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	Average Acceptance%
Never Fees	4,411 (72.73 %)	6.80 %
Optional Fees	101 (1.67 %)	4.32 %
Some Fees	207 (3.41 %)	2.37 %
Always Fees	1,346 (22.19 %)	2.92 %
Total	6,065	5.24 %

Average Fee Charged: USD $7.29

Literary Contests

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

Fees?	Count	Average Acceptance%
Never Fees	114 (11.60 %)	5.12 %
Optional Fees	2 (0.20 %)	9.68 %
Some Fees	8 (0.81 %)	1.69 %
Always Fees	859 (87.39 %)	2.07 %
Total	983	2.25 %

Average Fee Charged: USD $18.89

Literary Journals

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

Fees?	Count	Average Acceptance%
Never Fees	1,951 (79.12 %)	6.28 %
Optional Fees	90 (3.65 %)	4.06 %
Some Fees	169 (6.85 %)	2.34 %
Always Fees	256 (10.38 %)	3.04 %
Total	2,466	4.96 %

Average Fee Charged: USD $3.59

Genre Contests

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

Fees?	Count	Average Acceptance%
Never Fees	40 (32.00 %)	7.02 %
Optional Fees	1 (0.80 %)	n/a
Some Fees	0 (0.00 %)	n/a
Always Fees	84 (67.20 %)	4.62 %
Total	125	5.24 %

Average Fee Charged: USD $15.38

Genre Journals

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

Fees?	Count	Average Acceptance%
Never Fees	542 (90.18 %)	8.77 %
Optional Fees	16 (2.66 %)	6.15 %
Some Fees	16 (2.66 %)	6.14 %
Always Fees	27 (4.49 %)	4.04 %
Total	601	8.15 %

Average Fee Charged: USD $4.37

Note: These statistics are compiled once a day. Last compiled: Thursday, September 19, 2019 3:42:58 PM UTC.

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