Submittable

Submittable launched in Missoula in 2010 (originally as Submishmash) and became the plumbing of literary publishing: the overwhelming majority of American journals, presses, and contests run their submissions through it. For writers it is a de facto universal account and tracking dashboard; for publishers it is queue management, blind-reading tools, and payments.

Its pricing pushed some journals toward fees-per-submission (passing platform costs to writers, a persistent controversy) and others toward cheaper alternatives like Duosuma. The company long ago diversified into corporate grants management — literary submissions are now a minority of its business, which is worth knowing when its fees and product decisions puzzle the field.