Duotrope

We are swift... and daunting, according to Duotrope's stats. According to them, we are the fourth fastest market to respond to submissions, averaging 2.9 days. Unfortunately, we're also the 21st toughest market to crack, with a 100% rejection rate (the reason we're 21st is that the others higher up are also 100%, but have sent more rejections to people who use the site than we have). They do note that, "No publication has a 100% rejection rate. This estimation is based on reports sent to Duotrope's Digest, and we have not received reports of any acceptances yet. The higher the publication appears on this list, the more rejection notices we have received." Well, we ain't actually 100%, but we are at about 96% rejections, so this probably isn't that far off. Great to see that we're still living up to our established turnaround times (although I think we used to average 2 days, so maybe we've slowed down a teensy bit).

Waiting for Godot: The Interactive Adventure

I love this. Click it. Okay. You may not love it. Tough. I do.

March Top Ten

Here are the ten stories that received the most page views in March:

1. Pornography by Steve Almond (Issue 9)
2. Prey by Myfanwy Collins (Issue 12)
3. Voodoo by Gary Cadwallader (Issue 12)
4. The Rest of Your Life by Sarah Leavitt (Issue 12)
5. Forks in the Road by Eve Abrams (Issue 11)
6. Axl Rose Is My Dog by Scott Ford (Issue 7)
7. Friendship/Love by Ania Vesenny (Issue 12)
8. Five Fat Men in a Hot Tub by Jeff Landon (Issue 10)
9. Everybody in Holland Is Mad at Me by Andrew Tibbetts (Issue 12)
10. The Cellist by Antonios Maltezos (Issue 12)

The most interesting of these, to me, is the piece by Scott Ford. Issue 7 came out on December 15, 2004! Scott's piece was featured prominently on StoryGlossia last month, and it drew a fair number of readers. Steve Almond's piece was also featured, which helped bump its already impressive totals that much higher. This is another great example of the power of online lit mags and their ability to draw readers to stories well after they were initially published. Because they're archived and easy to find, stories are often "discovered" long after they were published. Print mags, as much as I love them for other reasons, just can't do this.

Also, it's interesting how quickly pieces garner attention once they've been published. Issue 12 was published on March 15, so all the stories within were viewable for only half a month. Like print mags, it's important for online pubs to maintain regular publishing schedules so that their readerships know when to find new content.