Guide to Setting Up Calls for Submissions Quick Links: Basics | Adding Calls | Call Settings | Submission Periods | Requesting Review Basics How do I manage my Calls for Submissions? The Manage Your Projects page is where you can see lists of your active projects and their related Calls for Submissions. To access this page, you must be the Account Owner or have "Manage Projects & Calls" privileges. What is a Call for Submissions? A Call for Submissions is a request for people to send in submissions (of written work, visual art, or multimedia) following a set of guidelines (which can be loose or strict, depending on your requirements). Important! The Projects and Calls you list must allow submissions through the Duosuma platform. You may not create Duosuma projects and/or calls that instruct people not to submit through Duosuma but through other means. Also, Duosuma is not a storefront. You may not create projects or calls for the purpose of selling physical or digital products or for selling services (such as editing or self-publishing services). Projects can currently only be vessels for Calls for Submissions. How do I add Calls for Submissions to my Duosuma projects? First, on the Project page, select the appropriate project. Then, either scroll down to the Calls for Submissions section or use the "Jump to Calls" link at the top of the page to skip right to that section. If the call isn't already listed, use the Add a Call for Submissions function. Advice for Setting Up Calls: Any time you accept a different number of pieces or different file types, you should set up separate calls. For example, if you only accept a single short story at a time, but you accept up to three works of flash fiction, you should set up two separate calls: one for short stories and another for flash fiction. Also, if you only accept PDFs for certain types of submissions, that type of submission should get its own call. Read our advice and recommendations for best practices. Settings for Calls Basic Information Call Name: (Required.) The name of the call. We recommend keeping this short and succinct. Examples: "Flash Fiction", "Special Issue: What is Diversity?", "Theme: Call of the Wild". (Please do not use ALL CAPS.) Call Status: (Required.) The options are: Open to submissions Temporarily closed to submissions Inactive (you don't expect to accept submissions for this call in the future) The primary differences between Temporarily closed and Inactive (permanently closed) are in how the calls are displayed. Temporarily closed calls still appear on the public project page, although in a greyed-out state, clearly marked as "closed," and do not provide any way to submit. Inactive calls do not appear at all on the public page, and are intended to be using in situations when you don't plan on opening to that call again the future (such as for a one-time anthology or theme). Inactive calls are also in a separate list from the active calls on your management page. The status has no impact on billing or on whether you can review submissions sent to those calls. Access Level: (Required.) The options are: Public Private (only people with a secret link can submit; see important information below) Internal Team Only (for testing purposes; see note below) Important Information for Private Calls: For Private calls, you will need to provide people who you would like to submit with a Private Call Link. Anyone who has the Private Call Link will be able to submit, so make sure people don't post the link publicly or share it with people who shouldn't have the link.You also have the option of providing a Special Project Link, which will reveal ALL public and private calls under that project to anyone with the link. Be especially careful giving out that link.If necessary, you can Generate a new call key, which will invalidate all previous Private Call Links (people who had a previous link will not be able to submit to the call), and/or you can Generate a new special link, which will reset the Special Project link (anyone who has an old Special Project link will only see the public calls). We don't recommend taking either action unless either you know a link has leaked, or you have a good reason for starting fresh.A Recommendation: If the Private call is meant for only members of a certain group (such as subscribers or people who have been invited to submit), we recommend adding a required Yes/No Custom Question to that call to ask whether they meet that specific criterion, and be sure to set the Acceptable Answer. This additional step will help prevent unwanted submissions in case your secret link leaks. A Note about Internal Team Only calls: With this option, only members of your team (who are logged in) can view or submit to the call, and all submissions will be entered as free, self-destructing test submissions. Read our short Guide to Testing for full details. Categories: (Required.) Select which categories apply to this call: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Drama, Multimedia, and/or Visual Art. Translations: If Translations have been turned on in Account Settings, then you can set the following: Translations permitted for this call (default) Translations required for this call No translations allowed for this call Word Counts: You can require that the submitter provide the word count of each piece. (Applies to fiction and nonfiction only.) File Types: (Required.) Select which file types you will allow. Depending on which categories are selected, different options will be available. For Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and/or Drama: .doc .docx .fdx/.fdr (Drama only) .odt .pages * .pdf .rtf .txt File-Sharing link (DropBox, Google Drive, etc.) For Visual Art: .gif .jpeg .pdf .png .svg .tif File-Sharing link (DropBox, Google Drive, etc.) Portfolio link For Multimedia: Audio-Sharing link (SoundCloud, etc.) File-Sharing link (DropBox, Google Drive, etc.) Portfolio link Video-Sharing link (YouTube, Vimeo, etc.) We recommend that you only select file types that all your readers for this call have access to. For example, don't select Pages files if only some of your readers have access to Pages on Mac.* Also, be aware that our "Convert to PDF" feature does not work for Pages files, and both of the inline viewers we provide, Google Docs and Office365, aren't compatible with Pages files, so only select that option if all your readers have Macs or can open Pages files. If you need to accept submissions in a format not listed above, please contact us and we'll see if that's something we can offer in the future. Submission Cap: (Optional.) If you'd like to set a cap (or quota) on the maximum number of submissions that you can receive for this specific call per billing period, you can set that here. Once you receive that number of submissions for the call, submissions will automatically close until the start of your next billing period, when the counter will reset and submissions will resume. If you would rather set an Account-level cap or a Project-level cap, do that on those respective pages. (Note that caps count the number of submissions, not the number of submission credits, so plan accordingly.) Description Call Info & Guidelines: (Required.) Provide information and complete submission guidelines for this call. This section allows the following formatting elements: bold, underline, italics, links, blockquotes, and lists. If you are comfortable with HTML, you can manually use those tags. Otherwise, you can use the interface. Also, note that if you cut-and-paste from Microsoft Word, it might add unwanted formatting, such as extra paragraphs, line breaks, and blockquotes. We recommend cutting-and-pasting from a plain text editor. Fee/Tip Settings Note: For this section to be available, the account must be set up for charging fees, and the call cannot be for a representation (literary agency/agent) project. Default Fee: If you choose to charge a fee for this call, indicate that here. Then enter the currency (USD, AUD, CAD, EUR, GBP, NZD) and the amount of the fee. Default fees can be overridden in Submission Periods. If you want to alternate between fee-based submissions and free submissions on a certain schedule, set the default fee on the call, and then set up your submission periods (setting the free periods to have a fee of zero). When fees are required, each submission will result in 4 submission credits being charged to your account. Tip Jar: If you want to provide submitters the option of sending a "tip jar" payment along with their submission, check this box, and submitters will be shown that option whenever fees are not required.Submissions with tip jar payments result in 1 submission credit being charged to your account (the same as free submissions). Submission Settings Anonymous Submissions: Indicate whether you require all submissions for this call to be anonymous (no identifying information in manuscripts). Multiple Entries: Set whether you will allow multiple submissions for this call. If you do, people will be able to send multiple submissions without waiting for a reply between submissions. (The number of pieces per submission is a different setting.) Simultaneous Submissions: Indicate whether you will allow simultaneous submissions for this call. (Simultaneous submission refers to the practice of having a piece under submission at several different publishers at the same time.) Reprints: Set whether you will allow reprints (previously published work) for this call. If you do, you may optionally set a brief Reprints Policy. Piece Settings: The concept of Pieces is tightly integrated into Duosuma. You can think of a "piece" as a title, or something that would be published under a title. Submitters indicate what piece(s) they are submitting as part of the submission process. Submitters will be unable to go over (or under) the limits you set, so please ensure you set this up as intended. Type of Pieces: This sets what you will be accepting for this call. Individual pieces (such as a single short story or five poems). If you are accepting for a journal, multi-author anthology, or a contest for short works, this is likely to be the correct choice. The submitters will provide the titles of each piece they are submitting. Collections or chapbooks (by a single author or co-authors). Use this option if you will be publishing a collection or chapbook (usually as a stand-alone publication). The submitter will tell you the title of the collection and submit a single file* for the collection (rather than a separate file for each individual work in the collection). In the File Instructions field, be sure to provide clear instructions on what you want the file to contain (ex: "the first 25 pages," "a synopsis and sample work," or "the full manuscript"). Full-length works (by a single author or co-authors). Use this option if you will be publishing a book-length work as a stand-alone publication. The submitter will provide the title of the full work and submit a single file for it. In the File Instructions field, be sure to provide clear instructions on what you want the file to contain (ex: "the first 25 pages," "a synopsis and sample", or "the full manuscript"). File Instructions: If the Call is set to "Collections or chapbooks" or "Full-length works" for Type of Piece, then you will be able to state what the file should include. Fox example: "query letter and first 15 pages only." Counts: This sets the limitations on the number of pieces/collections/full-length works per submission. If you only allow a single item per submission for this call, select "One piece/collection/full-length title per submission." If you allow more than one item per submission for this call and have a specific range (such as 3-5 poems per submission), select "A set number of multiple pieces/collections/full-length works per submission" and set the Min. and Max. pieces. If you need to Override the min/max settings above on certain categories (such as setting fiction to 1 piece only, but poetry up to 5 pieces), you can use that option (but the Counts setting must use the Range option). If you allow more than one item per submission for this call but don't have a specific range, select "Unlimited pieces/collections/full-length works per submission." Single File: If you allow multiple pieces but want submitters to send only a single file containing all the pieces, indicate that here. (Only applies when the Type is "Individual pieces" and the submission is not Visual Art or Multimedia.) Initially Assign To: This sets the number of people who should be assigned each submission when it is received (default is one), if the Account is set up for one of the Automatic Assignment options. If the account is set up for Predetermined Assignment, you can select which member(s) of your team will initially be assigned submissions for this call here. Submission Periods What are Submission Periods? Submission periods are designed for two situations: Calls that open and close to submissions, or Calls that alternate between fee-based and fee-free submission periods on a certain schedule. If either of those apply to your submission calls, we highly recommend that you set up submission periods. We will ensure that your calls open and close according to the schedule you set. A note about "rolling" submissions: If you accept "rolling submissions," meaning that the call is always open to submissions but has revolving deadlines, we do not recommend setting up submission periods (unless it switches from fee-based to fee-free periods). Our system is set up to close submissions when a closing date is reached, and that is not desirable behavior for "rolling submissions." How do I add a Submission Period? First, navigate to the call in question from the Manage Projects page. Then, either scroll down to the Submission Periods section or use the "Jump to Dates" link at the top of the page to skip right to that section. If the submission period isn't already listed, use the Add a Submission Period function. Submission Period Settings Depending on the current open/closed status of the call and the other submission periods that have been set up, you will be able to add an Opening Date or Closing Date or both. Note that all openings occur at 12:00 AM, and all closings occur at 11:59 PM of the selected Time Zone (default is the Account Time Zone or UTC if one hasn't been set). If you are including a Closing Date, you'll be able to select whether the call should Permanently Close (go to "inactive" status) at that time. If you'd like to set a Period Cap for the Submission Period, you can do so. Note that, unlike other types of caps, Period Caps do not reset on your monthly billing date. Once the cap is reached, submissions will remain closed through the rest of the submission period. They will not re-open until either the next scheduled Submission Period start or you manually re-open submissions. if you want submissions to re-open on your next billing date, use Account, Project, or Call-level caps instead. If fees are an option for this Call for Submissions, you will also be able to adjust the Fee for this submission period. For example, if you want to accept fee submissions from January through March, and submissions with a USD $3.00 fee from April through June, you should set two Submission Periods: Opening: January 1, Closing: March 30, Fee: 0. Opening: April 1, Closing: June 1, Fee: $3. Recurring Periods: When entering both Opening and Closing dates, you will also have the option to set the period to recur annually or monthly. Note that if you use the "monthly" option, both the opening date and closing date must be in the same month. Helpful Hint: If you have recurring submission periods, and you want to get those set up but you are not being given the option to add both an opening and a closing date, first set up a submission period with the upcoming closing date. Then, set up a recurring period for the next full period, with both the opening and closing dates. Requesting Review BETA If you are an Account Owner or Manager, you can request review of your open or "test" submission calls. Learn more about this process in the Guide to Managing Projects. Go to the Duosuma Home Page. See more Documentation. Have any questions about this? Ask us.