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	4,516 (71.71%)	8.45%
Optional Fees	173 (2.75%)	7.58%
Some Fees	243 (3.86%)	2.47%
Always Fees	1,366 (21.69%)	2.88%
Total	6,298	6.31%

Average fee paid: USD $7.27

Literary Contests

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

Fees?	Count	Avg Acceptance%
Never Fees	141 (14.10%)	4.42%
Optional Fees	6 (0.60%)	n/a
Some Fees	19 (1.90%)	5.31%
Always Fees	834 (83.40%)	2.57%
Total	1,000	2.74%

Average fee paid: USD $19.54

Literary Journals

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

Fees?	Count	Avg Acceptance%
Never Fees	2,067 (76.73%)	8.37%
Optional Fees	137 (5.09%)	6.59%
Some Fees	192 (7.13%)	2.42%
Always Fees	298 (11.06%)	2.73%
Total	2,694	6.16%

Average fee paid: USD $3.79

Genre Contests

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

Fees?	Count	Avg Acceptance%
Never Fees	56 (40.00%)	6.79%
Optional Fees	2 (1.43%)	n/a
Some Fees	2 (1.43%)	n/a
Always Fees	80 (57.14%)	8.37%
Total	140	7.76%

Average fee paid: USD $16.88

Genre Journals

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

Fees?	Count	Avg Acceptance%
Never Fees	561 (86.57%)	9.14%
Optional Fees	32 (4.94%)	7.52%
Some Fees	21 (3.24%)	3.22%
Always Fees	34 (5.25%)	3.30%
Total	648	8.04%

Average fee paid: USD $4.82

Note: These statistics are compiled once a day and based on submissions reports for the past 12 months. Last compiled: 27 January 2022 5:40 PM UTC (8 hours, 16 minutes ago).

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