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 Fees4,355 (71.77 %)7.58 %
Optional Fees130 (2.14 %)4.38 %
Some Fees242 (3.99 %)2.34 %
Always Fees1,341 (22.10 %)2.87 %
Total6,0685.60 %

Average fee paid: USD $6.98

Literary Contests

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

Fees?CountAverage Acceptance%
Never Fees121 (12.04 %)5.44 %
Optional Fees20 (1.99 %)20.00 %
Some Fees9 (0.90 %)n/a
Always Fees855 (85.07 %)2.17 %
Total1,0052.43 %

Average fee paid: USD $18.96

Literary Journals

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

Fees?CountAverage Acceptance%
Never Fees1,972 (78.16 %)7.19 %
Optional Fees96 (3.80 %)4.20 %
Some Fees200 (7.93 %)2.32 %
Always Fees255 (10.11 %)2.93 %
Total2,5235.38 %

Average fee paid: USD $3.63

Genre Contests

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

Fees?CountAverage Acceptance%
Never Fees42 (35.00 %)8.58 %
Optional Fees1 (0.83 %)n/a
Some Fees0 (0.00 %)n/a
Always Fees77 (64.17 %)4.27 %
Total1205.44 %

Average fee paid: USD $15.06

Genre Journals

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

Fees?CountAverage Acceptance%
Never Fees546 (89.36 %)9.29 %
Optional Fees15 (2.45 %)8.23 %
Some Fees23 (3.76 %)3.47 %
Always Fees27 (4.42 %)3.15 %
Total6118.20 %

Average fee paid: USD $4.17

Note: These statistics are compiled once a day and based on submissions reports for the past 12 months. Last compiled: Sunday, June 7, 2020 3:16:27 AM UTC.

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