Testimonials What People Say About Us

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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.

Here is a random sampling of the testimonials we've received:
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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

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.

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!

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.

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!!!

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.

Duotrope has become a staple in my writing career. Journals, contests, agents, publishers, and tracking tools: all of them gathered right here in a brilliant compilation that I refer to daily. Thanks, Duotroopers! I couldn't do this without you.

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!

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.

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!

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