When it comes to finding the right print and online publications to send your fiction, poetry, and essays, the research, while still time consuming, is much easier than it used to be back in the pre-internet days. There are some very useful resources out there. The challenge is making sure you aren't spending all your time dinking around in the databases rather than finishing up those stories/poems/essays and sending them out!
Poets&Writers Magazine
They have a fairly new but very useful online database where you can search for literary 'zines that is searchable by the newest listings, by genre (fiction, poetry, non-fiction), or by magazine title. They tell you if the publication takes electronic submissions, simultaneous submissions, genre's published, and the magazine's reading period. It looks like they currently have 495 listings in their database.
Writers Market Database
The old tried and true Writers Market books now give you online access to their bounty of literary resources. They boast over 8,000 listings for "...book publishers, magazines, contests, literary agents, greeting card publishers, screenwriting markets, playwriting markets, conferences, newspapers, online publications, syndicates, and organizations." For a low monthly fee (and also a tax write-off if you earn a living as a writer), you get access to a gigantic searchable database where you can create your own folders and save the listings you like, as well as keep track of your submissions.
Duotrope Digest
This database focuses on poetry and fiction publishers, and has nearly 3,000 searchable listings. Some of the unique aspects of this database is its extensive genre category and sub-category breakdown, the database is searchable by payscale (Non-Paying, Token, Semi-Pro, Pro), but most useful of all is that they include real response times based on user feedback and experience, so you get a real feel for how long it will take a publication to respond. That information is only as good as the users who report back, so if you use them, don't forget to go back and let them know the response time.
CRWROPPS Listserve
This hidden treasure email list is operated generously by Allison Joseph of
http://www.poetryresourcepage.com who is also a poet, editor, and college professor. She runs it through yahoo groups and sends anywhere from 2 - 12 emails a day with different kinds of contest calls for entries, calls for submissions of all kinds, and even job openings at the professor level for colleges around the country in the creative writing field. She doesn't filter out certain kinds of announcements (say if you wanted only poetry-related contests or calls for submission) so you have to wade through the emails yourself every day, but it's worth it. One of the charming things about her list is that when she takes a break, she lets you know.
