Besides being an excellent resource to find literary journals for short story submissions, they have an added feature for members. I have entered all of my short fiction submissions and now I can look up my list whenever the mood strikes.
Who has what is a nice little feature, easy to read with the click of a mouse. Best of all, I can see who has what for how long. Literary journals take somewhere on the far side of forever to respond, and that unpleasant fact is proven every time I look at my list.
Beyond that, Duotrope also includes columns that detail the average wait time that has been culled from their members reporting on their own exercises in futility, along with another column that lists the journals' response time claims. Without having to study a calendar, I can see exactly how long I have waited before or after a typical response, and how much longer I might expect to wait.
No point in pulling out the hair when I can see that a given journal doesn't usually let an author know until six months have passed. On the other hand, I can also see that my own wait time has surpassed the Duotrope average. It may be silly, but I take hope from these extended days, telling myself that my short piece must be under consideration or I would surely have heard by now.
I have reached the editor's recommended report time for Tin House and the Missouri Review, and I know that because it's right there in front of me, in a neat spread sheet. Looking for hope, grasping at the thinnest straw, I tell myself that I might get something published after all. Or the submission has been lost. Up with hope, as the Reverend Jesse Jackson has said.
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