Duotrope's Submission Fees Report

Are submission fees worth it, or should you save your money?

There's been a lot of discussion lately about the state of submission fees in the literary world. We hope these figures shine some light on the situation. You can use the reports below to see the overall fee ratios, along with the average acceptance ratios by category, and compare "literary" versus "genre" publications.

All Active Publication Listings

Criteria: All active listings

Fees?	Count	Avg Acceptance%
Never Fees	4,244 (69.70%)	8.05%
Optional Fees	253 (4.16%)	8.55%
Some Fees	194 (3.19%)	2.58%
Always Fees	1,398 (22.96%)	3.44%
Total	6,089	6.33%

Average fee paid: USD $7.06

Literary Contests

Criteria: Active listings with Type: Contest, Style: Literary, Genre: General

Fees?	Count	Avg Acceptance%
Never Fees	140 (13.49%)	4.10%
Optional Fees	9 (0.87%)	n/a
Some Fees	14 (1.35%)	3.02%
Always Fees	875 (84.30%)	2.86%
Total	1,038	2.94%

Average fee paid: USD $20.20

Literary Journals

Criteria: Active listings with Type: Journal, Style: Literary, Genre: General

Fees?	Count	Avg Acceptance%
Never Fees	1,882 (74.56%)	7.80%
Optional Fees	190 (7.53%)	8.21%
Some Fees	159 (6.30%)	2.59%
Always Fees	293 (11.61%)	3.64%
Total	2,524	6.24%

Average fee paid: USD $3.86

Genre Contests

Criteria: Active listings with Type: Contest, Style: Any, Genre: Any except General

Fees?	Count	Avg Acceptance%
Never Fees	37 (33.94%)	5.75%
Optional Fees	2 (1.83%)	n/a
Some Fees	1 (0.92%)	n/a
Always Fees	69 (63.30%)	7.78%
Total	109	6.76%

Average fee paid: USD $19.38

Genre Journals

Criteria: Active listings with Type: Journal, Style: Any, Genre: Any except General

Fees?	Count	Avg Acceptance%
Never Fees	493 (82.72%)	8.77%
Optional Fees	50 (8.39%)	7.90%
Some Fees	17 (2.85%)	2.67%
Always Fees	36 (6.04%)	5.00%
Total	596	7.81%

Average fee paid: USD $4.46

Note: These statistics are compiled once a day and based on submissions reports for the past 12 months. Last compiled: 17 January 2025 2:45 PM UTC (12 hours, 31 minutes ago).

If you have any suggestions on how we can improve this report, please let us know.