Writers: Pens of Mystery Looking for Submissions
Pens of Mystery
We are open to submissions for a wide range of mysteries, including:
- Cozies
- Procedurals
- Contemporary PIs
- YA Mysteries
We especially like series of three or more books.
Our books are clean and wholesome, but they can be written with or without a gospel message.
We do not accept horror, paranormal, erotic, or pornographic manuscripts.
Please follow these guidelines for submission:
You may submit your proposals to EITHER (both is not necessary or preferred – we provide two in case of technical difficulty) of the following e-mail addresses. Please replace words in brackets with symbols and delete any spaces:
editor [at] writeintegrity [dot] com
tracyruckman [at] pixnpens [dot] com
In the body of your original e-mail to us, please include
- A brief cover letter, to introduce yourself and your book.
- Full word count (using Word’s counter) if the manuscript is complete, or an estimated time of completion and anticipated word count.
- A short bio.
- Pitch – 30 words or less.
- Long blurb – 150-200 words (think back cover blurb).
Then attach to the email in Word format:
- The FIRST three chapters AND the LAST chapter. If the book has a prologue or epilogue, include those in addition to the required chapters.
Do NOT send full manuscripts unless we request them. Consideration will be given only to packages submitted as requested – full manuscripts that have not been requested will be discarded.
Please follow industry-standard formatting. This means:
- Pages should have 1″ margins on all sides.
- Lines should be double-spaced.
- Font should be Times New Roman, size 12.
- Use black ink only – do not use color fonts.
We will try to reply promptly to all submissions, but please allow up to 90 days to hear from us. If you haven’t heard from us by that time, please send a brief e-mail inquiry.
We do not accept submissions by snail mail.
Submissions to Pens of Mystery should not include the following:
- Incest of any kind.
- Murder of children; child abuse.
- Vampires, witches, werewolves, paranormals, aliens, future realities, and New Age psychics as protagonists.
