Template

Submission Tracker Template

Last updated May 11, 20269 min read

If you are querying literary agents, submitting short stories to magazines, or pitching nonfiction to publishers, you will run out of mental capacity to track where everything is within a couple of months. Who has it? When did you send it? Did they respond? Did you follow up? Which agents asked for full manuscripts, and which only the first fifty pages? Which magazines accept simultaneous submissions and which do not? Without a system, you will eventually send the same project to the same agent twice, or fail to respond to an interested editor because you missed the email, or pull a piece that was still under consideration somewhere else.

This template gives you a working submission tracker. It is built for novelists querying agents, but the same structure works for short story writers submitting to literary magazines, nonfiction writers pitching publishers, and screenwriters tracking script submissions. The discipline is the same: capture every submission, log every response, and make the next decision visible.

One framing principle. The tracker is not just bookkeeping -- it is a strategic document. Reading the tracker every few weeks reveals patterns. Which kinds of agents are responding fastest? Which manuscript versions have generated the strongest interest? Where are the rejections clustering, and what might they have in common? The tracker is your feedback loop on your own submission strategy.

Section 1: The Project Header

Each project gets its own tracker. For each, capture:

Project title: Including any title changes during the submission process.
Word count: Final manuscript count. Useful for matching agent and publisher word count preferences.
Genre and subgenre: Specifically. "Adult fantasy" is genre; "epic fantasy with hard magic and a female lead" is subgenre. Subgenre often determines which agents are good fits.
Comparable titles: Three to five comp titles that locate your book in the market. You will reference these in queries.
Materials prepared: Query letter, synopsis (one-page and longer versions), first ten pages, first chapter, first three chapters, full manuscript. Which versions you have ready to send.
Date of first submission: When the submission campaign began. Useful for tracking total elapsed time.

Section 2: The Recipient Database

For each agent, magazine, or publisher you might submit to, capture:

Identification

Name: The specific person, not just the agency or publication.
Organization: The agency, magazine, or publisher.
Title: Senior agent, assistant editor, associate publisher. Useful for understanding seniority and authority.
Email: The submission address, often different from the personal address.

Submission Requirements

What they want: Query only, query plus first ten pages, query plus first chapter, partial (50 pages), full manuscript on request. Different submission requirements mean different versions of your materials need to be ready.
How to submit: Email, online form (QueryTracker, agency-specific portal), postal mail. Increasingly rare to need the third.
Simultaneous submissions accepted: Yes / No / Yes if disclosed. For short fiction submissions, this is critical. For novel queries, most agents accept simultaneous queries.
Response time: Stated time (often 6-12 weeks). Helpful for knowing when to follow up.
"No response means no" policy: Many agents and magazines do not respond to rejections. Knowing this in advance saves you from waiting indefinitely.

Fit Notes

Why they fit: Brief note on why this agent or magazine is a good match for your project. Their stated interests, their client list, their published authors, their masthead. The "why" makes your query letter specific and saves you when you are personalizing dozens of submissions.
Connection or referral, if any: "Met at the 2025 conference" or "Their client Author X recommended I query them."
Personal preference notes: "Prefers character-driven fiction" or "Said in last interview she is looking for mystery." Whatever you have learned about what they want.

What to write here: A complete entry for every agent, magazine, or publisher you might submit to. Build this database before you start querying; do not build it while querying.

Section 3: The Submission Log

Every submission gets a row in the log. The log is the spine of the tracker.

For each submission:

Recipient: Linked to the database entry.
Date submitted: The day the submission went out.
Materials sent: Query only / query + 10 pages / query + first chapter / partial / full. Match against what the recipient asked for.
Query letter version: If you have iterated on your query, track which version went where. The data is useful later for comparing response rates.
Personalization notes: Anything specific to this submission. The hook you used, the comp title you mentioned, the referral you cited.
Expected response by: Submission date plus the stated response window.

Section 4: Response Tracking

For each submission, track the responses as they come in.

Status: Pending, rejected (form), rejected (personalized), partial requested, full requested, offer of representation (or publication), withdrawn.
Response date: When you received the response.
Response time: Calculated -- days from submission to response. Useful for spotting agents who are reliably fast or slow.
Response content: The actual response, in summary. Form rejections can be captured with a single tag. Personalized rejections deserve more detailed notes -- the specifics often contain valuable feedback.
Follow-up actions: What you need to do next. Send the requested partial? Send a thank-you note? Re-query in six months with the next book? Update the comp titles based on the rejection feedback?

Section 5: The Active Pipeline

A view that surfaces just the submissions currently in play. Filter the log for status = pending, partial requested, or full requested, and you have your active pipeline at a glance.

This view is what you check every Monday. It tells you:

How many irons are in the fire.
Which responses are overdue and worth a polite follow-up.
Which agents have your full manuscript right now (and therefore which agents you would need to notify if you receive an offer).
Whether you should be querying more agents to keep the pipeline full.

A healthy novel-query pipeline typically has 5-10 active queries at any time, with another 20-30 sent and either rejected or pending past their stated response window. Less than that, and you are not generating enough volume to learn anything from rejections. More than that, and you risk losing track.

Section 6: The Strategy Review

Run this review every 6-8 weeks during a submission campaign. It is where the tracker stops being bookkeeping and becomes a strategic tool.

Total submissions to date: Volume.
Response rate: What percentage of submissions have generated any response (rejection or request).
Request rate: What percentage have generated partial or full requests. For novels, anything above 5-10% is solid; below 3% suggests the query letter or first pages need work.
Personalized rejection content: What patterns are emerging? Multiple agents mentioning the same issue (the opening, the protagonist's voice, the pacing) is a signal worth heeding.
Adjustments to consider: Revise the query? Revise the first chapter? Change the genre positioning? Widen or narrow the target list? Pause and revise the manuscript itself?

Section 7: The Offer Stage

If you receive an offer of representation (for novel queries) or publication (for short fiction), the tracker enters a different mode. Capture:

Offer details: Who, when, terms summary.
Other agents to notify: Everyone currently holding your full manuscript needs to be told you have an offer, with a reasonable deadline (usually 1-2 weeks). This protocol is important and widely respected.
Comparison notes: If you receive multiple offers, capture the questions and answers from each conversation. Different agents work in different ways, and the "fit" question is at least as important as the offer specifics.
Reference calls completed: If you spoke to current clients of an offering agent, capture what you learned.

How to Customize This Template

For novel querying: Use every section. Plan to query in batches of 8-12 agents at a time. Most successful query campaigns run 60-120 total queries across 6-18 months.
For short fiction submissions: Section 2 (recipient database) and Section 3 (submission log) are most important. Track simultaneous submissions carefully, and withdraw immediately if a story is accepted elsewhere.
For nonfiction proposals: Add a section for which agents represent the kind of nonfiction you write. Nonfiction agenting is more specialized than fiction agenting.
For screenwriters: Adapt Section 2 to track production companies, managers, and contests. The pipeline shape is different but the discipline is the same.
For self-publishers: Replace the agent and publisher database with a launch and marketing tracker. The same template structure -- recipients, submissions, responses -- adapts to outreach to bloggers, podcasters, and book clubs.

Track your submissions in Plotiar. Keep your query letter versions, recipient database, and submission log all in one project, so the strategic picture is always visible. Try it free.