Fair Submissions

  Full details  Marking five years of the Joffe Books Prize, submissions are now open Until 30 September 2025 for unagented crime writers of colour. The Joffe Books Prize 2025 is open for submissions! Now in its fifth year, the Joffe Books Prize was created to discover and launch unagented crime writers from Black, Asian, Indigenous, and minority ethnic backgrounds. It calls on crime fiction writers and covers all genres : electrifying psychological thrillers, to cosy mysteries, gritty police procedurals, twisty chillers, unputdownable s...

Full details  Rules for the 2026 Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Competition Sponsored by Minotaur Books and Mystery Writers of America (MWA) 1. The Competition is open to any writer, regardless of nationality, aged 18 or older, who has never been the author of any Published Novel (in any genre), as defined by the guidelines below, (except that authors of self-published works only may enter, as long as the manuscript submitted is not the self-published work) and is not under contract with a publisher for publication of a novel. Employees, and members of their immediate families living in the same household, of Minotaur Books or Mystery Writers of America (or a parent, subsidiary, or affiliate of either of them) are not eligible to enter. Only one manuscript entry (the “Manuscript”) is permitted per writer. Void where prohibited or restricted by law. Please read all of the rules and guidelines before submitting your entry.  If you have q...

  Full details  Cold Caller is a publisher of crime and mystery fiction, and we define those terms broadly. We're looking for stories of bad decisions and worse consequences; unlucky losers who can't catch a break; grifters and con men convinced they're about to score big; good men and women who have very good reasons to do terrible things. Is that too vague? Here's what we like reading and watching. If any of this matches your vibe, send us your work. Fiction Homesick for Another World , Ottessa Moshfegh The Friends of Eddie Coyle , George V. Higgins Thieves' Dozen , Donald E. Westlake The Code of the Woosters , P.G. Wodehouse Crimes in Southern Indiana , Frank Bill Different Seasons , Stephen King Eleven , Patricia Highsmith Crook Manifesto, Colson Whitehead Dare Me , Megan Abbott Black Gum , J. David Osborne Movies & TV I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore Before I Disappear Sneaky Pete Rounders Bad Santa Fargo How long should my story be? Our...

  Full details  Our Submissions policy When you have written a book, it can be tricky to know who to contact and how. The first step is to get to know the publishers who you think would be the best fit. You’ll find information about Birlinn and our imprints here on our website but follow us on social media too – Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok. Literary Agents You might want to reach out to a Literary Agent. An agent will work with you to present your book to best advantage when submitting to publishers. They have good knowledge of what publishers are looking for at any one time. You can find details of agents online or in the Writers and Artists Yearbook. Direct submission If you have a work that you really believe would fit the areas covered by our imprints (Arena, Birlinn, BC Books, John Donald and Polygon), we would like to hear from you. Please email info@birlinn.co.uk with a synopsis and sample material, and make clear why you think your work would...

  Full details  Skywatcher Press welcomes novella and novel length submissions from all authors. We publish novels in the Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror genres, as well as action, adventure, and mysteries. We are seeking well written and edited manuscripts with strong plots and developed characters in any and all facets of these genres. The most important quality we are seeking is to open your manuscript and be taken on a thrilling journey. How you pull that off is uniquely yours, and our goal is to only publish the absolute highest quality books which stand out in the genre. We produce books which suck the reader in and compel them from start to finish. If you want to send us a genre niche like TEOTWAWKI, SHTF, Kaiju, Zombies, Sword and Sorcery, Steampunk, etc… then bring something unique to the table, change the rules, blow our minds with your awesomeness. Or deliver it to us with such an unrepentant cast of intriguing characters and cleverness that we s...

 Full details  See site for current details 

  Full details  Short Story Submission Use the form on the site to send us your 1000-7500 word story or You-Solve-It mystery. Multiple submissions are not allowed. Submissions must be original works of short fiction that have never appeared online or in print in any form. Avoid scenes of animal cruelty or excessive profanity/violence. We pay 2¢/word USD for accepted stories. Our average response time is 4-6 weeks. If your story is accepted, a digital agreement must be signed and payment will be sent by PayPal to the email address you specify below. Your story may appear in our monthly print and digital magazine, on our website, in audio format, in our App, as social media excerpts, and possibly in printed collections of our monthly issues. We require first-publication and archival rights with an exclusivity period of 2 years. ...

  Full details  HORROR, CRIME, MYSTERY, & D AR K G ENERAL FICTION NOVEL & NOVELLA SUBMI SSIONS ​ Horror: The themes are fairly open (not interested in stories that revolve around people feeling unloved or out of place, nor sad tales about sad people being sad, seriously don't send me this stuff, I don't want it), but my favorite stuff resembles the glory days of horror 70s, 80s, even the early 90s. Stuff like Stephen King's Pet Sematary, The Shining, Carrie, Revival, Creepshow. Think Douglas Clegg, Ray Garton, John Saul, Michael McDowell, Thomas Tryon, and so o n. Also, open to absurdity, splatterpunk, dark comedy, smut.   Crime/Mystery: The themes are fairly open (not interested in police procedurals, nor copaganda, no cozy mysteries). Think the TV show Good Girls, violent road stories like The Hitchhiker and Duel, and dark family mysteries like Dark Pla ces. Hard Case-esque stuf f, authors like Donald Westlake, Sara Gran, Megan Abbott,...

 Full details  We are actively looking for crime novels that are predominantly neo-noir or hard-boiled. We’re unlikely to consider murder mysteries, cosy, or those where crimes are solved by cats (unless your name is John Travis ). In the first instance, send an enquiry email with a brief synopsis, the first three chapters as a Word or RTF or PDF attachment, and some bio information to the following address: editorheadshot@gmail.com Please mark your email header as follows: SUBMISSION / YOUR NAME / NOVEL TITLE We don’t ask for much. If you can’t do the above, then we will probably delete your email unread. And don’t stress over the synopsis. We don’t want the whole story. A paragraph will suffice. If we like your work we’ll make an offer. We will never ask you to contribute towards publishing your work. Head Shot Press predominantly focusses on e-books with some print copies. Those print copies – as with every publisher under the sun (and a few u...

 Full details Inkubator Books is accepting submissions of full-length fiction in the genres of crime, mystery, thrillers and suspense. If you are a new author and don’t have an agent, that’s okay. We love to discover exciting new voices and launch them into the world… All our authors get 45% of net receipts – no funny deductions or ‘expenses’. We pay for all editing, design and marketing of a book. When you are published by us it won’t cost you a penny. Ever. Inkubator Books is a publisher where the writer and the storytelling comes first. They have introduced me to a way of planning, plotting and writing that has revolutionised how I bring my stories to life and the lessons I have learnt about the craft are incredibly valuable – and I’m still learning with every book. OMJ Ryan, bestselling author of the D...

Full details   Who We Are Uncharted Magazine is a premier publisher of short fiction and the newest platform from the team behind The Masters Review, CRAFT Literary, Fractured Lit, and The Voyage Journal. Using the skills and expertise we developed to bring those magazines to life, we hope to uplift writers of the stories that we always fall back upon when we seek a thrilling escape, a surprising new world, or a brain-twisting mystery. The Stories We Publish Sci-Fi & Fantasy — We cannot wait to share tales of other worlds that reveal clearly just how strange our own actually is. Horror & Thriller — We are thrilled to get to share stories that terrify us, send us running, make us hide like children under the covers. Crime & Mystery — We will share the very best whodunnits we can get our hands on—the deep and thrilling mysteries that leave us in awe. We cannot wait to read your writing. You can submit your stories ...

  Full details Please see our About page so you can send your material to the most appropriate agent. If you’re unsure who to submit to, please email submissions@theampersandagency.co.uk . We would like to see your first three chapters, together with a brief outline and some biographical details. We welcome contemporary and historical novels, literary, crime, thrillers, fantasy, science fiction; non-fiction: current affairs, history, biography, popular science. We don’t handle poetry, self-help books, or stories for young children. We only handle scripts for TV and film projects by our established clients, and we don’t consider material by unpublished authors based in the USA. We prefer submissions in digital form. If emailing your submission to us you should attach your chapters and outline as Word documents as opposed to copying and pasting text into an email. If you copy and paste, our server is likely to reject your submission because of length, and we will not rec...

  Full details  Please provide as much information as possible using the form opposite, and if we like your work we will get in touch. We are a small, London-based team of dedicated professionals committed to getting high quality ebooks and books by new authors out into the marketplace and high in the rankings, offering very competitive royalties for authors, and a simple, straightforward service by experienced staff. WHY PUBLISH WITH US? We produce books to the highest standard and our marketing gets them into the right readers’ hands. We manage everything from the editing process to promotions, social media publicity and building an audience for authors. Authors receive royalties directly on sales revenue and will never be asked for money to publish their work. Using our contacts we get your book out there high in the bestseller rankings and significant revenue in your bank. WHAT WE LOOK FOR Currently we are predominantly interested in crime fiction, thrillers and m...

 Full details  Do you have a story in you? We are looking for brilliant writing in the genres below, whether it be from traditionally or self-published authors, or from estates whose out-of-print works are ready for a new generation of readership. Crime fiction  If it puts us on the edge of our seat with jaw-dropping, twisty thrilling action, or if it’s a cosy mystery that sends us to the fireside, send it in! Historical fiction From the war-torn battlefields of the medieval world to the lethal lanes of Victorian London, if it’s authentic and transports us back in time, we’d love to read it. Nonfiction Histories, true crime, biographies, memoirs. Is there an individual or event that has been ignored by history? Does it have something urgent to say about our times? Or is it just an amazing untold true story? Although these are our main areas of interest, we are open to writing from a variety of genres. However, we do not currentl...

 Full details Guilty publishes crime fiction.  It is  strongly  suggested that you read an issue of the magazine to get a solid feel for what we are looking for. Crime fiction covers a wide range of potential topics, and we are interested in your take on it, there  are some things we will not consider: Cozies. Police procedurals. Anything with a speculative element. Anything that glories in violence for the sake of violence, particularly against women, children, minorities, or animals. Violence can be an element of many types of crime stories, but it must be an  integral part   of the story. Detective stories will be a hard sell, not because we don't like them, but because they are not typically crime stories, per se, but have more in common with the police procedural than with other types of crime story. We really are looking for stories from a criminal's perspective. Serial killers are also a hard sell, unless your take on them is truly uniqu...