how to report response times/track submissions
Duotrope's Digest provides a service that allows registered users (registration is free) to track their submissions. If you don't want to become a registered user, you can report response times anonymously. The primary difference between these two is that registered users can (1) track pending submissions, (2) see a report of all their submissions, and (3) receive reminders when it may be a good time to query on pending submissions, while anonymous users can do none of those things. This page will go over the process and features.

	registered users		anonymous visitors
1	First ensure that you are logged in.		There is no need to register or log in.
2	You can either access your report response tool directly, or you can use the "Report market response" link from any of the market listings.		You can either access the response times reporting tool directly, or you can use the "Report market response" link from any of the market listings.
3	Enter the details of your submission. Please do not report other people's submissions, and please honestly report your rejections as well as acceptances to avoid skewing the data we maintain. You can enter the following submissions statuses: Pending response (When you have not yet heard a response on a submission) Pending query (When you have not yet heard a response on a query) Acceptance Rewrite request (When the editor has specifically asked you to rewrite the story and resubmit it. With rewrite requests, we prefer you to enter the rewritten piece as a separate submission.) Rejection, subdivided into the following categories: Rejection (Generic. You can also use this option when the editor only notifies in the case of acceptance and you know your piece was not selected.) Form rejection Personal rejection Assumed rejection (When you have given up waiting for a response, or when you know your submission was lost. For the "date received" enter the date you gave up (or learned the submission was lost), as this does provide meaningful information. If you resubmit the same piece to this market, please enter the resubmission as a separate submission.) Withdrawal By Author (When you need to withdraw a story from consideration, generally because it was accepted elsewhere first. Please do not abuse this option; if your piece was actually rejected, do not mark it as "withdrawn by author" as that significantly skews the statistics for everyone else.) You will need to select the market from the drop-down list (if you used a "report market response" link from a listing, it should already be selected). If the market isn't listed, let us know about it and we will add it (if it qualifies for a listing) as soon as possible. If you have selected markets as "favorites", you can choose to limit the drop-down list of markets to only show your favorites. Also, if you would like to track a submission to a market that's in our "Removed by Editor" or "Does not qualify" lists, you can choose to show those markets too. You will need to enter pertinent dates. If you have not received a response, you only need to enter the date you sent the submission. If you have received a response, you need to enter both the date you sent the submission and the date you received a response.  Optionally, you can enter the date you received acknowledgement of your submission. You will need to select the title(s) from your "story list".  If the title isn't already in your "story list," you can add it.  If you are submitting more than one piece to the market with the same dates and other details, you can choose the "multiple submission" option and use ctrl-click to select each title from your list, or you can submit them individually if you prefer or if you don't meet all the criteria for the multiple submission option. Then you just need to submit the information and it will automatically be included in our records and in your personalized report.  If you are reporting a pending query or pending response, the system will alert you if (1) the market is closed or temporarily closed and (2) if you have simultaneously submitted the same story/poem to any markets that don't allow simultaneous submissions.		Enter the details of the reponse you received. Please do not report other people's response, and please honestly report your rejections as well as acceptances to avoid skewing the data we maintain. You can only enter the following types of responses: Acceptance Rejection, subdivided into the following categories: Rejection (Generic. You can also use this option when the editor only notifies in the case of acceptance and you know your piece was not selected.) Form rejection Personal rejection Rewrite request (When the editor has specifically asked you to rewrite the story and resubmit it. With rewrite requests, we prefer you to enter the rewritten piece as a separate submission.) Withdrawal By Author (When you need to withdraw a story from consideration, generally because it was accepted elsewhere first. Please do not abuse this option; if your piece was actually rejected, do not mark it as "withdrawn by author" as that significantly skews the statistics for everyone else.) (Note that registered users can report pending submissions and other types of responses.) You will need to select the market from the drop-down list (if you used a "report market response" link from a listing, it should already be selected). If the market isn't listed, let us know  about it and we will add it (if it qualifies for a listing) as soon as possible. You will need to enter the dates (both the date you sent the submission and the date you received a response; optionally, the date received acknowledgement of your submission). Then you just need to submit the response time and it will automatically be included in our records. If you make a mistake and don't realize in until after you submitted the response time, please let us know immediately and we will fix it for you.
	Using your Submissions Tracker Your personalized report includes information on all the submissions, pending and completed, that you've reported to us. Editing your submission entries: If you have either made a mistake or need to update a submission's status, you can use the "Update | Delete" link in that submission's row on your report. Editing the information is exactly the same as entering a new submission, except the previous information is pre-filled. Sorting and filtering your report: You can filter your report by: Submission status, Piece, and/or Year of submission Also, you can sort your report by clicking any of the headers (such as Piece, Market, etc.) Helping you know when to query: For your pending submissions, your report displays how many days have passed since you sent the submission, how many days on average it takes for that market to respond (if we have the information), and the editor's requested minimum number of days that should pass before you send a query (if known). If the editor hasn't provided a minumum wait time, we recommend sending a query on the status of a submission when one-and-a-half times the average response time has passed. (For example, if The Journal of Frivolous Shoehorns responds in 100 days on average, we would recommend querying at 150 days.) Pending responses that meet that critereon are marked in red on your report. However, never send a query sooner than 30 days, and always check the market's guidelines before sending a query. Deleting a submission entry: Please don't delete a submission entry unless it is an accidental duplicate or you have very good reason to do so. Remember that the submissions information you submit is included in the data we maintain. Deleting a submission affects that data and can give other visitors misleading information (such as an inflated acceptance percentage). If you don't want to see your rejections, please use the filtering options outlined above.		Only registered users can view a report of their submissions, edit their submission entries, etc.
	Backing up your data We backup our database daily, which means that if anything ever goes horribly wrong, we will only lose a day's worth of submissions information. We are working on providing a utility that will allow our users to backup/archive their submissions tracker to an Excel spreadsheet on their own computer, but in the meantime we recommend that you periodically cut and paste your submissions report to whatever format you find easiest.