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An Important Announcement
We are excited to announce a brand new offering: Duosuma — Duotrope's Submission Manager.
It helps publishing projects and literary agents receive and manage their submissions quickly, easily, and affordably.

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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?CountAverage Acceptance%
Never Fees4,467 (72.14 %)7.91 %
Optional Fees128 (2.07 %)4.30 %
Some Fees251 (4.05 %)2.12 %
Always Fees1,346 (21.74 %)3.09 %
Total6,1925.72 %

Average fee paid: USD $6.91

Literary Contests

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

Fees?CountAverage Acceptance%
Never Fees144 (14.26 %)5.83 %
Optional Fees4 (0.40 %)n/a
Some Fees10 (0.99 %)3.03 %
Always Fees852 (84.36 %)2.32 %
Total1,0102.57 %

Average fee paid: USD $18.74

Literary Journals

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

Fees?CountAverage Acceptance%
Never Fees2,042 (78.00 %)7.67 %
Optional Fees108 (4.13 %)4.36 %
Some Fees203 (7.75 %)2.05 %
Always Fees265 (10.12 %)3.15 %
Total2,6185.56 %

Average fee paid: USD $3.70

Genre Contests

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

Fees?CountAverage Acceptance%
Never Fees44 (36.07 %)8.68 %
Optional Fees1 (0.82 %)n/a
Some Fees0 (0.00 %)n/a
Always Fees77 (63.11 %)4.95 %
Total1226.17 %

Average fee paid: USD $16.75

Genre Journals

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

Fees?CountAverage Acceptance%
Never Fees574 (89.27 %)9.23 %
Optional Fees16 (2.49 %)6.92 %
Some Fees25 (3.89 %)3.59 %
Always Fees28 (4.35 %)3.75 %
Total6438.19 %

Average fee paid: USD $4.20

Note: These statistics are compiled once a day and based on submissions reports for the past 12 months. Last compiled: 22 September 2020 2:29 AM UTC (14 hours, 43 minutes ago).

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