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Duosuma® Duotrope's Submission Manager

Duosuma: Overview for Publishers & Agents

Street art showing two hands reaching towards one another. (Photo by Claudio Schwarz.)

What is Duosuma?

Duosuma is Duotrope's Submission Manager Platform. It helps publishing projects and literary agents receive and manage their submissions quickly, easily, and affordably.

If you're not familiar with us... Established in 2005, Duotrope is the industry-standard writers' resource, providing thousands of active publisher and agent listings, a submission tracker, theme and deadline calendars, interviews, and so much more. About Duotrope.

Current Features for Publishers and Agents

Low, fair fees with automatic discount programs. Duosuma's fees are usage-based, so you only pay for what you use, based solely on the number of submissions received. We offer two different discount programs that will automatically be applied if you qualify. We take a tiny commission on fee-required submissions, but we don't take any commission at all on "tip jar" submissions. For full details, see below.

Build your team. Whether your team is tiny or large, stable or ever-changing, you'll be able to manage it all. Set permissions and responsibilities per team member. Add or remove team members at any time. (The size of your team has no impact on billing. Each team member will need to have a Duotrope account, but a Duotrope subscription is not required.)

A single account can cover multiple publishing projects or literary agents. All that's required is that at least one project/agent must have an active listing on Duotrope and must meet Duotrope's criteria for listings (see the publishing project criteria or literary agent criteria for details).

Automatic assignment of submissions. As submissions are received, they can be automatically assigned to a member of your team who is able to handle that submission, based on the type of submission and the project. You can choose load-balancing, round-robin, or random automatic assignment. (If you don't want automatic assignment, we also offer manual or predetermined assignment of submissions.)

Smart response templates. Send auto-responses to new submissions and automatically send receipts when fees/tips are received. Also, create as many response templates (such as rejection letters) as you need. The responses can be personalized, based on the details of the submission.

Bulk actions save time. Ready to send a batch of rejections? Simply check off the submissions, select a response template, and it's done! You can also use this feature to notify a group of people that their submissions have been shortlisted or held for further consideration.

Ratings, reviews, and tags. You can set your preferred rating system (Accept/Decline, Yes/No/Maybe, 5-star, or letter grades A+ through F) and allow your readers to rate and review submissions. To speed up the decision-making process, members of your team with Accept/Decline privileges will be able to filter and/or sort the current submissions by rating. Also, you can label submissions with custom tags that meet your team's unique needs. (These are internal features. The submitters will never see the ratings, reviews, or tags left for their submissions.)

Smart submission periods. Set submissions to open and/or close on a certain date. You can even set up automatically recurring submission periods. We'll make sure your submissions open and close on schedule.

Custom questions. Get additional information from your submitters as part of the submission process.

Response targets and assignment deadlines. You can set a target of how long submissions should wait for a response. You can also set thresholds of how long someone assigned to a submission can spend reviewing it. Based on those settings, Duosuma can send reminders to team members and reports to team leaders, and it can even automatically reassign submissions that have been in someone's hands too long.

No quotas! (Unless you want one.) Any account can receive an unlimited number of submissions per month. Duosuma does not force any account to have a quota.
However, if you want to limit the number of submissions per month, you have the option to set up submission caps on an account, project, and/or submission call-level. If you do self-impose a quota, the public submission pages will display a progress bar to indicate how much of the quota has been used.

Collect submission fees or voluntary tips. Duosuma will never require projects to charge fees, but publishing projects have the option of allowing voluntary "tip jar" payments and/or requiring submission fees. (To set this up, you will need to go through a one-time onboarding with our trusted payment processor, Stripe.)

AI/Bot protections. We offer robust protections against unwanted bot-submitted submissions.

Free Trial! We offer all new accounts a generous free trial. See the full details in the Billing and Account FAQ below.

Duosuma might be right for your publishing project if...

  • You have a goal to respond to all submissions (our response templates, bulk actions, and other tools will help with this).
  • You want to save money over more expensive platforms and have fair, usage-based billing.
  • You want to keep more of your fees and tips to help your project thrive. (On average, you'll keep USD $0.59 more on every fee transaction than you would with our main competitor, and that's even after the payment processor has taken their cut. That can really add up!)
  • You need more organization than email or a form manager provides (such as ratings, reviews, tags, robust searches, and automatic submission assignment).
  • You want a platform built specifically for publishers by a company with decades of experience in the publishing world.
  • You want to be rewarded for having quick response times (see our Gold Star program).
  • The project is already listed on Duotrope or meets our criteria for a full (free) Duotrope listing.

How much does it cost?

For the people who submit...

Duosuma is free. A Duotrope account is required, but a Duotrope subscription is not required. (Duotrope subscribers do get extra perks, though!)

For the publications and agents that accept submissions through Duosuma...

The fees are usage-based. Duosuma charges a rate of NZD $0.15 per submission* if no automatic discounts or volume tiers apply, billed monthly. Also, we take a tiny commission of just NZD $0.18 on all fee-required submissions. We do not take a commission on tips. * A single submission can contain multiple pieces, if you allow that.

We also support the following currencies (click for details): AUD CAD EUR GBP USD

Automatic Discounts and Volume Tiers: If your account qualifies for the Gold Star Program, you will automatically get a 25% discount. We also offer discount rates based on submission volume (submissions received in a billing period):

Submissions per monthly billing cyclePer submission cost in New Zealand Dollars
Up to 99$0.15
100 - 999$0.10
1,000 - 9,999$0.05
10,000+$0.025

Fully Transparent Examples:

Submission of a 5 poems to a magazine with no fee or tip: You would be charged between NZD $0.02 and $0.151 for this submission in your monthly bill. No other charges apply.

Submission of 3 flash fiction pieces to an anthology with optional tip of NZD $3.00: You would be charged between NZD $0.02 and $0.151 for this submission in your monthly bill. We do not take a commission on tips. The payment processor will charge a transaction fee of around NZD $0.38.2 Your net earnings on this submission would be between NZD $2.47 and $2.60.

We Tip Jars! See how successful Tip Jars have been for publishers using Duosuma on our Tip Jar Report.

Submission of a novella to a contest with a required fee of NZD $15.00: You would be charged between NZD $0.02 and $0.151 for this submission in your monthly bill. In addition, we will take a tiny commission of $0.09-$0.181 that comes out of the fee. The payment processor will charge a transaction fee of around $0.71.2 Your net earnings on this submission would be between NZD $13.96 and $14.18.


1. Depending on volume and applicable discounts.
2. Stripe transaction fees as of 1 April 2024, using base rates. See Stripe's pricing page for full details.

Estimate your Costs & Earnings

Billing and Account FAQ

Do you offer a trial?
Every new account gets a one-time free trial with 250 credits. The trial will expire one month after you take your first call for submissions "live" or when you've used all 250 credits, whichever happens first.
The trial period is generous, and a credit card isn't needed to sign up. You can take as long as you need, exploring all of our features and sending no-cost test submissions. If you find Duosuma meets your needs, then take your first call for submissions live, and the trial will end one month after that (or when you've used the 250 trial credits). If it doesn't meet your needs, you can cancel during the trial and will never be charged or invoiced. There's no obligation, and we don't use high-pressure sales tactics. That's just not our style.

Do you offer discounts?
We do! We offer two different discount programs that apply automatically:
Volume Discount: We use tiered pricing as described above. Discounts start at just 100 submissions, and increase significantly at 1,000 and 10,000 submissions.
If your account qualifies for the Gold Star Program, you'll automatically get a 25% discount on your bill, and we'll cut the commission on your required fees in half!

What cut do you take out of our submission fees and tips?
On tips, we don't take a commission at all. Tips are good karma, and we don't mess around with karma!
We take a tiny commission of NZD $0.18 on fee-required submissions. This amount would be cut in half if you qualify for the Gold Star Program. Also, the payment processor will charge standard transaction fees, but even after that, the total taken out of your submission fees will be significantly less than with our biggest competitor — you'll keep NZD $1.02* more per fee transaction on average (and even more on tip transactions or if you qualify for the Gold Star program). That adds up to a lot more money in your bank account to keep your publication afloat and to create wondrous new publications!* Based on recent NZD-USD exchange rates.

Are there any restrictions with charging fees and collecting tips?
Yes, you need to be in a country supported by our payment processor Stripe. (See their list of supported countries.) You can receive tips and fees in the following currencies: Euro, British Pounds Sterling, United States, Canadian, Australian, or New Zealand Dollars.
Also, you can only collect fees and tips with submissions. You cannot operate a storefront or sell subscriptions or services via Duosuma.

What about team members, projects, and advanced features? Do you charge extra for those?
Nope! We won't nickel-and-dime you. You can have as many team members and projects under your account as you need. Every account has access to the same features we offer all accounts.
Also, you and your team members are not required to have individual Duotrope subscriptions. You and your team members only need free personal Duotrope logins.

What happens when we are closed to submissions?
You are only charged during months that you receive submissions. As long as your account is in good standing, you will still have access to all submissions and be able to manage those submissions during periods when you aren't actively accepting submissions.

Can we pre-purchase credits?
Yes, you can purchase credits in blocks of 100, from 1 block (100 credits) to 500 blocks (50,000 credits). If you qualify for the Gold Star program, you will receive a 25% discount. The volume rates described above also apply. At the time of purchase, the blocks are credited to your account. They will remain until used up. Purchased credits do not expire, but they are non-transferable and non-refundable.

When is a credit card required?
We don't require a credit card to sign up for an account, but we request that you set up a credit card or pre-purchase credits before your trial ends to avoid any disruptions in service. If you don't have a credit card on file, we will send you an invoice.
Also, if you plan on charging fees or collecting tips, you will need to add a credit card to your account (or purchase credits) first, as a sign of good faith.

Can we cancel at any time?
Yes, you can cancel at any time. It's self-service. Before cancelling, we highly recommend setting your Project(s) to "inactive" (which will ensure you won't be billed for any new submissions) and responding to any pending submissions (because you won't have access to them after cancelling). Then, once you're ready to cancel, you can do it on your Billing page with just three clicks. We won't make you jump through any hoops, or try to trick you, or beg you not to. We hate that stuff, so we won't do it.

Are there any prerequisites before we can sign up?
Yes, before you can sign up for a Duosuma account, you must have an active listing on our writers' resource, Duotrope. If your publishing project or literary agency isn't already listed on Duotrope, read our criteria for publishing projects or criteria for literary agents and if all criteria are met, request a Duotrope listing. Once the project or agent is listed on Duotrope, you will be able to sign up for Duosuma. (Note that there's never any charge to be listed on Duotrope and that those listings are maintained by Duotrope's staff.)

We are not based in the USA, Canada, Ireland, the UK, Australia, or New Zealand. Can we still use Duosuma?
Yes, with some caveats.
Language: Duosuma's interface is entirely in English, so it's not appropriate if any of your submitters or team members may not have English proficiency.
Currency: We can only bill Duosuma accounts in Euro, British Pounds Sterling, United States, Canadian, Australian, or New Zealand Dollars. If you do not have a bank or credit card in one of those currencies, you will be billed in US Dollars, and your bank will handle the currency conversion. If you plan to charge fees or collect tips, you can also only do so using one of the currencies listed above. If a submitter doesn't have a credit card in that currency, they can still pay the fee in the currency you select, but it will be charged to them in their currency at an exchange rate determined by their bank.


Next Steps

Not quite ready?
Read the documentation.
Have a question not answered here or in the documentation? Contact us.

Otherwise...

Request an Account