Thoughts on Duotrope
Sigh. Now LiveJournal is trying to be all weird and new on me. I hate when sites do that (Google, I'm looking at you.)
Duotrope was a useful free resource. I was willing to donate to that because I was grateful they provided this free resource and I wanted to see it continue.
But the way they've handled switching to pay is bad. In many different ways, it's bad. There's no sliding scale (pay X, Y, or Z depending on what you can afford, or pay ZZ if you've contributed before, etc). There's no subscription levels (level 1 is limited, level 2 is less limited, level 3 is everything, level 4 is everything plus a virtual gold star, etc). There's no free option. Let's face it, what they're offering non-subscribers is useless. It's not even enough to entice someone to stick around and maybe pay later.
For a company that relies on crowdsourced information as a fundamental part of its business model, they apparently do not understand community and community relations at all. And saying you're a private company so you don't have to share information is just a very poor way of saying you don't want to share information.
Have I earned more than 50$ from my writing? Yes. Have I earned more than 50$ a year from my writing? No. I don't even think the money I did make was from markets found on Duotrope. Well, 2$ of it I will credit to Duotrope. I have donated more than 2$ back to them.
It's not a justifiable business expense to give them 50$ a year. At least, not for me.
I expect an alternative for Duotrope will pop up soon. For now, here's ones I know of:
Ralan.com -- It looks like the 90s called and want their website back, but there's useful market info in there.
Writer's Market -- 20-30$ to buy it on Amazon. That extra 10$? That's for a yearly subscription to their online database. Alternatively, you can more than likely peruse the book at your local library. For free. The 2013 edition will probably be reference-only, but they should have older copies for you to check out.
Writing magazines - Subscribe to one of them. Read them in the library. Check out back issues from the library. Share with a friend. Download to your Kindle. Whatever suits you.
Facebook/Twitter/Groups -- Join a group like Broad Universe or Outer Alliance or any sort of group where you all can share calls for submissions. Follow the right people on FB and Twitter.
For myself, I'm going to make a list of markets and response times. I'm going to export my data and do a better job of tracking it myself. In a Google spreadsheet most likely.
If anyone has any other good places for market info, response times, etc etc, let me know.
Duotrope was a useful free resource. I was willing to donate to that because I was grateful they provided this free resource and I wanted to see it continue.
But the way they've handled switching to pay is bad. In many different ways, it's bad. There's no sliding scale (pay X, Y, or Z depending on what you can afford, or pay ZZ if you've contributed before, etc). There's no subscription levels (level 1 is limited, level 2 is less limited, level 3 is everything, level 4 is everything plus a virtual gold star, etc). There's no free option. Let's face it, what they're offering non-subscribers is useless. It's not even enough to entice someone to stick around and maybe pay later.
For a company that relies on crowdsourced information as a fundamental part of its business model, they apparently do not understand community and community relations at all. And saying you're a private company so you don't have to share information is just a very poor way of saying you don't want to share information.
Have I earned more than 50$ from my writing? Yes. Have I earned more than 50$ a year from my writing? No. I don't even think the money I did make was from markets found on Duotrope. Well, 2$ of it I will credit to Duotrope. I have donated more than 2$ back to them.
It's not a justifiable business expense to give them 50$ a year. At least, not for me.
I expect an alternative for Duotrope will pop up soon. For now, here's ones I know of:
Ralan.com -- It looks like the 90s called and want their website back, but there's useful market info in there.
Writer's Market -- 20-30$ to buy it on Amazon. That extra 10$? That's for a yearly subscription to their online database. Alternatively, you can more than likely peruse the book at your local library. For free. The 2013 edition will probably be reference-only, but they should have older copies for you to check out.
Writing magazines - Subscribe to one of them. Read them in the library. Check out back issues from the library. Share with a friend. Download to your Kindle. Whatever suits you.
Facebook/Twitter/Groups -- Join a group like Broad Universe or Outer Alliance or any sort of group where you all can share calls for submissions. Follow the right people on FB and Twitter.
For myself, I'm going to make a list of markets and response times. I'm going to export my data and do a better job of tracking it myself. In a Google spreadsheet most likely.
If anyone has any other good places for market info, response times, etc etc, let me know.