Tuesday, February 05, 2013

Pill Hill Press Closed

I received the Ralan newsletter this morning and discovered a surprise. Pill Hill Press closed up shop. Small publishers come and go all the time. Why would I take interest in this closure?

A couple of weeks ago, I received an acceptance letter from Pill Hill. My short short "Final Footprints" would soon appear in their upcoming anthology Daily Frights 2013: 365 Days of Frightening Flash Fiction. First sign of trouble was very few project updates. In the past, they were diligent with updates and response times. One starts to worry when efficiency starts to lag.

Around the beginning of January, I heard news the owner/main editor Jessy gave birth to twins (Congratulations!). By the end of January, Pill Hill Press had closed. The website and forum were shut down. The reason circulating is Jessy decided to be a mom instead of a publisher owner/editor. I'm not certain if that is the sole reason. Supposedly, there was a mass email sent out but I never received it. Learning this news rendered my acceptance letter worthless. It's sad but not the first time it has happened to me.

In other news, I completed my monthly Write1Sub1 goal for January...

Monday, January 28, 2013

Goodbye Duotrope



If you haven't heard already, the fabulous market website Duotrope has gone from a free service to now available to paid subscribers only. For $5 a month or about $50 a year, you can enjoy all the features you use to get for free. I understand they put a lot of hard work in to the site and was having problems being compensated for it, but I feel they went about this switch up the wrong way.

The supposed "free" features still available are fairly nonexistent.  I received the last shred of hope in my inbox this morning in the form of a monthly newsletter. It contained the first three listings for paying and nonpaying markets and not much else. Why go through all the trouble to provide almost no usable information for those who can't afford your prices?

This is me officially saying goodbye to Duotrope. The last couple of years have been fun but it seems you prefer your new/old playmates who have deeper pockets than myself. I wish you well.

Welcome my new best friend.....The (Submission) Grinder!!!