Like it or not, being a freelance writer ain’t easy. The English-speaking market is very competitive and nothing could be taken for granted, even if you got a very positive publication history.
In such situation, everything that helps is welcome. And a good tool could become invaluable. A few weeks ago I’ve experimented the services of a very interesting site, The (Submission) Grinder.
The name is not so reassuring, the image of a grinder recalls some gore-oriented horror movie, but the tagline says it all “Milling your submissions into something useful…”; reading this for me has been a little epiphany. I visualized at once a legion of writers, scattered worldwide, all of them busy into keeping a record of their attempts to sell a story somewhere, always looking for new places to reach.
The Grinder is exactly that. A collection of precious data, accessible to everyone. You may keep track of your pieces, no matter how many times you try to sell’em to unwilling magazines, and know what’s going on in said market. New magazines? Check. In-and-out openings? Check. Statistics? Check.
It’s a rare win-win situation. Authors get to know what’s going on, magazines have an interface to avoid a lot of queries and everybody could have a day-by-day look at the market. I strongly suggest to take a look around, you will not be disappointed.
Angelo Benuzzi 