Duotrope's Submission Fees Report

Are submission fees worth it, or should you save your money?

There's been a lot of discussion lately about the state of submission fees in the literary world. We hope these figures shine some light on the situation. You can use the reports below to see the overall fee ratios, along with the average acceptance ratios by category, and compare "literary" versus "genre" publications.

All Active Publication Listings

Criteria: All active listings

Fees?	Count	Avg Acceptance%
Never Fees	4,308 (70.28%)	8.03%
Optional Fees	240 (3.92%)	6.71%
Some Fees	197 (3.21%)	2.29%
Always Fees	1,385 (22.59%)	3.27%
Total	6,130	5.90%

Average fee paid: USD $6.88

Literary Contests

Criteria: Active listings with Type: Contest, Style: Literary, Genre: General

Fees?	Count	Avg Acceptance%
Never Fees	133 (13.33%)	2.60%
Optional Fees	7 (0.70%)	n/a
Some Fees	14 (1.40%)	8.11%
Always Fees	844 (84.57%)	2.23%
Total	998	2.31%

Average fee paid: USD $19.80

Literary Journals

Criteria: Active listings with Type: Journal, Style: Literary, Genre: General

Fees?	Count	Avg Acceptance%
Never Fees	1,933 (74.86%)	7.87%
Optional Fees	181 (7.01%)	6.17%
Some Fees	158 (6.12%)	2.30%
Always Fees	310 (12.01%)	3.55%
Total	2,582	5.79%

Average fee paid: USD $3.80

Genre Contests

Criteria: Active listings with Type: Contest, Style: Any, Genre: Any except General

Fees?	Count	Avg Acceptance%
Never Fees	41 (37.61%)	8.51%
Optional Fees	1 (0.92%)	n/a
Some Fees	1 (0.92%)	n/a
Always Fees	66 (60.55%)	5.91%
Total	109	6.43%

Average fee paid: USD $20.54

Genre Journals

Criteria: Active listings with Type: Journal, Style: Any, Genre: Any except General

Fees?	Count	Avg Acceptance%
Never Fees	509 (83.44%)	8.71%
Optional Fees	41 (6.72%)	7.48%
Some Fees	21 (3.44%)	2.61%
Always Fees	39 (6.39%)	5.10%
Total	610	7.80%

Average fee paid: USD $4.40

Note: These statistics are compiled once a day and based on submissions reports for the past 12 months. Last compiled: 16 May 2024 2:48 AM UTC (16 hours, 52 minutes ago).

If you have any suggestions on how we can improve this report, please let us know.