Secret Chill Subs Data Tells a Different Story About Submission Fees
Industry Insights: An exhaustive look at why submission fees happen, who is responsible, and what we can do about it.
We’re going to keep the focus here on publishers of short works, not small presses or contests. Those deserve their own article in the future, and it’s coming.
This season on…
THE WRITING COMMUNITY
A lone writer wandering the LAND OF LIT MAGS is approached by a publisher who asks them for a look-ee-loo at their story. But then...a submission fee!
…idfk just go with it.
Yeah, we're going to talk about submission fees because:
submission fees suck
how much people talk about submission fees is annoying
So in true millennial fashion, when we see the internet talking too much about something, we can't help dusting off the good ol' soap box.
But wait, what could we possibly know that others do not?
Well, we have a database of over 3000 magazines where we track who pays, who doesn’t, what they offer, where they come from, and more.
We also spend every day jacked in Matrix-style to the writerverse.
So, let’s do it. Let's dip our sticky little toes in this sticky little patch of f-fucksake we all have to deal with in indie-lit.
For newer writers and the suckers who are still waiting for us to say anything about how to run a business, I'll briefly break this down.
Submission fees are a fee (no shit) that some magazines charge writers to submit their creative works to the magazine. They run anywhere from $3-$10 (more often closer to $3).
Let’s talk about why they exist and whether they're as big of a deal as they've been made out to be.
But wait, we're not going to talk about why submission fees suck?
We're not going to provide a detailed rebuttal in defense of submission fees?
Then wtf is this?
Numbers.
Yeah, Business Daddy got us into numbers.
Let's do it.
On Chill Subs, one of the main filters we offer is a "no fee" filter. When you tick it, you'll find that 2611 of 3020 of our magazines have no submission fee. That's a lot of magazines. That's 86% of magazines. Yeah, we know percentages, NBD.
Now, you might be asking...why are people getting worked up over 14% of magazines? Especially when you get some secret Chill Subs numbers like that 176 of the 409 fee-charging magazines out there also pay their writers.1
And if Twitter is any indicator, that’s the most accepted reason for fee-charging.
So, if we give the paying publications a pass, that leaves 233 magazines that charge but don't pay run by editors who probably eat babies, fine.
(Well, to be fair, several of these offer other things in exchange like feedback or subscriptions to their magazine. So, let's say 150 of them eat babies. That's a reasonable assumption.)
OK, but let's see if these baby eaters are really so evil as to charge fees for no reason.
To this end, we must talk about Submittable. Not to slag on them or anything. We don't want to get into that tussle. Submittable is a company; a company's goal is to make money.
Some more secret data shows us that of the 409 magazines charging fees, 350 use submittable (85%).
Something to understand about using some submissions software is that every category, every new reader, editor, and every next "tier" a magazine achieves, increases the cost of their submissions manager.
Nay-sayers may say, "Why don't they simply stop using the software?!"
And this is where writers need to take some of the responsibility.
If 2611 magazines don't charge fees, why do writers think that fees are a huge problem?
Or, if they do, why not go with the simplest solution: don’t submit to magazines that charge?
Because most of the prestigious and popular outlets have to use a manager to cope with the number of submissions they receive.2
I’ve yet to meet someone who can manage dozens of editors using a single email to filter and give due consideration to thousands of copy-pasted submissions.3
So, writers want to submit to popular magazines; the main service available to manage popular magazines is one that increases with how popular the magazines become! Oh, dear. So what does this mean?
Yes, everyone eats babies.
Wait, no. It means we need some perspective. And a solution.
(OMFG is he really going to turn this into a plug for their submissions manager?!)
No-no! Hear me out.
I am also going to plug our browse.
It's not just that writers are such snobs that they don't want to submit to magazines that aren’t popular. It's also that the available options for discovering magazines encourage fee-based submissions.
For example…
Last I checked Submittable's "discover" section, 88 of the 113 submission opportunities on the first-page charge a fee. That tracks. Just checked again: 86 of 105. That’s because only organizations using a paid service can promote calls on that paid service’s discover page.
If you use other databases, the 'no fee' option is smuggled away into 'other options' or nonexistent.
Most lists of "best mags for XYZ," and advice for which outlets to submit to focus on the most popular magazines. And those magazines with the influence, staff, and budget to make their name popular in the market and offer better services are going to be the ones with the highest costs.
Any new writer coming into the scene is going to assume that submission fees are a huge problem because the vast majority of the ways to discover new magazines focus on magazines that have grown popular enough to have to pay for ever-tier-upping products to handle the workload of managing all of the submissions and promoting their publication.
On our browse, "NO FEE" is right at the top for writers to filter out right away if they cannot afford fees. And trust us, loads of these magazines are incredible outlets with beautiful designs and highly engaged editors.
Also, and here's the kicker, of those there are 686 magazines that don't charge fees AND pay their writers.
So for every baby eater, there are three baby…holders? burpers? Idk what you do with babies, OK.4
So what can we do?
Well, as writers we can start lifting up those magazines that don't charge who are doing great work. I'm not going to plug any here, but they're easy to find.
As editors, we've seen some options that seem like solid workarounds.
Free first submissions but charge for the following ones per reading period.
Offer expedited submissions or a little feedback for any fee-based submissions.
Create some downloadable PDF content or special access in exchange for a fee.
Sell merch & subscriptions as a prompt within each submission.
Cap free submissions with a charge for any that come after.
Yes, there are def. bad actors out there and we should absolutely call that shit out when we see it (Becky Tuch does a great job at this in Lit Mag News). But the numbers don't lie. Right, Daddy?
For our part…
We plan to have fixed, affordable rates for our submissions manager. One for small teams, one for large. That's it. Low fees, no growth gouging. Done.
We will continue promoting new magazines that are doing amazing work without charging a fee alongside ones that charge. We don't discriminate so long as the fees are reasonable and the owners aren’t up to any shady business.
We offer a free database with no paywalled information to save writers money on subscriptions.
We offer a place for writers to host and share their work for free, saving money on website costs.
All of this is without limits.
Over the next five years, we'll be creating new ways for magazines to host, distribute and manage their magazines.
We will get there. But instead of fighting over whether there should or should not be fees, why not spend our time working out solutions to make writing more accessible and affordable for everyone, and put our creative energy into finding readers who we can all pillage for money together?
And when fees get you down, remember the numbers:
233 magazines charge but don't pay.
686 pay but don't charge.
2611 magazines are waiting to review your work for free.
All you need to do is use Chill Subs' new sleek & sexy browse to find them.
Some magazines don’t put their fees on their guidelines but tuck them away on the submissions portal itself. So sometimes we miss them, but this is a margin of error of 10 or so.
I get it. We all want to be with the cool kids. I've paid those fees and gotten those rejections knowing I'm paying to take a shot at a .01% acceptance rate.
Not to mention, as writers, we want people out there to read our work. But how is a magazine going to afford to distribute writers' work without money? Do you have any idea how expensive it is to pay an army of teenagers to stash copies of lit mags in public toilets around New York City?
As someone who has worked as an editor, personally, I always pay fees. I'm not that into babies and I think editors deserve some money for what they do. That is entirely a personal opinion. But I'm lucky enough to afford it. So, we won't be taking that perspective on while building our manager.
This is great, for all the reasons. Talk about Submittable and all their bullshit accounts for a good deal of the distress expressed in the CLMP editors forum. Y'all are gonna do a BIG service to the lit community and, in advance, much gratitude!
GREAT piece. Just awesome. Thank you. And as someone who kept my butt in a chair for a good long while yesterday using Chill Subs - all I can say 👏 I paid two submission fees and submitted four with no fees.