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	4,448 (70.92%)	8.17%
Optional Fees	205 (3.27%)	7.19%
Some Fees	223 (3.56%)	2.59%
Always Fees	1,396 (22.26%)	3.03%
Total	6,272	6.06%

Average fee paid: USD $6.82

Literary Contests

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

Fees?	Count	Avg Acceptance%
Never Fees	140 (13.85%)	3.60%
Optional Fees	6 (0.59%)	n/a
Some Fees	10 (0.99%)	7.48%
Always Fees	855 (84.57%)	2.23%
Total	1,011	2.37%

Average fee paid: USD $19.41

Literary Journals

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

Fees?	Count	Avg Acceptance%
Never Fees	2,067 (76.39%)	8.18%
Optional Fees	158 (5.84%)	6.38%
Some Fees	185 (6.84%)	2.61%
Always Fees	296 (10.94%)	3.10%
Total	2,706	5.98%

Average fee paid: USD $3.71

Genre Contests

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

Fees?	Count	Avg Acceptance%
Never Fees	48 (32.43%)	8.94%
Optional Fees	2 (1.35%)	n/a
Some Fees	0 (0.00%)	n/a
Always Fees	98 (66.22%)	6.40%
Total	148	7.20%

Average fee paid: USD $17.88

Genre Journals

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

Fees?	Count	Avg Acceptance%
Never Fees	542 (84.56%)	9.26%
Optional Fees	38 (5.93%)	6.54%
Some Fees	23 (3.59%)	4.56%
Always Fees	38 (5.93%)	4.23%
Total	641	8.10%

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: 24 September 2022 7:03 PM UTC (6 hours, 2 minutes ago).

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