Today, Duotrope went to its new subscription-based model. If you’ve made the same decision I have, then you can no longer access its searchable market database and its submissions tracker. It was a tough decision for me, but after a lot of thought, I decided I would give it a go without Duotrope. I know most of the markets to which I want to submit, so Duotrope’s market search isn’t that important to me anymore–in fact I haven’t used it in quite some time. The submission tracker was nice and easy, but there are other alternatives. I’ve got my spreadsheet tracker, but I’ve also decided to give Sonar3 a try. It’s a submission tracking program from Simon Haynes (aka. Spacejock) which has been recommended to me by several people. I’ve had good experiences with other Spacejock software (I’ve used yWriter for the past three years), so I’m confident Sonar3 will meet my needs.
There are also other alternatives for Duotropes others features. Author J. W. Alden has compiled a collection of links to free market listings, submission trackers, and sources of market response statistics. While none of these is as slick as Duotrope’s one-stop shop , they can potentially fill the void if you can’t bring yourself to pay $50 a year (or $5 per month). I’ve also heard rumors of Duotrope competitors coming online with more logical submission subscription models, for example, allowing users to track their submissions for free so the site can compile market data that can then be accessed at a reasonable price.
So don’t despair if you can’t or don’t want to pay for Duotrope. There are alternatives.
D. Thomas Minton 
Duotrope’s decision to charge hit me hard after using it for a year, but, on the other hand, maintaining a site takes work and commitment. And I write in many genres. Truth be told, I spend more than $5.00 a month on bottled tea. I spend $60.00 a year on Carbonite “just in case” and have never regretted it. As a writer, I love getting paid. Why shouldn’t Duotrope get rewarded for its services? Thanks for info on other listing sites. Always on the lookout for more markets.
Jenean, thanks for stopping by and commenting. I’ve never begrudged Duotrope making money to pay for their service—I donated to their cause every year, especially after I started to sell stories, and wondered why they had gone to a subscription or advertising model earlier. I was more put off by their approach to going to their subscription model, and the fact that they seem to devalue what writers give back to them: data to actually generate response times and other submission statistics (which they are then selling). Fifty dollars may not be much, but I run my writing as a business and pay for everything writing-related out of my earnings. Doing that makes $50 equal to 2-3 semi-pro sales or a pro flash fiction sale. For me, that’s steep. It’s a simple cost-benefit analysis for me, and given the emerging viable alternatives (e.g., for speculative fiction “The Submission Grinder” is looking very good), I have chosen to go elsewhere.
I’m a bit late through the doors, but thanks very much for linking to my blog!
For all my hemming and hawing, I did end up dropping five bucks on Duotrope for the month of January, mainly to see what would happen to their stats. Going forward, though, I’ll be using The Grinder. It seems to be growing at a steady pace, and they’ve done a great job of adding features since going live.
No problem—you’ve provided a great list of writer resources—and thanks for coming by for a visit. I too will be moving forward with The Grinder. They’ve done an impressive amount of work and continue to incorporate useful features. I’ve been happy with what they’ve accomplished.