This penultimate installment of the Writer’s Toolbox is a resource I’ve used over the past few years when looking to publish my short stories.

It can be overwhelming to try and search for the right home for a story if a writer decides to go the traditional publishing route. I know a simple Google search wasn’t very helpful in my case, with dozens of sites and ads trying to catch my attention (and my money). While I was at a small writers’ conference a few years ago, one of the presentations was about a tool I had never heard of before. I’ve since used it to help me home my published short stories.

The Submission Grinder is a no fee, nonprofit database of publishers for all genres and lengths of writing.

Although it’s still a growing list (I’ve added a couple of publishers to their list myself), it is the most comprehensive one I’ve found so far. Not only does it sort publishers and magazines by genre, but it shares their submission schedule if relevant. Often, there are other valuable details, like pay rate and the submission types accepted. That information in and of itself is awesome to have on hand!

The Submission Grinder is also a tool that can keep track of your own submissions. I prefer it to the spreadsheet method, but that might just be me.

As a side note, if you want a good laugh, go to their FAQ page.

Go and check them out and see if this would be a helpful addition to add to your toolbox.

Thanks for reading! Best of luck on your writing journey!