwise! Thank you so much for this wonderful service.
Ciao!
Shutta Crum

Shutta Crum   Website Twitter Facebook

A poet friend has urged me to subscribe to Duotrope for several months, perhaps a year or more. I always felt my own searching options and personal record keeping was adequate enough, thank you very much! However...
There is - if you'll pardon the cliché - a wealth of information available here. I especially enjoy the editor interviews, the statistical reports and the numerous methods for lookup and tracking. Since I became a subscriber less than a month ago, three of my poems have been accepted for publication. Now I'm recommending Duotrope to MY poetry and writing friends.
Thank you!

Julie Allyn Johnson   Facebook

Markets and Records and... Agents? Oh my! Before I joined Duotrope, my record-keeping was scattered at best. Now, not only can I keep track of what I've submitted where and when, I can search for new markets on the same site! The ability to track my acceptance rates is helpful in a number of ways, including where to aim next. The experiences of others, in terms of response times, prepares me for what to expect from the markets to which I submit. And now that I can search agents, Duotrope has truly streamlined the publication process. Everything I need is at one convenient spot on the web. I'd be lost without it!

Chris Ingram   Twitter

Duotrope is simply fantastic. It's so easy for me to catalog my work and track my submissions. Most of all, I love the market search function. If I had to go out looking for these markets all by myself, it would take up hours of my time, and I would waste so much energy on dead-end outlets that either don't publish or don't pay. With Duotrope, I can pull up a list of 100+ paying, active markets in seconds. Seconds! Huge love and thanks to the team at Duotrope for creating such a robust system and doing such diligent work to keep it up to date. After just one year of using it, I'm a fan for life!

Sean Mabry   Website

Duotrope is my main source for markets and information about these markets. Hands down, it is the best investment for writers to find and track their submissions and to keep up with new and defunct story markets.

Paul Beckman   Website Twitter Facebook

Thank you for the "clean up reminder" feature, and for giving us guidance on when to appropriately note a market has failed to respond. Maybe these folks who are hanging on to submissions and ignoring their responsibility to respond will clean up their best practices under this spotlight. I'm a former small press publisher myself and I will never understand how a magazine can not reply to a writer within a reasonable time. With services like Duotrope, writers can be empowered to continue their pursuit of publication and know they aren't alone in the many ways publishers disregard these fundamental obligations.

Tamara Sellman   Website

Since subscribing in July 2020 to Duotrope, I have had poems accepted by Burnt Breakfast, Haiku in Action, Rockvale Review, Sunlight Press, Red Eft Review, Naugatuck River Review, Adanna Literary Journal, Idle Ink, Mothers Always Write, Verse Virtual and Montana Mouthful.
I have had flash fiction accepted by Blink Ink, Every Day Fiction.
THANK YOU!!!

Shoshauna Shy   Website

I located Duotrope many years ago. The Market Listings, Statistics and inside information are great and the Submission Tracker is a massive bonus. The site helped me formulate a strategy of gradually building up a roster of publications in the Horror genre by targeting increasingly challenging markets, an approach I continue to employ today. I wouldn't have seen my work published in the magazines and anthologies I have without Duotrope's help. I'm quite certain of that.

Danny Rhodes   Website Twitter

This is the best investment I have made in my journey as a writer. No more messy notebooks, no more searching madly at midnight to double check submissions. I am not the most organized person but I simply made it an integral part of submitting to finish by registering on Duotrope. It is fun to explore new markets on Duotrope and an easy way of checking out publications. The stats section helps me see who replies early, who pays, how I'm doing in comparison to other writers. It's great and the fee is totally reasonable.

Isobel Cunningham   Website

I've been keeping up with my submissions through Duotrope for about five years now. I wouldn't use any other system. Duotrope allows me to keep an accurate record of all of my short stories, the markets I've sent them to along with rejections (lots of those) and acceptances (wish there were more). If I have a few minutes to spare I can easily go to Duotrope and find a new journal to send a story to. Duotrope is efficient, easy to use, accessible, and organized.

Cathy Adams

Duotrope best resource available to locate 1000s of potential markets. Tools are fully integrated and intuitive to use. Tracking tools provide insight into potential wait times and hints on when to query. Would be lost without it.

Tim Tobin

Until I subscribed to Duotrope tracking my submissions and searching for places to submit was extremely tedious. But now...so much better. I've had seven poems published since joining because of my ability to better suit my material to various publications. Highly recommend.

Penny Peyser   Website Twitter Facebook

Thanks to Duotrope and its fantastic computer program, I was saved today from the error of sending an editor who does not take simultaneous submissions a poem that Duotrope remembered -- when I did not and also failed to double-check my list of pieces to make sure there weren't any sim. subs. -- the publication's expressed policy and told me that I was making a mistake. So I took action the same day, apologizing to the editor, admitting my mistake and withdrawing the inadvertent sim. sub. I'm grateful. Paula Bonnell

Paula Bonnell   Website Twitter

I do not check the brag box, but since 2015 almost a third of my short memoir pieces published have been through Duotrope resources: Corn Belt Almanac, Smoky Blue Literary and Arts Magazine, Red Fez, Remembered Arts Journal, Fewer than 500 and Tigershark (forthcoming). I also find that getting Duotrope every week helps keep me submitting regularly, even though the amount of information can be overwhelming! Thanks--Julia Spring

Julia Spring

I’ve sold two short stories published in quarterly collections I found on Duotrope.
I’ve also had some excellent rejections, including long emails from editors.
Also enjoy seeing what trends are by looking at upcoming deadlines.

Michael Rettig   Facebook

I am a longtime user of Duotrope and one of the few who support its change from a free service to the subscription model. For three years now I have availed the paid service, and usually opt for the annual payment. So far I have recovered more than twice the amount within a month or so. I have searched high and low for other databases, but Duotrope in my opinion is the most comprehensive compilation especially of paying markets.
I love Duotrope and recommend everyone to try it out for a year at least! You won’t regret it!

Gargi Mehra   Website Twitter

Submissions would be impossible without duotrope. Thanks!

Robert Perron

I started with Duotrope back when it was a free, so when you began charging for your service I was happy to sign on. It's only because of Duotrope that my work was finally published. And on those days when the creative well is running dry, I often enjoy playing around on Duotrope. Whether it's visiting my own lists of rejections/acceptances, perusing old searches, or starting new ones--Duotrope helps me to feel like a real writer again. Thanks, Duotrope. You're worth it.

Deborah Miller-Collins

Duotrope has given me an opportunity to circumvent the possibility of having my work tied up for 6 to 8 months and then being rejected or ignored, by presenting the theme related requests from journals. This way appears to be a method of eliminating many submissions and allowing for much more rapid responses. I seldom do simultaneous submissions and even though I have little temper tantrums when my stuff is rejected, it is much easier to move on after 3 months than 6 or 8 or 10.

John Aylesworth

I do not have an MFA but am a serious, dedicated, ambitious poet (a registered nurse by training). Because I have no MFA I have less access than some others to networking, "buzz," and general know-how about the nitty gritty of submitting work. When I started writing poetry not that long ago, I only had heard off about 10 well-known magazines that publish poetry. Duotrope has made the submission process simpler and sometimes even fun. When I have free time, I scroll through your listings randomly, like playing a slot machine. Where the scrolling stops, I investigate the journals that appear on my screen. I'm shop for journals to look into. Duh. I fill my cart. What's not to like?

Martha Webster   Facebook

My writing was languishing. After a number of brilliant early successes, I suddenly found myself remaindered. Hot dogs seemed to have a longer shelf life than the novel I had just slaved over for five years. I couldn’t face another long slog.
Back to the beginning. I needed some positive reinforcement and fast. I decided to experiment with flash.
Word counts vary, but generally flash is thought to be 1,000 words or less. Some journals in their submission guidelines can be very specific. I began using Duotrope before membership was compulsory. When the model changed, I gladly subscribed. The submission organizing service alone is worth the price. The weekly notifications have contributed greatly to my success. I’m close to having 80 pieces taken over the course of 7 years—and I attribute this to Duotrope—especially the call for themes.
One of my quickest acceptances was after scanning the call for theme submissions I saw something for The Blue Hour. I’d just written a flash about those dusky moments before the sunsets, where we sometimes feel despair. I sent it and within five minutes got an answer. Accepted!
Jane Hertenstein is the author of numerous short stories and flash. Her work has been included in Hunger Mountain, Word Riot, Flashquake, and Rosebud as well as earning an Honorable Mention in Glimmer Train. Her literary interests are eclectic, evident in the titles she has published: Beyond Paradise (YA), Orphan Girl (non-fiction), Home Is Where We Live (children’s picture book), and a number of eBooks: Flash Memoir: Writing Prompts to Get You Flashing and Freeze Frame: How to Write Flash Memoir. Jane lives in Chicago where she blogs at Memoirous (memoirouswrite.blogspot.com/) @memoirjane

Jane Hertenstein   Website Twitter Facebook