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	4,375 (70.95%)	7.78%
Optional Fees	212 (3.44%)	6.83%
Some Fees	218 (3.54%)	2.31%
Always Fees	1,361 (22.07%)	3.40%
Total	6,166	5.79%

Average fee paid: USD $6.55

Literary Contests

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

Fees?	Count	Avg Acceptance%
Never Fees	145 (14.87%)	3.38%
Optional Fees	4 (0.41%)	n/a
Some Fees	9 (0.92%)	n/a
Always Fees	817 (83.79%)	2.41%
Total	975	2.53%

Average fee paid: USD $19.08

Literary Journals

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

Fees?	Count	Avg Acceptance%
Never Fees	2,003 (75.39%)	7.76%
Optional Fees	164 (6.17%)	6.09%
Some Fees	181 (6.81%)	2.29%
Always Fees	309 (11.63%)	3.41%
Total	2,657	5.65%

Average fee paid: USD $3.68

Genre Contests

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

Fees?	Count	Avg Acceptance%
Never Fees	50 (37.04%)	5.14%
Optional Fees	1 (0.74%)	n/a
Some Fees	0 (0.00%)	n/a
Always Fees	84 (62.22%)	6.68%
Total	135	6.17%

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	520 (84.42%)	8.85%
Optional Fees	36 (5.84%)	8.18%
Some Fees	28 (4.55%)	4.22%
Always Fees	32 (5.19%)	3.21%
Total	616	7.83%

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: 3 June 2023 3:30 PM UTC (21 hours, 48 minutes ago).

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