Five Writers' Market Web Sites

I spend quite a lot of time researching magazine markets to submit short stories and poetry to. It's something that can really eat into valuable writing (and, um, blogging) time. Of course, this is something that you should take trouble over. Sending your latest space opera off to a magazine interested only in haiku is a waste of everyone's time. There's obviously no substitute for getting to know a market by actually reading it, but the following web sites are the ones I use to help with some of the initial leg-work. All are free to use and are generally updated frequently. Well worth bookmarking.

Duotrope's Digest

Currently lists 2,650 markets for fiction and poetry, with a flexible and powerful search system. Very good on the various different literary genres. Also collects statistics on response times and acceptance ratios. Updated regularly. Donations welcomed. Highly recommended.

Litmags
Currently lists 488 "literary" markets for fiction and poetry, with a good if slightly eccentric search system. Not so strong on genre markets although it does list some of them. Updated weekly.

Writers Write

Currently lists around 670 markets for fiction (both genre and non-genre) and non-fiction. There's a simple but effective search system or you can browse by category. You can sign up for a free email of updates and news. Frequency of update not clear. Advertising-supported.

Ralan
Currently lists around 550 markets for fiction and poetry, generally just those interested in "speculative" and humorous works. There's no search system, but you can sign up for a free email of updates and news, which is well-worth receiving. Updated frequently. Donations welcomed.

The Write Market

Lists a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction markets - it's difficult to say how many. There's a Google-based search system that kinda works, but you can browse by category. You can also sign up for a free email of updates and news. Update frequency unknown but doesn't appear to have been updated for a couple of years. Advertising-supported.






I'm sure there are other sites I could add to the list - if anyone has any favourites, do let me know via the Comments.