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Teachers' Guide to Duotrope

Encourage your students to ask more questions about the practical side of publishing.

What is Duotrope?

Duotrope is an established online writers' and artists' resource. Our main features include:

  • We list over 7,500 active publishers and literary agents, covering the full spectrum of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction — short and long form, literary and genre — as well as visual art. Our listings are comprehensive and regularly maintained by a dedicated staff.
  • Our advanced search feature includes over 20 search criteria to help writers and artists narrow down our thousands of listings into a manageable number. Duotrope members can find the publishers and agents who are looking for their genre, style, length, topic, etc.
  • We've collected millions of data points on the publishers we list, and we've collated them into useful statistics and reports.
  • Our Submission Tracker keeps things organized and streamlines the submission process.
  • Writers and artists can see upcoming publication deadlines and seek inspiration with our theme & deadline calendar.
  • Over 2,225 editors and agents have participated in our interview. In each interview, we ask the same questions. Writers and artists can read a full interview to get more insight into a specific publication or agent, or they can compare many different editors' or agents' answers to a single question for a unique perspective on the publishing industry as a whole.

Why should I teach my creative writing students how to use Duotrope?

Duotrope has become an industry standard. No other writers' resource has the information, accuracy, and interactivity that we offer.

Naturally, most writing programs and classes focus on the creative aspects of writing. If you'd like to go beyond that and include the practical side of the publishing world, Duotrope will help you achieve that goal.

For emerging writers, we teach the realities of the publishing industry. Most writers know that the odds of getting published in a prestigious journal are low, but we can show them the latest data and trends for each individual journal and press.

Many writers who are new to submitting simply don't know where to start. Duotrope is that starting place. They can enter the details of a piece they've polished (category, genre, length, etc.) and we'll provide a list of publishers looking for that type of piece. Then, they can sort that list by pay rates, acceptance ratios, and average response times, among other options. Duotrope brings clarity to an often-confusing process.

We provide lists of the publishers with the highest acceptance rates. Writers can build confidence with some early acceptances before they move on to more challenging publications. (We also provide lists of the fastest responding publishers and agents, the ones that send personal responses most often, and many other reports that are helpful to writers of all stages.)

For experienced writers, Duotrope is a great boon. Our tools can help them find the right potential publisher and make informed decisions quickly, so they can get back to writing. For those with individual-level access, they can also stay organized with our Submission Tracker and Theme & Deadline Tracker.

How can my school (or class) participate in Duotrope?

Duotrope is a paid service. We offer a few different ways to join:

Individual subscriptions provide access for one person. In addition to the features listed above, individual subscribers also have their own personal area of the site, including a Submission Tracker, Favorites list, Tracked Deadlines, and more.

Request a Promo Code for your class: All individual subscriptions start with a ten-day trial. If you will be requiring your students to purchase their own individual subscriptions, you can contact Customer Service to request that we create a special Promo Code for your class. This will give each person who uses the code an extended, one-month trial. Promo Codes expire and are unique to each class.

Group Memberships offer groups of people access to all of our individual subscriber features, plus special group-only features. These are ideal for classes, writing groups, and groups without a physical location.

Bulk Gift Certificates can be purchased for any group of at least 10 people at a significant discount over the price of individual subscriptions. These are ideal for loose groups of people who don't necessarily know one another, such as winners of a contest. Gift certificates provide full, individual-level access.

Not sure which is right for you? We offer a simple wizard to help pick the right option. (No personal or contact information required.)

Lesson Plan Outline

Suggested assignment: There's no better way to learn something than to go through the process yourself. As part of a writing assignment, have your students submit the finished piece for publication. They can use our Advanced Search to find the right publisher, and if they have individual-level access, they can follow the entire process through our Submission Tracker, which will give them an idea of when to expect a response and when to query on the status of the submission. At worst, they'll gain experience with the submission process, and at best, they'll see their piece published!

Guides to our Features

For detailed information on how to use our features, see our Guides for Writers, Poets, and Artists, which offer comprehensive tutorials (no account necessary).


If you have any questions about how Duotrope fits into your writing class or writing program, feel free to contact us.