I’ve submitted about a dozen or so short stories for publication, thanks to a website that tracks submissions as well as information about billions of journals, magazines, and websites: Duotrope.
This site is very helpful to a writer wanting to get published. It allows you to enter in information about your submissions – title, submission date, etc – and then it keeps a running tally of how many days it’s been since you submitted, as well as the average time to hear back.
But wait, it gets better. Duotrope has a database of just about all the possible places for you to submit, and you can search by genre, pay scale, title, submission policy – whatever criteria you want. The site also keeps statistics on acceptance rates and lists the date of last response. It’s a real help when you’re trying to decide which place to submit to – you’ll know to avoid the ones with a 50% never responded rate who haven’t gotten back to anyone in months.
And best yet, the site is free (although they do accept donations). If you’re looking to submit short stories or poetry, I suggest you check it out.