Duotrope®

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 Fees4,399 (72.75 %)6.80 %
Optional Fees99 (1.64 %)4.26 %
Some Fees208 (3.44 %)2.32 %
Always Fees1,341 (22.18 %)2.88 %
Total6,0475.22 %

Average Fee Charged: USD $7.27

Literary Contests

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

Fees?CountAverage Acceptance%
Never Fees114 (11.66 %)4.80 %
Optional Fees2 (0.20 %)n/a
Some Fees8 (0.82 %)1.39 %
Always Fees854 (87.32 %)2.02 %
Total9782.19 %

Average Fee Charged: USD $19.03

Literary Journals

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

Fees?CountAverage Acceptance%
Never Fees1,947 (79.24 %)6.27 %
Optional Fees86 (3.50 %)4.03 %
Some Fees171 (6.96 %)2.31 %
Always Fees253 (10.30 %)3.00 %
Total2,4574.94 %

Average Fee Charged: USD $3.58

Genre Contests

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

Fees?CountAverage Acceptance%
Never Fees39 (31.71 %)7.43 %
Optional Fees1 (0.81 %)n/a
Some Fees0 (0.00 %)n/a
Always Fees83 (67.48 %)4.17 %
Total1235.03 %

Average Fee Charged: USD $15.32

Genre Journals

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

Fees?CountAverage Acceptance%
Never Fees537 (90.25 %)8.90 %
Optional Fees17 (2.86 %)5.93 %
Some Fees15 (2.52 %)5.96 %
Always Fees26 (4.37 %)4.21 %
Total5958.25 %

Average Fee Charged: USD $4.42

Note: These statistics are compiled once a day. Last compiled: Monday, October 14, 2019 7:27:39 AM UTC.

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