How to Search for Fiction Publishers

The Search page has criteria across four tabs:

First Tab: The Basics

Screenshot of Basics tab

Genre

We highly recommend including this option with every search. Unless the piece you wrote is a specific genre (such as science fiction, fantasy, romance, etc.), select "General."

Subgenre

You cannot select a Subgenre until you have selected a Genre. We don't recommend selecting a Subgenre unless the piece really is a specific subgenre (such as magic realism, historical fiction, urban fantasy, etc.)

Style

For non-genre pieces (literary, mainstream, etc.), we highly recommend including this option with every search. For genre pieces (fantasy, mystery, etc.), Style is less important but can still be selected. The most commonly used options are: "Literary," "Mainstream," and "Experimental," but it's worth exploring all the options. Humorists, you can find the "Humorous" option here, under Style. (Note: You can't select a Style until you have selected a Genre.)

Audience

If you are writing for a general adult audience, we recommend not selecting a specific Audience for best results. However, if your piece is aimed towards a specific audience, such as Young adults, Christians, or Gays/Lesbians, select that in this field.

Topic

We only recommend selecting a Topic in certain circumstances. In most cases, Topic won't apply, but it's still worth becoming familiar with all the options.

Subtopic

You cannot select a Subtopic until you have selected a Topic. We don't recommend selecting a Subtopic unless the piece is a good match for one of the options. If searching for a specific Subtopic using Search Level: Exact doesn't return enough results, try a Fuzzy or Broad search level.

Length

We highly recommend including this option in every search. The options here are fairly self-explanatory (see our glossary if not). Hint: Looking for book publishers? Select the appropriate book-length option: "Novel," "Novella," "Story Collection." (Note: Collections are single-author and shouldn't be confused with multiple-author Anthologies, which are covered on the second tab.)

# of Words

Using this option will exclude publishers that don't specify what word counts they're looking for, but there's no harm in starting with the ones that we know accept pieces of a certain length. If you do use this option, be sure to also select a Length option. If you get too few results, try changing the search level to Fuzzy or Broad.

Min. Payment

If you care about getting paid for your work, you should always include this search option. (Note: Some of our listings have a payscale of "unknown." If you select a Min. Payment option and you want to include those listings, check the "Incl unknown" box. We especially recommend doing this with book publishers.)

Min. Royalties

Unless you are specifically looking for anthology or book-length fiction publishers, we don't recommend using this option. (Notes: The "less than 15%" and "greater than 15%" options should only be used when searching for book publishers, not anthologies. Also, the "incl unknown" box in the Min. Payment section applies to any Royalties selected as well.)

Submission Type

We recommend including this option in every search, unless you truly have no preference between sending electronic submissions and postal submissions.

Publication Medium

If you are specifically looking for a market that publishes in print or a market that publishes electronically, select the appropriate option.

Submission Medium

Enter the medium of the piece you are submitting: Audio, Image, Text, or Video. In most cases, Fiction submissions will be Submission Medium: Text. However, some projects accept audio or video fiction submissions as well, so if the piece exists in those media, you can try those options, too.

Submission Details

Check the "Accepts Reprints" box if the piece you are submitting has been previously published. (Note: Many editors consider pieces that have been publicly posted on blogs, websites, etc. to be previously published.)

Check the "Accepts Simultaneous Submissions" box if you are (or will be) submitting this piece to several publishers at the same time.

Check the "Accepts Multiple Pieces in one submission" box if you want to submit multiple pieces at once to a single publisher. (Note: Few fiction publishers allow this. Also, we highly recommend selecting a Length if you use this option.)

Sort By (available on every tab)

The default option is to sort the search results alphabetically by title, but if you care more about Payment, Response Time*, or Acceptance Percentage*, you may want to use those options instead.

Search Level (available on every tab)

The default option ("Exact") is to show only listings that are exact matches for all of your search criteria.
"Fuzzy" searches will broaden the search, but most of the search results will still be likely matches to all or most of your search criteria.
"Broad" searches are even broader than fuzzy searches. These can be useful when you search on a lot of criteria and/or very specific criteria, such as Subgenre (when applicable) or Subtopic, and the Exact or Fuzzy results are too few.

Second Tab: Exclusions

Screenshot of Exclusions tab

There are some powerful options on this tab for eliminating unwanted search results and ensuring that you don't make any embarrassing mistakes (such as submitting the same piece twice to a publisher or accidentally sending multiple submissions).

Show Only

If you are only interested in Contests, Anthologies (multiple-author collections), Fledgling publications, or listings you've added to Your Favorites, select that option.

Exclude

Here you can exclude Contests, Anthologies, Fledgling publications, publishers that only accept submissions from a Limited Demographic, and/or listings that may publish some "Mature" content.

If you are searching for a specific piece that's already in your List of Pieces, you can exclude publishers where it has already been submitted by selecting that piece in the drop-down list. (Note: This option only appears when applicable.)

If you want to avoid submitting to any publishers where you already have submissions pending, check the "Exclude all publishers where I have pending submissions" box. (Note: This option only appears when applicable.)

Note: Any listings in your Ignore List will always be excluded from the search results.

Third Tab: Other Options

Screenshot of Other Options tab

Country

Most publishers, regardless of where they're based, accept submissions from around the world (exceptions will be noted on their listing—also see the second tab for excluding "Limited Demographic" publishers). For that reason, we don't recommend this search option unless you have special reasons for seeking only publishers in a specific country.

Acceptance %

While this is a fun search option, you should be aware that using it will eliminate any listings with fewer than 10 fiction submissions reported to us.

Fourth Tab: Save Search (individual and group members only)

Screenshot of Save Search tab

Saved Searches

Here you can access any Saved Searches you have previously set up, or you can set up a new Saved Search. To save a search, you will need to enter a name for the search and then run the search as usual. (For more information, read our Guide to Saving Searches.)

Running the Search

Once you've selected your search criteria, run the search. If it returns over 300 results, we highly recommend refining your criteria until you get a manageable number of results. You can return to your search form at any time by clicking the "Show the Search Form" link.

Exploring Your Search Results

Screenshot of actual Search Results

You can hover over most of the colored icons in the search results for more information. Also, the little plus sign to the left of the market's title displays the cover art and general description (when available).

Running a search is just a first step. You should always research a publication and review their submissions guidelines before submitting to them.