#0032 Oh, The Places You’ll Go (To Submit)

More mechanisms for tracking submissions

Photo by canmandawe on Unsplash

Now that I’ve covered Duotrope (#0030) and Submittable (#0031), I want to highlight other options. I’m breaking them down into 4 categories:

1. Databases with trackers

2. Spreadsheets

3. Apps

4. Other (for those of the tinfoil-hat persuasion)

Right off the bat, I must declare I’ve mostly not used these options much or at all because of paywalls or laziness or lack of awareness (like a crow🐦‍⬛, I’m attracted to shiny🕸️📀objects).

Databases with trackers

Poets & Writers is the grandmama of this category. As the largest US nonprofit organization for creative writers since 1970, P&W publishes a magazine, features a directory of creatives, runs readings and workshops, sponsors contests, advocates for freedom of expression… And maintains databases of literary journals, independent presses, literary agents, conferences and residencies, and MFA programs with up-to-date calls. Oh, there’s a submission tracker somewhere on the website. (Don’t bother searching for the tracker, just use the link.)

To use P&W’s submission tracker, you need to create a free account, which by default sends you the P&W Weekly Update e-newsletter. (You can opt out.) When you give P&W your email address, you get access to a substantial and diverse database of submission options. A good trade. 

The tracker itself is (mostly) straightforward. Seven items — only four required — for each new submission:

• Submission type dropdown menu (grants & awards, literary magazines, small press, conferences & residencies, MFA programs, literary agents, and other)

• Date submitted

• Piece/Title

• Fee (an optional field)

• Status (pending, accepted, and rejected)

• Comments (another optional field)

• Group settings (another optional field)

So the optional box titled Group settings? Yeah, it has “Not a group node” as an explanation? Then next to that is “Parent group” with a dropdown menu defaulted to None. With more explanatory node gobbledegook. Ummm?? (Methinks the backend programmers accidentally got ahold of the front-facing pretty part of the website.)

Below the Group settings box, you have two buttons: Save or Cancel. And below that you can Filter Your List, including by Piece Submitted that will let you see where you’ve simultaneously submitted. Bingo!

Mostly straightforward. But all the ads are super distracting.

Here’s a snapshot of P&W’s submission tracker.

$0 free
2 out of 3 complexity
1.5 out of 3 completeness
2 out of 3 privacy
0 out of 3 distraction-free (So! Many! Screaming! Ads!)

The Grinder, aka The Submission Grinder, is not a dating app but another database with tracker. Apparently, the name and logo came from the idea of “a tool on the mad scientist's desk that resembled a meat grinder where one could feed rejection slips and through some handwavy mad science it would produce a stream of statistics.” I should mention here the creator of this donation-based tool is Diabolical Plots, started by a guy named David Steffen back in 2008, when he published “genre zines.”  

You need to register for a free account, giving The Grinder your email address. You’re able to choose whether your name — plus how it displays — shows up next to acceptances. Grog the Caveman and Eek says A! are already taken. To weed out bots, you must correctly answer a math question. (Mine was “What is 2+2?”) Easy-peasy for access to this tracker.

Though not a pretty site, The Grinder offers a database of 15,000 fiction and poetry markets for its nearly 11,000 users. I’ll repeat: only fiction and poetry.

To get to the submission tracker, use the Account dropdown menu and choose Dashboard. The prompt “What do you want to do?” gives you the option to Manage Submissions. From there you can Add Submission. Then you have one field, where you input the market name (where you’re submitting your fiction or poetry). When I used “Inlandia,” it came up with “Inlandia - fiction” and “Inlandia - poetry” with strings of icons that looked kinda like elements from the periodic table? “Nt” and “Na” and “S” and “F”?? What?? I didn’t see any handy decoder ring. 

The Grinder doesn’t have any required fields but has more options to track than the P&W tracker. In fact, there’s a whole area called Post Acceptance Fields that includes:

• Date of Contract

• Date of Publication

• Non-Paying (with a check box)

• Period of Exclusivity (days), until you can sell it again

• Released Without Publishing (with a check box)

• Published Languages, separated by commas (with English as default filled in), and

• Notes, Miscellaneous Notes

If you didn’t pick up from the genre zine origins, these fields probably clue you to the site’s first, but not only, audience: science fiction and fantasy writers. Probably explains why the site doesn’t include nonfiction markets.

Though The Grinder and its submission tracker isn’t pretty (intentionally repeated) and formatted for function only, it works, it’s free, and it is a distraction-free zone (no ads).

Here’s a snapshot of The Grinder’s submission tracker.

$0 free
2 out of 3 complexity
2 out of 3 completeness
2 out of 3 privacy
3 out of 3 distraction-free

Launched in 2023, Chill Subs is the baby of the bunch. I found out about it via Inlandia’s 100 Rejections Club community. 

Chill Subs wants to do everything for writers. Searchable database of literary magazines, contests, and indie presses? Yup. Writer community to connect and promote? Yup. Premium tools for writers (that is, you pay for them), including an automatic prose formatter? Yup. Curated lists of places open for submissions (Sub Club on Substack)? Yup. Writing workshops (The Forever Workshop on Substack)? Yup. Free to submit literary magazine (Write or Die)? Yup. And not one but two behind-the-scenes views of Chill Subs’s growing pains and triumphs (Chill Subs Newsletter and Things We Do While Waiting To Die, both on Substack).

With nearly 3,000 literary magazines, 1,300 contests, and closing in on 300 indie presses, the Chill Subs database is rapidly growing and has already tracked more than 100,000 submissions by over 25,000 writers.

After giving up your email address (or signing up via Facebook or Google login info), you have the option to receive Sub Club, Forever Workshop, and Chill Subs Newsletter by ticking the box below each. Then you can view a 6-slide tour of Chill Subs (or X out of it). Bam! You’ve landed in the searchable database. 

Under Tools you’ll find the Tracker. Click New to start tracking a New Submission. Select the Type (Magazine, Manuscript, Contest), and fill out the 3 required fields: Publisher name, Title (of your submission), and Date (with a calendar selector tool). You may optionally choose Submission Method from a dropdown menu, Status from a dropdown menu, Result date (with a calendar selector tool), and add Notes. Finally, click Create to save.

Chill Subs lets you view your submissions by Table (a list) or Board, with the look of colorful index cards. 

In the bottom right corner of Chill Subs’s submission tracker is Rejection bingo. Click on it. Trust. Me.

Though the database is smaller than the rest, the seven team members are hustling. If the place you’re submitting to isn’t already listed, that doesn’t preclude your using the Chill Subs tracker. Its tracker is elegant — dare I say pretty? — and user-friendly. 

Here’s a snapshot of Chill Subs’s submission tracker.

$0 free
1 out of 3 complexity
2.5 out of 3 completeness
2.5 out of 3 privacy
3 out of 3 distraction-free (no ads)*
*I forgot to mention that Chill Subs has a talented illustrator who adds delightful doodles, especially for the Substack newsletters.

I’m already late to post today…

Next time: Tracking submissions with spreadsheets, apps, and other (if I have the energy before the teen issue zoom launch party May 18th)