Industry news

Author Cindi Myers provides a free monthly e-newsletter that provides information on the publishing industry - updates on what publishers are looking for, personnel changes, contests, etc. If you're interested in subscribing to this newsletter - it's free - send a blank e-mail to cynthiasterling-subscribe@yahoogroups. com. In the meantime, I've pasted the parts of Cindi's September e-newsletter that pertained to mystery, suspense, crime and thriller publishers below.

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Mystery Writers of America and St Martin's Minotaur is sponsoring a Best First Crime Novel competition. The grand prize is a $10,000 advance and publishing contract with St Martin's Minotaur. The contest is open to any writer who has not previously published a novel. You must submit a manuscript of at least 60,000 words in which a crime is at the heart of the story. Entries must be postmarked by Nov. 30, 2008. Details are available at http://us.macmillan.com/Content.aspx?publisher=smpminotaur&id=4933#bestcrime or http://tinyurl.com/63499z (Last year this contest received only 400+ entries. So far this year, submissions are down, so your odds are good.)

Benjamin LeRoy founded Bleak House Books in 1995. The Madison, Wisconsin-based company publishes approximately 20 titles a year, focusing on crime fiction and dark literary fiction. These are character-driven stories featuring flawed protagonists. Several Bleak House titles have been nominated for Edgar awards. The company will consider unagented submissions, though they want to see a query only at first. Detailed submission guidelines -- be sure to follow them -- are available at http://www.bleakhousebooks.com/submissions.htm Also, check out the blog and some of their upcoming titles to get a feel for what they're looking for.

Daniela Rapp is an editor at St. Martin's Press, where she acquires thrillers, mysteries, literary fiction and upmarket women's fiction, as well as narrative non-fiction. St. Martin's press accepts only agented submissions.

Faith Black is an associate editor at Avalon Books. Avalon publishes romance, mystery and westerns, in hardcover, primarily for the library market. Avalon stories contain no graphic violence, no swearing and no sex -- "good stories and wholesome entertainment." The books are short -- 40,000 to 60,000 words. Avalon accepts unagented material. See their submission guidelines at http://avalonbooks.com/wrtgdl.html. They also have an FAQ page with a lot of useful information.

Denise Little, executive editor at Tekno Books has worked in almost every aspect of the publishing industry. She was the national book buyer for Barnes & Noble before she joined Kensington Publishing in 1993, where she oversaw her own romance imprint, Denise Little Presents. She has been executive editor at Tekno Books since 1997. Tekno is a book packager. A packager acquires and oversees projects that are then sold to various publishers. Tekno acquires titles for Five Star Books. Like Avalon, Five Star publishes hardcover titles, primarily for the library market. Five Star Expressions is the company's romance and women's fiction line. They're looking for 75,000- to 100,000-word manuscripts in any sub-genre of romance, including contemporary, historical, inspirational, sweet romance, romantic comedy, romantic suspense, time travel, fantasy and paranormal and gothic romance. They will also consider chick lit. They also publish women's fiction. . Five Star also publishes mystery of 75,000 to 100,000 words. They are interested in cozies, private detectives, hard-boiled mystery, suspense, techno-thrillers and historical mystery. They pay a $1,000 advance against royalties. They accept unagented submissions, but not simultaneous submissions. They accept e-mail submissions only. For guidelines and more information, e-mail Rosalind Greenberg at tekno@new.rr.com

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Good luck, and happy writing!

Patricia