Duotrope vs Submission Grinder
- Submission Grinder is free, run by Diabolical Plots, with strong speculative fiction coverage.
- Duotrope charges roughly $50 per year and covers a broader range of literary markets.
- Both provide response-time statistics drawn from user-reported submissions.
- Submission Grinder's data depends on its user base reporting consistently.
- Duotrope also lists agents, which Submission Grinder does not.
Submission Grinder is free and particularly strong for science fiction, fantasy, and horror markets. Duotrope costs around $50 a year and covers more literary and general markets, and also lists agents. Try Submission Grinder first; pay for Duotrope only if its listings cover markets the free tool misses.
Chapter i·Why it matters
Short fiction writers often pay for Duotrope reflexively when the free option covers their markets completely. The honest test is to look up ten markets you actually intend to submit to in both. If Submission Grinder has them all with usable response data, the subscription buys you nothing.
Chapter ii·What to include
- Ten real target markets, looked up in both before deciding.
- Response-time data quality for those specific markets.
- Genre coverage: speculative leans Grinder, literary leans Duotrope.
- Whether you need agent listings as well as magazines.
- Submission logging and export in whichever you choose.
- Reporting your own responses, since both databases depend on it.
Chapter iii·Example
A horror writer checked twelve target markets and found all twelve on Submission Grinder with better response data than Duotrope had. She kept the $50 and reported her own responses to improve the free database.
Chapter iv·Related questions
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