Submittable vs Duotrope
- Submittable is a submission platform magazines and presses use to receive work.
- Duotrope is a market database with listings, deadlines, and response statistics.
- Submittable's free account tracks everything you sent through Submittable only.
- Duotrope tracks submissions across any market, including email and other platforms.
- Many literary magazines charge a small Submittable reading fee, typically $3 to $5.
Submittable is the delivery system: magazines and presses use it to receive submissions, and your free account logs whatever went through it. Duotrope is the research layer, listing markets, deadlines, pay rates, and community response times. They are complements, not alternatives, and most short fiction writers use both.
Chapter i·Why it matters
Writers treat Submittable's dashboard as a complete submission record, which it is not. Anything sent by email or through another platform is invisible there. Simultaneous submissions then get withdrawn late or missed entirely, which is the one behavior that damages a relationship with an editor.
Chapter ii·What to include
- One master log covering every market, regardless of delivery method.
- Simultaneous submission policies per market, recorded before you send.
- Withdrawal procedure and how fast you can execute it on an acceptance.
- Reading fees paid, tracked as a real expense.
- Response windows and when a nudge is appropriate.
- Which version of the piece went where, since stories get revised mid-campaign.
Chapter iii·Example
A short story writer had eleven pieces out across Submittable, two email markets, and a contest portal. When one sold she withdrew six other submissions in nine minutes because a single log told her exactly where the story was.
Chapter iv·Related questions
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