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Duosuma® Duotrope's Submission Manager

Guide to Submitting, Withdrawing, and Checking on the Status of your Submissions

Finding Opportunities

Most publishing projects and literary agents link to their submission pages. We also have a page of Current Submission Opportunities that lists open calls for submission that are using the Duosuma platform.

How to Submit

From a project's Duosuma page, select the call you will be submitting to. Take note of any deadlines or fees. Then, click the "Submit" button for that call.

Before Submitting: Before you can submit you need to be logged in to a Duotrope account. If you do not already have a Duotrope account, you need to sign up for one. A paid Duotrope subscription is not required to submit. However, it does offer a lot of perks and a free trial. (Again, this isn't required.)

About You

Depending on how the call has been set up, some or all of the following may be required. On the submission form, fields in bold are required. Everything else is optional.

The Name listed will be the name provided in your account profile. This is also the name that the team will use to address you. If that name is listed incorrectly, you will need to Update your Profile before proceeding.

Some projects also require your Full Legal Name*. If so, check that your legal name is entered correctly.

* More about Legal Names: If you provide a legal name that's different from your account name, and you don't use the option to save it to your account, the legal name will only be recorded for this submission. It will not be written anywhere else, shared with anyone else, or used for any other purpose.
If you choose to save it to your account for convenience, the legal name will only be available for this submission and for future submissions that also require legal names. It will not be used for any other purpose or shared with anyone besides the people who review those submissions.

Check that your Email is correct. If not, you will need to Update your Profile.

Enter your Mailing Address (Country, Street Address, City, State/Province, Postal/Zip Code), if prompted. You can save the mailing address to your account so you don't have to enter it each time by checking the "Save to my account" box.

If you are willing to opt-in to their Mailing List, you can give that permission here, if prompted. (Note: Some contests require this for you to receive the issue/book. Check for this in their guidelines.)

A note about privacy: Duosuma accounts are prohibited from selling your contact information, and they can only add you to their mailing list with your explicit permission. Likewise, Duotrope will not sell your personal information. See our full privacy policy.

Select the Submission Type. Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Drama, Visual Art, and/or Multimedia may be options, depending on the submission call. If your submission straddles multiple types, select the most applicable one.

If requested, indicate whether this submission is a Translation (or includes a translated work).

You may be asked about your Use of AI (or machine learning tools) in the creation of the material you are submitting today.

Enter a Cover Letter, if prompted. Some calls will provide specific instructions for the cover letter.

Enter a Bio, if prompted. Bios should always be written in the third-person and comply with the stated word limits. You can save the bio text to your account so you don't have to enter it each time by checking the "Save to my account" box.

You may randomly be presented with a Security Challenge that helps protect the system against bots and other bad actors. If so, read the given statement and answer two simple questions.

Question(s)

If the project wants to request additional information from you, it will be in this section. Respond to the questions presented and click the Next button.

Questions that require responses are marked with an asterisk. You cannot proceed until you've answered those. Also, some projects may only accept certain answers. For example, a call may be limited to college students; if you don't indicate that you are a college student, you will not be able to proceed with your submission.

Piece(s)

What is a "Piece"? A Piece is a record with information about a piece you are submitting. Providing separate records for each piece you submit helps keep both the project's records and your submission records accurate and organized. Also, if you don't enter each piece separately, you won't be able to withdraw individual pieces; you will only be able to withdraw the entire submission.
Depending on how you are submitting, you will either be providing the files in this step or the next step.

If the call allows multiple pieces and gives you the option of submitting a file per piece or a single file for the entire submission, please indicate if you plan on submitting a single file for the entire submission. (Does not apply to Visual Art or Multimedia submissions, where you always provide a separate file per piece.)

Select the Piece you are submitting from the drop-down list. If you don't have any pieces yet, or if you need to add a piece, use the Add a piece to my list feature, and then fill in a short form with basic information about the piece.

Once you have selected a piece, indicate whether that piece is being submitted simultaneously (under consideration by more than one project at the same time) or if the piece has been previously published. You can also change the Title field, if needed. If prompted, provide the approximate Word Count of the piece. If you are submitting a file per piece, you may be prompted to provide or select files at this stage as well (see the File(s) section below). Then click the Add button.

If you are submitting more than one piece and the submission call allows that, repeat the steps above until you have added them all. If you make a mistake, you can Remove or Update entries from the Selected Pieces table.

An important note regarding collections: If the call is specifically for single-author collections, consider the collection to be a single unit. Submit it as a single piece, rather than submitting its individual parts separately.

File(s)

You will be prompted to Upload a file, Select a File (from previously submitted files for that piece), or provide a Link for either the entire submission or individual pieces in the submission, as prompted. Be sure to pay close attention to what's listed in the Piece section of the form, as well as to the acceptable file formats and/or link types.

If the call requires anonymous submissions, you will need to indicate that you have removed all identifying information from the file.

If you are uploading a file for a single piece, we will also keep a copy of that file in your account for future submissions, so all you will need to do is select that file from the drop-down list of previously submitted files for that piece (must be an accepted file type and match the anonymous submission setting). For Duotrope subscribers, we will keep those files indefinitely. For people using a free account, we will delete those files if you've been inactive for six months.

If you are submitting multiple files, repeat the steps until you have provided files or links for each of them.

Review Your Submission

In this step, simply confirm that information listed is correct, that you are the creator of the works, and that you have answered all questions truthfully. If you need to make changes, use the links provided to do so.

If you are not a Duotrope subscriber, you may also be given the option to share an anonymized report of your submission with Duotrope, to help improve the accuracy of the submission statistics for the project's Duotrope listing.

Submission Fee or Tip Jar (if applicable)

Note: Duotrope/Duosuma does not take a cut of your submission fees and tip jar contributions! The full payment goes straight to the project's account (minus the payment processor's fees).

If the call has a mandatory Submission Fee, you will need to pay it in this step. You will not be able to proceed and finalize your submission until payment is successful.

If the call has an optional Tip Jar, you will be given the option of making a voluntary tip jar contribution in this step. You will be able to choose the amount (a minimum and maximum will be set by the project) and make a payment or to Skip making a contribution.

If there's no Submission Fee or Tip Jar, you will skip this form and go straight to the submission confirmation screen.

Submission Confirmation

Once you have completed the process, you'll get a confirmation message. You should also receive an email to confirm receipt of the submission, plus an email with your payment receipt if one was made.

To ensure you receive all emails regarding your submissions, please whitelist [email protected] or the duotrope.com domain in your email settings. All email responses sent to you through the Duosuma system are also saved to your account. If you think you are missing some emails or responses, please check Your Duosuma Submissions (see below).

Your Duosuma Submissions (Sent Submissions)

Your Duosuma Submissions is where you can see a list of everything you've submitted using the Duosuma platform, including the current status of each submission:

Pending
The submission has been received by the staff, but a final response has not been sent yet. The review process may or may not have begun.
Accepted
The submission was accepted.
Declined
The submission was declined.
Withdrawn
You withdrew the submission.

You can Filter the list by Submission Status and you can Sort the list by Date Sent (ascending or descending) or Project.

Using the Select link for each submission in your list, you can see all the details, including the full email history for that submission.

If you are a Duotrope subscriber, you will also find links to the Duotrope Report for that submission, if applicable.

Your Duotrope report(s) will automatically update with the current status of the submission. If any are marked as personal rejections on Duotrope, that means that they either typed in their response by hand or took the time to modify a template response just for you.

Withdrawing a Submission

If you need to withdraw a submission (or part of a submission) and the submission is still pending, select that submission, click the Withdraw button and then fill in a short form.

If you submitted more than one piece, you will be able to select whether to withdraw individual pieces or the entire submission.

We highly recommend including a Note politely and concisely explaining why you are withdrawing the submission/piece(s).

Submitting New Files

If the editor has requested new files for your submission, you will be contacted about that (and it will also appear in the Email History on the submission details page). There will be a button on the submission details page to Submit New File(s). Simply click that button and upload your new files. Note that the editor may impose a deadline for when the files are due, so be timely about this.

In some cases, depending on whether the project allows it, you may also be able to initiate sending new files yourself. If that is a possibility, the "Submit New File(s)" button will appear. Simply click that button and upload your new files. You will have 24 hours to complete this process.

Deleting Your Files

Some publications may choose to keep your submission files on record for a time (in case they want to revisit the submission later). If you ever want to delete those files, you can do so on the submission details page. If the files have already been deleted, it will state that the files are "no longer available." If they have not been deleted already, you will have an option to Delete Submission File(s). This only applies to Declined or Withdrawn submissions; the publisher needs access to the files for Accepted or Pending submissions (although you can withdraw pending submissions; see above).

Sending a Message

Some projects may allow you to send them a message about the submission, such as requesting a status update. If that's an option for your submission, there will be a Send Message button. Simply click that button, fill out a short form, and your message will be sent. It will also be recorded in your submission details. (Note: If you reply to an editor via direct email, the Duosuma system will be unaware of those communications, so those will not be recorded in the submission details.)

Important Notes: Do not use the Send Message option to withdraw a submission. If you need to withdraw, follow the instructions above. Also, do not send messages about anything other than the submission in question. If you need to contact the editors about general matters, use other means to contact them.

Have any questions about this? Ask us.