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Duotrope's Submission Fees Report

A pink piggy bank
Are submission fees worth it, or should you save your money? Photo by Fabian Blank.

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.

See our Submissions Over Time reports for a look at how submission fees have changed over time.

All Active Publication Listings

Criteria: All active listings

Fees?CountAvg Acceptance%
Never Fees4,253 (69.24%)11.76%
Optional Fees277 (4.51%)11.26%
Some Fees187 (3.04%)5.48%
Always Fees1,425 (23.20%)6.06%
Total6,1429.67%

Average fee paid: USD $7.96
Median fee paid: USD $3.00

Literary Contests

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

Fees?CountAvg Acceptance%
Never Fees131 (12.57%)4.83%
Optional Fees12 (1.15%)n/a
Some Fees17 (1.63%)8.77%
Always Fees882 (84.64%)3.62%
Total1,0423.73%

Average fee paid: USD $21.35
Median fee paid: USD $20.00

Literary Journals

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

Fees?CountAvg Acceptance%
Never Fees1,905 (74.21%)12.67%
Optional Fees206 (8.02%)10.85%
Some Fees151 (5.88%)5.65%
Always Fees305 (11.88%)7.36%
Total2,56710.14%

Average fee paid: USD $3.91
Median fee paid: USD $3.00

Genre Contests

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

Fees?CountAvg Acceptance%
Never Fees35 (28.93%)3.88%
Optional Fees2 (1.65%)n/a
Some Fees1 (0.83%)n/a
Always Fees83 (68.60%)8.48%
Total1217.24%

Average fee paid: USD $21.02
Median fee paid: USD $20.00

Genre Journals

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

Fees?CountAvg Acceptance%
Never Fees505 (82.92%)9.14%
Optional Fees50 (8.21%)9.24%
Some Fees16 (2.63%)3.50%
Always Fees38 (6.24%)9.07%
Total6098.85%

Average fee paid: USD $4.67
Median fee paid: USD $3.00

Note: These statistics are compiled once a day and based on submissions reports for the past 12 months. Last compiled: 16 July 2025 10:09 AM UTC (42 minutes, 8 second(s) ago).

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