Selling Your Mysterious Fiction...

What is a mystery?

Depends on whom you ask. The mystery genre has a vast number of subgenres. There are cozy mysteries, detective stories, police procedurals, mystery suspense, mystery thriller, romantic mysteries, historical mysteries…. The list goes on.

Where can you sell a mystery?

For short fiction, there are mystery magazines like Crimespree and the granddaddies of mystery magazines: Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine (click titles to go to their home pages), among others. Some general fiction magazines and journals will also publish mysteries.

Many of the large publishing houses have imprints to handle their genre fiction, like HarperCollins' Harper Mass Market and Pocket Books from Simon & Schuster, both of which consider mysteries and detective fiction along with other genres. Most large houses will only accept manuscripts from agents so be sure to check the website for submission guidelines. Below are some other publishers that will consider unagented work.



You can also enter contests. Crimespree Magazine and the Private Eye Writers of American are sponsoring "American P.I.dol" in conjunction with the PWA's annual conference. Short fiction entries must be received by June 15. Go to Crimespree for details. Salvo Press is not accepting manuscripts at this time but you can enter its Mystery Novel Award. Deadline is July 15. Click here to go to the contest page.

Do you need an agent to sell a mystery?

Not necessarily. Rarely do you need an agent to sell to a magazine and the publishers listed below will look at work from authors without agents. However, agents like publishers have a criterion for the material they'll accept. Here is a handful of agencies from the Association of Authors' Representatives, Inc. that say they represent mystery authors.

Meredith Bernstein Literary Agency
2095 Broadway, Suite 505
New York, NY 10023

Elaine Koster Literary Agency, LLC
55 Central Park West, Suite 6
New York, NY 10023


Nancy Love Literary Agency
250 East 65th St., Suite 4A
New York, NY 10021

Bookends, LLC
Jacqueline Sach
136 Long Hill Rd
Gillette, NJ 07933

Wendy Weil Agency, Inc
232 Madison Ave., Suite 1300
New York, NY 10016

Book Publishers (click names to see guidelines)

Academy Chicago Publishers - No e-submissions or queries, seeks fiction and nonfiction.
Genesis Press - African American protagonists, Black Coral Imprint considers any genre fiction.
Koenisha Publications - publishes a variety of fiction, submit only June through December, snail mail only.
Poison Pen Press - start with a query letter, has a long list of what NOT to send.
Soho Press - high priority in publishing new writers, also has Soho Crime imprint.





NOTE: Don't forget The Virtual Book Tour by Font Literary Agency & Writing Centre is coming April 8. Click here to read more and to leave comments or questions Lover's Hollow author Orna Ross.