Managing Markets
Track the publications and venues where you submit your stories — magazines, anthologies, contests, and publishers.
What Markets Are
A market is any venue that accepts story submissions: literary magazines like Clarkesworld, anthologies, writing contests, or publishers with open reading periods. Tracking markets helps you build a submission history and see acceptance rates over time.
Markets has its own feature toggle (enabled by default for both author and publisher workspaces). If you don't see Markets in your sidebar, your workspace administrator can enable it in workspace settings.
How Markets Work
Inkwren provides two types of markets:
- Global markets: A curated list of well-known venues (Clarkesworld, Asimov's, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and others). These are read-only templates available to all workspaces.
- Workspace markets: Markets you create or customize for your own tracking. When you select a global market for a submission, Inkwren automatically saves a workspace copy so you can track your history with it.
You don't need to think about this distinction — just search for a market when creating a submission, and Inkwren handles the rest.
Viewing Your Markets
Click Markets in the sidebar under the Business section. You'll see a table showing:
- Market name and website
- Type (Magazine, Digest, Anthology, Contest, Publisher, Other)
- Submissions count
- Accepted count
- Acceptance rate
Most columns are sortable — click a column header to sort. The Accepted column is not sortable.
Filtering
Use the controls above the table:
- Search: Type a market name to find it
- Market Type: Filter by type (Magazine, Digest, Anthology, Contest, Publisher, Other)
Creating a Market
- Click Add Market at the top of the page
- Fill in the details:
- Name (required): The venue name (e.g., "Lightspeed Magazine")
- Website: The market's URL
- Type: Magazine, Digest, Anthology, Contest, Publisher, or Other
- Click Add Market
Adding Common Markets
If you're starting fresh, use the global market list:
- Click Add Market
- Inkwren suggests known markets as you type — select one to add it to your workspace with its website and type pre-filled
Editing a Market
- Click the edit action on any workspace market in the table
- Update the name, website, or type
- Click Save Changes
Global markets (the curated list) cannot be edited. If you need a different name for a global market, create a workspace market instead.
Deleting a Market
- Click the delete action on the market row
- Confirm the deletion
Markets with linked submissions cannot be deleted. Remove or reassign the submissions first.
You can also select multiple markets and use Delete Selected for bulk removal.
Markets and Submissions
Markets integrate directly with story submissions:
- When creating a submission, search for a market in the market field — Inkwren shows your workspace markets and known global markets
- Selecting a global market automatically creates a workspace copy so your submission stats accumulate
- The Markets page shows aggregated submission counts and acceptance rates across all your submissions to each venue
Market Types
| Type | Use For |
|---|---|
| Magazine | Periodical publications (Clarkesworld, Analog, etc.) |
| Digest | Digest-format publications |
| Anthology | Themed or curated story collections |
| Contest | Writing competitions |
| Publisher | Publishing houses with open submissions |
| Other | Anything that doesn't fit above |
Tips
- Check acceptance rates over time: The Markets page shows your acceptance rate per venue, helping you focus on markets where your work fits
- Use the type filter: Quickly narrow down to just magazines, anthologies, or contests
- Don't duplicate global markets: When you search for a market during submission, Inkwren automatically handles the workspace copy — no need to manually create markets that already exist in the global list
- Track niche markets too: Add small presses, Patreon-funded magazines, or invitation-only anthologies as workspace markets to keep a complete submission history