I’ve got a couple short stories and a poem or two I’ve been submitting to magazines and anthologies for publication. I’m slowly racking up rejection letters from these, as I work my way down the from the pro-rated publications (at 8-cent a word), to the semi-pro (let’s say 5-cent a word), toward the no-pay sites.

How? You might ask. In fact, I ran into a couple of people in one of my writing facebook groups, searching for a better way to decide where to submit their short works, who were boggled when I said I just start at the top pay and work my way down (after, caveat: doing my research and making sure the sites are something that I’d want my piece associated with, and I feel my piece would be a good fit for.)

They asked: How do I know what rate these places are paying? How much research did I put into the market before I started submitting these shorts?

Well, I’ve been researching the top three or four places on my list, but not everywhere.

So, how do I know who pays what?

I’ve got a not-so-secret tool that I’ve mentioned before. It’s called The Submission Grinder (no relation to Grindr without an ‘e’).


What is The Submission Grinder
It’s like QueryTracker, but for short stories and poetry, not full-length manuscripts. While the website looks a bit dated, the functionality is solid, and it’s kept relatively up-to-date.

What can it find you?
Places publishing your genre
At the length of your story
What their pay rates are
Their average response time!
If they do reprints, simultaneous submissions, or multiple submission
All the things you might need to know when submitting your work for consideration.

But, I did say, it was like QueryTracker.Net, did I not? That’s because it helps you keep track of all the stuff that goes with it.

What can it track for you?
You can log your stories
You can log your submission dates and places
You can log your rejection/acceptance dates (and make note of what sort of rejection it was)
Now all you need is for it to tell you the best type of candy to send with your stories… (just kidding, publishers won’t take bribes. Or at least, they can’t if you’re querying electronically.)

Have you tried them? Have you found something you like better?