The Top Websites You Need to Bookmark as a New Writer
With over ten years experience writing and submitting my work, it’s become clear to me that online resources are super important to writing. Whether you want to track your submissions, find new markets to submit to, or just figure out what agents are looking for, these website are key to your writing career.
Here are some of my favorite websites for writers:
The Submission Grinder — http://thegrinder.diabolicalplots.com/
A free submissions tracking website with powerful charts and submissions tracking tools, including searching by genre, word count, and more. Allows you to track how long your submission has been out and how long a venue usually takes to get back to you. Gives average rejection times. Offers a monthly submission email newsletter. A great tool for writers, but only tracks fiction, not poetry.
Duotrope — https://duotrope.com/
A powerful tool for tracking submissions. Costs $5 a month. Provides much of the same abilities as the Submission Grinder, except you can track poetry. Also has lists of “fastest turnaround” journals and a Calendar feature that tells you upcoming theme deadlines for journals and anthologies. Worth the cost if you’re a poet!
Query Tracker — https://querytracker.net/
Query Tracker is like Duotrope but for finding an agent.
Shunn’s Manuscript Format — http://www.shunn.net/format/story.html
The standard manuscript format for submissions in most genre magazines. Also useful for any journal that asks for a header and author information on the first page of the submission.
Submittable — https://www.submittable.com/
A submissions online portal used by the majority of magazines. Free to sign up, connects to Paypal for submission fees or via credit card.
The Review Review — http://www.thereviewreview.net/
A review website for literary journals. A good resource for researching the right journal for your piece. Includes interviews and submission calls in the classifieds section.
New Pages — http://www.newpages.com/
A website which lists reviews, calls for submissions, contests, and conferences. Has a great list of classifieds for submission calls.
Clifford Garstang’s Pushcart Prize Rankings — http://cliffordgarstang.com/?cat=951
This website lists the top journals ranked by Pushcart Prize winnings. A helpful tool in creating tiered submissions.
Literary Mama — http://www.literarymama.com/
Another website with monthly submission calls, sometimes with a focus on parenting submissions, but usually for all types of submissions.
Entropy Mag — http://entropymag.org/category/where-to-submit/
Another great listing of submission calls. You can never have too many.
Rejection Wiki — http://rejectionwiki.com/
A user-generated website which lists rejection letters in tiers. Helpful to see if a journal really likes your work and has given you a “personal” rejection.
Publisher’s Weekly — https://www.publishersweekly.com/
I suggest checking out this website if you are a novel writer. They list recently acquired titles — a great way to find who is buying the kind of book you are writing.
SFWA (Science Fiction Writers Association) — http://www.sfwa.org/
SFWA is a fantastic resource for speculative writers. It lists “pro” markets (those that pay at least .08/word) and provides resources such as an emergency medical fund, mentorship programs, networking and marketing, grants, and volunteer opportunities. You must have a certain number of pro sales to join.
Poets & Writers Magazine — https://www.pw.org/
A great resource for submissions, they have a database of journals. Also you can subscribe to the magazine and it has lots of submission opportunities.
MSWL (Manuscript Wish List) — http://www.manuscriptwishlist.com/
A list of agents and what they are looking for! Lists themes/genres that agents want to see.
