How to Search for Visual Art Publishers

This guide to our Publisher Search feature will help you become a better, more efficient searcher. The search options are different for each category, so first select which guide you'd like to read:

Note: On the publisher search page, first make sure you are searching for visual-art publishers. If not, use the "Switch to" options at the top of the search page and select Visual Art.

The Search page has criteria across four tabs:

First Tab: The Basics

Screenshot of Basics tab

Visual Art Medium

Not all visual art publishers list their visual art media preferences. You may want to try the search both with and without Visual Art Medium selected, or try changing the Search Level to "Fuzzy" or "Broad".

Visual Art Style

Not all visual art publishers list their visual art style preferences. You may want to try the search both with and without Visual Art Style selected, or try changing the Search Level to "Fuzzy" or "Broad".

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.

Type/Length

The options here are fairly self-explanatory. "Graphic Narrative" and "Photo Essays" are the two specialty options. Everything else is covered by "Artwork." If you're not sure what to use, we recommend starting with "Artwork."

# of Pages/Photos (when applicable)

This option does not apply to "Artwork." However, it does apply to the other Types. Using this option will exclude publishers that don't specify what page/image limits they're looking for. If you do use this option, be sure to also select a Type/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.)

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, Visual Art submissions will be Submission Medium: Image. However, if the piece exists in a different medium, you can try that option, 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.

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.

Important: The Sort By options marked with asterisks (*) will also eliminate any listings with fewer than 10 visual art submissions reported to us in the past 12 months. If you want to ensure you see all matching listings, avoid using those options.

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 visual art 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.

We hope this information has helped you become a better searcher. If you have any suggestions on how we can improve this guide, please let us know.

Happy searching!