Useful Sites for Writers

Here are some useful sites for writers I've come across lately.

BookFox ranks literary journals by competitiveness. As the blogger notes, this isn't exhaustive ( I didn't see Salmagundi the lit journal of my daughter's alma mater, Skidmore) , and one could argue with some of the rankings, but it's a start.

Needless to say I wouldn't necessarily agree with his zine rankings. It's been my experience with the Million Writers Award that winners usually represent print journals that have either moved totally online or have an online counterpart.

From the Writers Relief Newsletter, scroll down to see the average submissions some of the better-known journals receive. I found these numbers a little surprising since Emily Thorp, Managing Editor of Sotto Voce mentions over 1,000 short story submissions for their first issue, and I know it has been going up steadily as she recently needed to hire more reviewers. Barbara Quinn of The Rose & Thorn always estimated at least 400 submissions per month. So if you've been accepted to a zine, you may not be competing against the biggest names, but don't let anyone have you think you didn't compete against big numbers.

If you think you'll never make a penny on your writing, check out Funds for Writers and consider subscribing to one or more of Editor Hope Clark's free newsletters (if you get the one for small markets in the next month, you'll see my cool new add for CROSSxCHECKING). These include nonfiction as well as fiction markets.

Back to the literary scene, a great site I discovered (forgive me if I've mentioned this before by it's worth it), reviews Literary Magazines for fiction writers. Click on one of the mags listed in alpahbetical order and get some great info including the type of story they usually publish. This can save loads of money on sample issues. Not that I wouldn't suggest reading a journal before submitting, but this helps you eliminate the ones that aren't a match for your style.

If you have sites you find helpful in your research or that have helped you achieve success, let us know in a comment.