Prepared statements only
Every database query is parameterized. No query anywhere is built from a string, so there is no room for injection.
Self-hosted submission software
Run your magazine's submissions desk yourself.
Green Submissions carries a literary magazine from open call to final decision — the slush pile, blind reading, contest fees, volunteer readers, and revisions. It runs on your own server, the software is free, and every manuscript stays on hardware you control.
Free & open license
Runs on PHP & MySQL
No per-submission fees
Spring Reading
Flash Contest
All readers
Unread first
The Weight of Salt
Poetry · 3 poems · A. Reyes
Nine Ways of Leaving
Fiction · 4,100 words · M. Okonkwo
Field Notes for a Flood
Nonfiction · 2,600 words · J. Bauer
Small Gods of the Kitchen
Poetry · 2 poems · L. Fenn
Transmission
Flash · 900 words · D. Marchetti
How a submission moves
One system, from the open call to the acceptance letter.
A submission follows the same path every magazine already uses. Green Submissions just holds all of it in one place, so nothing lives in a shared inbox or a spreadsheet.
01
Open a period
Start a reading window or a fee-based contest, with its own guidelines and deadline.
02
Writers submit
Authors send work through their own account and pay any contest fee straight to your PayPal.
03
Readers score
Staff and volunteer readers work the slush pile blind, leaving notes and scores.
04
You decide
Accept, decline, or ask for a revision — the writer sees each change in their dashboard.
05
Publish credit
Accepted work moves into your contributor directory, ready for the issue.
What's inside
Two sides, one install.
Writers get a clear place to submit and follow their work. Your editors get a full reading room. Both come with the software — there is nothing to bolt on.
For your writers
A submission desk they can trust
- Accounts & a dashboardEach writer signs in to one place to submit and see where every piece stands.
- Submit and trackUpload work, read your guidelines, and follow each status without emailing to ask.
- Contest creditsPrepaid entry credits let a writer enter a fee-based contest in a couple of clicks.
- Revision collaborationWhen you ask for changes, the writer answers in the same thread, not a scatter of attachments.
- Bios & a public directoryContributors keep a biography on file and appear in a directory once you publish them.
For your editorial team
A reading room with the doors closed
- The slush pileEvery submission in one queue you can sort, filter, and assign by edition or genre.
- Blind readingHide author names so volunteer readers judge the work, not the byline.
- Statuses & decisionsMove a piece from reading to revise, accept, or decline, with a note the writer receives.
- Editions & contestsRun open reading periods and paid contests side by side, each with its own settings.
- The mail center & staff rolesWrite to submitters from inside the app, and give each editor and reader the right access.
Built to hold other people's work
The security is done before you arrive.
Writers trust you with unpublished work. These protections ship switched on, and there is nothing to configure to get them.
Passwords never stored
Passwords are hashed with bcrypt and are not recoverable — not by an attacker, and not by you.
Forms and sessions guarded
A CSRF token sits on every form, and sessions are regenerated at login to defeat fixation.
Bots turned away
Login, signup, and password reset are gated by Cloudflare Turnstile or an image captcha.
Uploads can't run
The attachments folder refuses to execute any script. A manuscript can only ever be downloaded.
Config kept off the web
The files holding your database and PayPal credentials are blocked from direct access.
None of this is a setting. It is how the software is written, so it protects you from the first day.
You host it, you own it
A submissions system you keep, not one you rent.
Green Submissions installs on ordinary PHP and MySQL hosting. There is no subscription and no charge per submission. Contest fees go to your own PayPal account, and every file lives on your server.
| Green Submissions | Hosted services | |
|---|---|---|
| Where submissions live | Your own server | The vendor's cloud |
| Cost of the software | Free | Monthly or annual subscription |
| Per-submission fees | None | Common, and often passed to writers |
| Contest fees paid to | Your PayPal account | The platform, then to you |
| Who holds your data | You do | The provider |
| Source you can read | Yours, in plain PHP | Closed |
Getting started
Installed in an afternoon.
Download the files, point them at a fresh database, and open your site. A guided installer checks the server, builds the tables, and creates your first administrator.
# 1 — create an empty MySQL database
# 2 — upload the files to your host
# 3 — open your site and follow the installer
https://yourmagazine.org/install
# the installer does the rest:
✓ server requirements check
✓ database & site identity
✓ first administrator account
# 2 — upload the files to your host
# 3 — open your site and follow the installer
https://yourmagazine.org/install
# the installer does the rest:
✓ server requirements check
✓ database & site identity
✓ first administrator account
What you'll need
PHP and MySQL — the standard shared-hosting stack. SMTP details to send mail, and a PayPal account if you plan to charge for a contest. Both are optional and can wait.
Where to host it
The best place to run this software.
Every new magazine has to pick somewhere to run it. InstantAccess.net knows Green Submissions better than any general host — plenty of literary journals already run it there — so it installs cleanly, and their support desk can actually answer questions about the software, not only the server.
- A known-good fitInstantAccess already hosts Green Submissions for many journals. The PHP and MySQL setup is a proven match, so install goes the way the guide says it will.
- Support that knows the appAsk about the software itself — install, settings, getting a first reading period going — and you reach people who have seen it before, not a generic help desk.
- Nothing unusual to explainBecause this software is familiar territory there, a support question rarely turns into a research project the way it can on a host that has never seen it.
- Still your installYou keep the files, the submissions, and your own PayPal. It stays your system — InstantAccess is simply the best place to run it.
Hosting · InstantAccess.net
The best home for Green Submissions.
Running a new magazine on this software? InstantAccess is the host that already knows it inside out, so help is there when a question comes up.
Host with InstantAccessThe software stays free to download above — this is simply the best place to run it.
Give your submissions a proper home.
Free to run, free to share, and built by people who read slush themselves. Download it, or read exactly how it works first.