Dear Writers and Agents,

We’re happy to report that we are open again for submissions! 

It is important for everyone, even those who have submitted before, to read and comply with our current submission guidelines.

Please note that our entire submissions process is electronic via our online submissions manager, Submittable. Mailed or e-mailed submissions will not be read. Submittable will allow you to check on the status of your submission at any time. Also: We respond to submissions in the order they are received, regardless of whether or not an author is agented.

After submitting a manuscript, please wait to hear from us before submitting anything else.It may take up to six months for us to respond to your manuscript, so please have patience if you don't hear from us right away.

Once we review a manuscript, we don't consider that manuscript again, even if it has undergone an extensive revision.

Please read the guidelines thoroughly before submitting your work to us.

Thank you and we look forward to seeing your work!

The Editorial Staff

STEP 1: CONSIDER OUR PROFILE AND DECIDE IF WE ARE A GOOD FIT.

We are a traditional mystery press. We do not publish works outside of the mystery genre.

Before submitting to us, use the following caveats, themes, and evaluation criteria to decide if our press is a good match for your manuscript.

Caveats

Due to the high volume of submissions and to marketing realities, we have some restrictions.

• We do not consider simultaneous submissions.
• We do not publish nonfiction, including true crime and autobiography.
• We consider works between 60,000-90,000 words.
• We do not consider self-published or Print-On-Demand (POD) writers.
• We seldom consider writers who have been previously published in the mystery genre.
• We do not publish short stories or collections.
  

Themes

We almost never consider manuscripts which use the following themes as the central focus of the story:

• Incest of any kind.
• Murder of children; child abuse.
• Abuse when it’s a pivotal point or supplied motivation all by itself.
• Serial killers whose point of views are part of the narrative.
• Serial killings or psychopathologies that depend on exceptional gore or weird twists.
• Drugs, including drug abuse and/or smuggling of illegal substances.

Evaluation Criteria

• Excellence in writing: Above all, you must show us that you treat writing as a craft, not just a means of relaying information. There is a difference between exposition and art. Show us art!
• Originality: Someone somewhere said something about there only being seven (or nine, or twelve, depending on your internet search engine) basic plot lines for stories. That doesn't mean you can't set yours apart. We may skew towards traditional mystery-- where solution of the puzzle drives the plot--but that doesn't mean your characters, setting, and voice need to be conventional. In fact, we'd prefer they weren't!
• Voice: See Originality. Give us your quirky, your downtrodden, your snarky, your unintentionally ironic. You get the picture.
• Character: It sounds trite, but your characters should leap off the page, punch us in the face and steal our spot in the coffee line. 
• Plotting: Here's where we get back to the "traditional mystery" thing. We want sleuthing; we want clues and red herrings and plot twists, and "DAMN! I never saw THAT coming."
• Setting: Anywhere, anytime, so long as it supports and enhances your plot and allows your characters to shine. The right setting almost becomes a character itself.
• Dialogue: Should suit your characters and setting. No modern slang in historicals, no flowery language in modern police procedurals. Nothing takes a reader out of a story quicker than dialogue that doesn't ring true to the time, place, or speaker. Also, avoid excessive dialogue tags ("he said"/"she proposed"/"they queried," blah blah); these tend to slow the pace, and are often completely unnecessary (she proffered). 
• Final, IMPORTANT Note: Please, please PLEASE--do NOT begin your story with a description of the weather, unless it is so integral to your plot that removing it would damage the story irrevocably and cause you acute existential anguish. There's a reason why the phrase "It was a dark and stormy night" is so often lampooned (and is, in fact, the inspiration for an annual writing competition where contestants strive to submit their absolute WORST opening sentences. Really! Here's the link: http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/).

STEP 2: GATHER YOUR MATERIALS AND SUBMIT!