Subbub is – as the tagline says – all about bringing writers and markets together. The business model says that we will fund this by charging markets to host their submission process, but we’re also keen to provide functionality for the writers’ side of things as well. The difference is that for the writers, the service is going to be entirely free. The rationale for this is that the more writers we get registering for Subbub, the greater potential audience we can provide to the markets out there who might want to buy our submission management services.
What we’re offering is a complete multi-dimensional submission tracking service. Say goodbye to dodgy spreadsheets keeping track of what you’ve got submitting where, and say hello to Subbub. All you need to do is enter the details of each of your works that you are currently trying to get published – to Subbub-based markets and non-Subbub-based ones too – plus the details of every submission attempt and how it went. Not only will you end up with a complete list of what you currently have on submission, but you’ll also have a completely history of every single work, right up to the point at which it finally broke through. You can even keep tabs on things like short story collections, so that you know which of your available stories has already been collected.
Once you’ve put all this together, very soon you’ll also have available a complete list of all your hits and misses, at which point we provide all the tools you need to put together a shareable portfolio that you can link to in, for example, your Twitter (OK, X if you insist) profile. This will enable anyone to find all your best stuff. We’re hoping to release this in the next week or so.
In case you’re wondering, yes, I have used this system myself, uploading the details of every single story, poem, book or whatever I’ve ever submitted anywhere, so you can rest assured that it’s been thoroughly tested – 459 works in total at the time of writing, with 1619 individual submissions.
I said “multi-dimensional” earlier, and what I meant by that is that not only are you able to analyse your submissions by work, but you can also analyse them by market, so that you can get a real feel for which markets are sympathetic to you and which are most definitely not (Smokelong, I see you).
Anyway, the best thing to do is sign up and have a go. Here’s where to start. A couple of words of advice, though, before you get going: some fields (specifically Format, Market, Event, Category and Response) are nominally free format, in that you can put whatever you want in there. However, you may well find that what you need is already there, and Subbub will try to offer you helpful suggestions when you either start typing or hit the dropdown arrow. If at all possible, please do use the options suggested rather than adding your own unless absolutely necessary.
As always, drop us a line if you need any help. We’ll be adding more context-specific notes over the next few days and doing my best to make it as easy as possible to use.