Literary magazine acceptance rates, and what they don’t tell you

What’s The Paris Review’s acceptance rate?

The Paris Review doesn’t give an acceptance rate in its public guidelines, so any number you see comes from someone else’s sample.

Trackers can show a number that looks precise without describing the whole pool. On Duotrope’s Paris Review page, the snapshot compiled October 1, 2026 showed 0.00% accepted. Duotrope says plainly what that means: it hasn’t received any acceptance reports for that sample. It doesn’t mean the magazine accepts nobody.

The Paris Review’s own guidelines say it reads unsolicited work, give examples of what it has published, and put the average wait at three to six months. That’s a far better basis for deciding than a reported zero.

Looking for the Paris Review poetry acceptance rate in particular? Don’t use an all-genre tracker figure. You’d need a poetry-only sample, its date, how many submissions it counts and what it leaves out. Without those, a precise percentage claims more than the source knows.

Where do acceptance-rate numbers come from?

A reported acceptance rate is worked out from whatever records the reporting service has, which usually means its own users’ reports.

Duotrope’s statistics page explains what its user reports can and can’t show. Chill Subs’ listing guide marks community-sourced figures with an asterisk and has an “Editor’s Report” section for figures it labels official. Read both explanations before you compare their numbers.

Plenty can change a percentage:

• A tracker might count submissions, pieces or writers.
• A packet of poems might count as one submission, even if only one poem is taken.
• One writer can add many records.
• Pending work, withdrawals and no-replies may be counted differently from decisions.

The people who use trackers aren’t the whole pool, either. Writers who keep detailed records may submit differently from writers who don’t. Some users report acceptances more faithfully than rejections, or stop updating altogether. So the data describes the sample, not everyone who sent work.

An official rate needs a clear top and bottom number too. “We receive this many poems” doesn’t tell you how many submissions came in, how many were eligible or how many published poems were solicited. Don’t divide one kind of count by another and call it an acceptance rate.

What do reported rates look like at top magazines?

Where Chill Subs showed a rate for the magazines below, it ran from 0.76% to 2.41% on October 7, 2026. Duotrope’s Paris Review sample showed 0.00%, because it had no acceptance reports.

“None found” means we didn’t find a current figure we could compare. It isn’t a zero. Where Chill Subs shows two values split by a slash, we’ve copied them as shown; the two can mean different things.

Read these as examples of how to read a source, not as a selectivity ranking. An unknown sample size or a mixed-genre pool matters more than the second decimal place.

What’s a normal acceptance rate for a literary magazine?

There isn’t one. No single rate tells you whether a magazine is a good place for your work.

Magazines differ in format, space, how much they receive and what they’re for. A journal that publishes one long story has less room than one that runs many short poems. A themed call draws a different crowd from a general reading period. A new magazine may have too few reports for any comparison at all.

A better question: does this magazine publish the kind of work I’ve finished, and do I want its readers to find it? Read recent issues. Look at length, form, voice and how the pieces move, not only what they’re about. Notice what you share with them, but don’t imitate.

Then check the practical side: who can submit, the fee, simultaneous submissions, rights and the reading period. A moderately selective magazine that bans simultaneous submissions can hold a piece longer than a very selective one that allows them. Let your time and your goals decide.

How long do top magazines take to respond?

Two months to a year, going by the official guidance in the table: AGNI says two to four months for online submissions, The Paris Review three to six months, The Kenyon Review within six months, and Poetry up to a year.

Those are stated expectations, not promises. Workload, submission caps and category can all change one writer’s wait.

When you send a piece, note the date and the magazine’s rule on queries. If it says to wait a set time, put a check-in date at the end of it. Don’t query early because another writer got a fast rejection.

Tracker averages need care. A mean gets pulled up by a few very long waits. A median is the middle result. Neither tells you that a piece still out past that date is more likely to be taken.

Before you chase anything, check your spam folder and your submission account. If you do write to the magazine, include the title, category, date sent and any reference number. Follow the magazine’s own query policy over a directory’s general advice.

Should you still submit to magazines that accept under 1%?

Yes, if the work fits and you’re fine with the rules, the cost and the wait.

A low reported rate is a reason to send to more places, not a verdict on your work. Read the magazine before you decide either way. And a famous name isn’t a reason to send work outside its scope.

Don’t turn a percentage into a forecast. Your piece isn’t a random draw from the tracker’s sample, and editors’ decisions aren’t repeated coin tosses. Sending a piece out many times doesn’t add up to an acceptance at some predictable point.

How do you build a submission list across tiers?

Start with fit, then use reputation and the practical rules to decide the order.

Pick magazines you’d read even if you weren’t submitting. Group them by what matters to you: a wide readership, strong work in your form, a particular community, contributor pay or an easy submission process. Our guide to literary magazine tiers goes through those groups.

For each magazine, note:

Then pick a first group you can manage, with some ambitious picks, some long-standing journals that fit well and some smaller magazines you love. If simultaneous submissions are allowed, keep a record of everywhere the piece is and withdraw quickly when it’s taken.

Decide how much you’ll send, and keep making and revising new work while it’s out, so one magazine never decides what you do next. Some writers aim for 100 rejections a year. Pick your number.

For research, start with Missa’s journal profiles and the magazine rankings, which score reply time and simultaneous-submission policy among six measures. Then check the response time and rules on the magazine’s own page before you send. If you want a statistics database, our Duotrope alternatives guide compares the options.