11 Mystery and Thriller Publishers Open to Submissions - No Agent Required

Updated 12/24/25

Whodunnits never go out of style, and neither do pulse-pounding thrillers, so if you write mysteries or thrillers, you are in luck. 

Here are ten mystery and thriller publishers that don't require an agent. All are traditional publishers. (No vanity presses) Make sure your manuscript is complete before you submit. None of these publishers accept proposals or partially completed work.

Happy submitting!

For a list of over 400 traditional publishers accepting unagent submissions see: Publishers Accepting Unagented Manuscripts

(Image credit: Pixabay)

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Brash Books publishes psychological thrillers, murder mysteries, international espionage, and police procedurals. To submit send a one-page summary of the book and the first 25 pages as a Microsoft Word document to brashbooks@gmail.com. If they like the sample, they’ll request the entire manuscript. Read submission guidelines here.

Camel Press is the genre imprint of Coffeetown Press. (Coffeetown Press publishes memoir, nonfiction, some literary mysteries, and literary fiction). "Camel Press is a feisty little publisher with a mission: to be your trusted purveyor of popular literature—the stuff that makes you lie in the sun too long and read in bed until the cock crows, the urban chickens start clucking, or your neighbor leaves for her 6 am shift." Seeking: Genre fiction: mystery/suspense, cozy mystery, mystery thrillers, romantic suspense and romance (contemporary and historical). They also consider general fiction, historical fiction and westerns. Read their guidelines here.

Crooked Lane publishes mysteries, thrillers, and suspense. titles in both print and electronic editions. Crooked Lane Books is distributed through Legato Publishers Group, a member of the Perseus Books Group. Crooked Lane is also represented by Biagi Literary Management for subsidiary rights licensing in foreign and domestic markets, and their business relationships include Bookspan, home of the country’s largest book clubs, and Blackstone Audio, one of the nation’s largest independent audiobook publishers. Read submission guidelines here.

Fahrenheit Press exclusively publishes mysteries and thrillers. They accept self-published and previously published work, provided the author has all the rights. They offer a generous royalty rate of 50% on both eBooks & paperback editions for a 5 year contract. Read submission guidelines here.

Hard Case Crime publishes old-fashioned, hard-boiled crime novels with "bare-knuckled" prose. They are unabashedly dedicated to "reviving the vigor and excitement, the suspense and thrills—the sheer entertainment—of the golden age of paperback crime novels, both by bringing back into print the best work of the pulp era and by introducing readers to new work by some of today's most powerful writers and artists. Determined detectives and dangerous women...fortune hunters and vengeance seekers...ingenious criminals and men on the run..." Read submission guidelines here.

Joffe Books is one of the UK’s leading independent publishers of crime and mystery novels. Many of their authors have topped the best-seller lists. They accept submissions from published authors and new writers, as well as authors who wish to relaunch their back-list titles. They are seeking mysteries, crime fiction, psychological thrillers, detective, thrillers, and suspense. Read submission guidelines here.

Level Best, a publisher of anthologies, has recently opened its doors to full-length manuscript submissions. They are seeking crime fiction novels in the following categories: mystery, thriller, suspense, historical, traditional, and contemporary. No works of erotica or science fiction at this time. Read submission guidelines here. Has submission periods.

Lyrical Press, an imprint of Kensington, publishes suspense fiction, thrillers, and cozy mysteries. They have a penchant for romance. Submit to one editor only. (The list of editors includes the genres they are receiving.) Response time is three months. Read submission guidelines here.

Oceanview Press is an independent publisher of original mystery, thriller, and suspense titles.  Oceanview Publishing’s titles have received many awards and award nominations. Any manuscript that has been published elsewhere in any format or language will not be considered. Read submission guidelines here. 

Red Dog Press (UK) publishes crime, thriller, noir, cosy and mystery. "As a small indie, we are actively trying to promote diversity in publishing. As a result, we are especially keen to hear from authors less well represented in traditional publishing — especially in crime, whether that be authors of colour, authors from the LGBTQ+ community, or authors with disabilities whether seen or unseen. We will accept romance or sci-fi if they break traditional molds. No standalone novels under 70,000 words, please." Read submission guidelines here.

White City Press is focused on publishing mysteries across a range of sub-genres. They are particularly interested in novellas and series. They will consider short story collections but no flash fiction. They typically read submissions during four specific times: March, June, September and December unless otherwise indicated. Read submission guidelines here.

13 Paying Markets for Mystery and Crime Stories

Hercule Poirot, Flickr, Jose Camoes Silva

Updated 10/18/25

Mysteries and thrillers are perennial favorites among readers. According to Simba Information, the only genre that beats mystery is romance. Even in second place, crime novels pull in more than $730 million a year. The subgenres span from cozy, to hardboiled, to police procedural, to cross-genre blends with science fiction, fantasy and romance.

If you write short form mysteries or thrillers, there are a number of markets you can submit your work to. All of these are paying markets, and none charge submission fees. Happy submitting!

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Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine

They are interested in nearly every kind of mystery: stories of detection of the classic kind, police procedurals, private eye tales, suspense, courtroom dramas, stories of espionage, and so on. "We ask only that the story be about a crime (or the threat or fear of one). We sometimes accept ghost stories or supernatural tales, but those also should involve a crime." Payment: From 5 to 8¢ a word, sometimes higher for established authors.

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Noir Nation

Noir Nation: International Fiction publishes crime fiction, nonfiction, and noir poetry in print and Kindle editions. Its content is often dark, sometimes creepy, and sometimes humorous but always at the service of the literary imagination as it explores the darker regions of human experience. Payment: "Not much. But always."

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Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine welcomes submissions from both new and established writers. "We publish every kind of mystery short story: the psychological suspense tale, the deductive puzzle, the private eye case—the gamut of crime and detection from the realistic (including the policeman's lot and stories of police procedure) to the more imaginative (including "locked rooms" and "impossible crimes"). We need hard-boiled stories as well as "cozies," but we are not interested in explicit sex or violence." Payment: From 5 to 8¢ a word, sometimes higher for established authors.

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Mystery Tribune

Mystery Tribune publishes Fiction, Non-Fiction, Art and Photography, as well as Flash Fiction. "In our view, mystery is not limited to reading but can be a multi-sensory experience. It encompasses many artistic products such as photography, film, music and comics. Our aim is to excite and inspire our readers by showcasing the finest examples of such artistic work via publishing daily articles as well as print and digital issues." Payment: Honorarium for fiction and non-fiction for its print edition. "The amount of honorarium will be discussed with contributors upon acceptance of a piece and it depends on a number of criteria including profile of the author and previous collaborations with Mystery Tribune."

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Shotgun Honey

"Established 2011, Shotgun Honey has been a steady outlet for crime, noir, and hard-boiled flash fiction. After a decade of submissions, we’ve seen nearly every permutation of the genre that can fit within this tiny 700 word world. So surprise us and send your best original crime flash stories." Payment: $15.

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Guilty

Guilty publishes crime fiction. The term covers a wide range of potential topics and styles. However, there are some things they will not consider: Cozies, Police procedurals, Anything with a speculative element. Payment: $10. Has submission periods,

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Gumshoe Review

Gumshoe Review accepts short fiction mysteries and nonfiction articles about the mystery field. The short stories should be no longer than 1,000 words. Payment: 5 cents per word to a maximum of $50 (so if the story is longer you still only get $50). 

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Dark Yonder

"There are no setting requirements, but all stories submitted must be loosely categorized as “neo-noir.” We’re not looking for your grandfather’s noir fiction. We’re looking for new, unique voices and interpretations of dark literary fiction (crime, horror, speculative lit, etc) that fit into our rapidly evolving world." Payment: $50. Has submission periods.

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Black Cat Weekly

Black Cat Weekly is a weekly publication showcasing the best in original, modern, and classic mysteries, adventure stories, fantasy, and science fiction. Issues are (mostly) unthemed except around the holidays. (We run extra dark fantasy stories around Halloween, for example.) Payment: $15 - $50. Accepts reprints.

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Cold Caller

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. Payment: $125.

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Stone’s Throw 

We're looking for dark fiction, crime and noir, length between 1,000 and 2,000 words. Payment: $25. Open to submissions the first week of every month.

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Curated by Costiuc

Curated by Costiuc is a new substack publication. They want original Mystery, Thriller, or Suspense stories between 1,000 and 5,000 words. Payment: $25.

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Brown Hound Press

We like stories that are offbeat, a little different from the norm. Quirky is good. Dark humor is good. You might call our style mystery, literary, or Southern Gothic. Payment: $25.

10 Mystery and Thriller Publishers Accepting Unagented Manuscripts

Updated 5/4/25

Mysteries and thrillers have enjoyed widespread popularity ever since the advent of Sherlock Holmes. Perhaps it is a holdover from our days as hunter-gatherers, but the hunt - something that lies at the heart of every mystery story - has an appeal that is deeply ingrained in us.

If you write mysteries, crime novels, or thrillers, there are a number of respected publishing houses that are willing to accept manuscripts without an agent. All of the publishers on this list offer royalties and do not charge authors anything for editing, cover design, or distribution.

Be sure to read their submission guidelines carefully, and follow them to the letter. Don't give anyone an excuse to throw out your submission.

NOTE: For more than 450 publishers accepting unagented books in all genres go HERE.

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Bloodhound Books (UK) specializes in crime fiction, suspense, mystery, domestic noir and psychological thrillers and chillers. They have sold well over 4 million books worldwide and have had many top 10 best-sellers in the UK, USA, Canada & Australia. They do not consider any work that is less than 60,000 words.  Read submission guidelines here.

Brash Books publishes psychological thrillers, murder mysteries, international espionage, and police procedurals. To submit send a one-page summary of the book and the first 25 pages as a Microsoft Word document to brashbooks@gmail.com. If they like the sample, they’ll request the entire manuscript. Read submission guidelines here.

Casablanca is an imprint of Tell-Tale Publishing. "Our mysteries reflect a respect for fans of suspense by containing red herrings that don't insult their intelligence.  They instead test their inner sleuth, providing tantalizing clues and intriguing story lines. The characters are believeable and the hero or heroine earn the respect and support of their reading audience. Whodunnit? Read and speculate as you track the final reveal." Word Count: 55,000 to 75,000 words. Read submission guidelines here.

Crooked Lane publishes mysteries, thrillers, and suspense. titles in both print and electronic editions. Crooked Lane Books is distributed through Legato Publishers Group, a member of the Perseus Books Group. Crooked Lane is also represented by Biagi Literary Management for subsidiary rights licensing in foreign and domestic markets, and their business relationships include Bookspan, home of the country’s largest book clubs, and Blackstone Audio, one of the nation’s largest independent audiobook publishers. Read submission guidelines here.

Fahrenheit Press exclusively publishes mysteries and thrillers. They accept self-published and previously published work, provided the author has all the rights. They offer a generous royalty rate of 50% on both eBooks & paperback editions for a 5 year contract. Read submission guidelines here.

Hard Case Crime publishes old-fashioned, hard-boiled crime novels with "bare-knuckled" prose. They are unabashedly dedicated to "reviving the vigor and excitement, the suspense and thrills—the sheer entertainment—of the golden age of paperback crime novels, both by bringing back into print the best work of the pulp era and by introducing readers to new work by some of today's most powerful writers and artists. Determined detectives and dangerous women...fortune hunters and vengeance seekers...ingenious criminals and men on the run..." Read submission guidelines here.

Joffe Books is one of the UK’s leading independent publishers of crime and mystery novels. Many of their authors have topped the best-seller lists. They accept submissions from published authors and new writers, as well as authors who wish to relaunch their back-list titles. They are seeking mysteries, crime fiction, psychological thrillers, detective, thrillers, and suspense. Read submission guidelines here.

Lyrical Press, an imprint of Kensington, publishes suspense fiction, thrillers, and cozy mysteries. They have a penchant for romance. Submit to one editor only. (The list of editors includes the genres they are receiving.) Response time is three months. Read submission guidelines here.

Level Best, a publisher of anthologies, has recently opened its doors to full-length manuscript submissions. They are seeking crime fiction novels in the following categories: mystery, thriller, suspense, historical, traditional, and contemporary. No works of erotica or science fiction at this time. Read submission guidelines here. Will re-open in Fall 2025.

Tule Publishing specializes in romance and mystery ebooks. In mysteries they are looking for Domestic suspense, Cozy mysteries, Private Investigators, Mystery stories with diverse characters, Detective mysteries with women sleuths, Police Procedural, Thrillers. Read submission guidelines here.

Top 5 Sites For Mystery/Thriller Writers

Updated 7/29/26

One of the chief advantages of writing mysteries is that you can actually make a living at it. 

Usually, mysteries are published in series. Once you have established an engaging main character and a perfect setting (according to Bowker, Americans like their mysteries set in “the misty bogs of Scotland and London’s Trafalgar Square” – but New York or Rome will do in a pinch) you are in business forever. 

Because human beings are hunters at heart, there is an insatiable demand for whodunnits. Roughly 47% of those who purchased novels last year bought mysteries.

Whether you are just starting your career as a mystery writer, or have a book or two under your belt, these should be the top sites to put on your “favorites” list.

As an extra bonus here are two great publishing resources for mystery writers: 

13 Paying Markets for Mystery and Crime Stories

10 Mystery and Thriller Publishers Accepting Unagented Manuscripts

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1) Stop, You're Killing Me

This site lists over 5,500 authors, with chronological lists of their books (over 66,000 titles), both series and non-series, which you can search alphabetically or through specialized indexes: diversity, historical, genre, job, and location. The site also features a comprehensive list of mystery/thriller awards with archives going back to 1988. New hardcover, paperback, and audio book releases are listed by the month, which makes this is a great resource for researching your competition. Stop You’re Killing Me also hosts giveaways. This is a great place to have your book reviewed!

2) Sisters in Crime

What a fabulous organization! Sisters in Crime offers an enormous list of mystery websites. The resource section on the website includes a helpful book publishing glossary. Membership dues are a mere $50 annually for an author pursuing a career in mystery writing, a bookseller, a publisher, a librarian, an editor or anyone who has a business interest in promoting the purposes of Sisters in Crime, Inc. Membership includes:

• inSinC, a quarterly 16-page newsletter
• Sisters in Crime listserv, including special guests on "Mentor Mondays"
• Regional chapters, including The Guppies, a support and critique group for unpublished writers
• Website link to titles by Sisters in Crime authors via WorldCat, a global catalog of library collections
• An institutional presence at national and regional book events, mystery conferences and festivals with opportunities for individual author participation and/or distribution of promotional materials
• An ongoing mystery review project that monitors media coverage of female and male authors
• Our blog written by board members and other distinguished SinC members
• Our monthly "SinC Links"—a digest of "news you can use" about the mystery business
• New Sisters in Crime interactive map to find SinC authors and their most recent titles
• Discounts for Members in 2013 - Gotham Writing Workshops and Writers' Police Academy
• Reports from SinC's annual publishers summit
• Networking, mentoring, and fun

3) 60 Best Mystery Book Blogs and Websites 

The best Mystery Book Blogs are gleaned from thousands of blogs on the web and ranked by traffic, social media followers, domain authority & freshness. You can submit your blog here for free. 

4) Mystery Writers of America

Mystery Writers of America is the leading association for professional crime writers in the United States. Founded in 1945, MWA presents the Edgar® Awards, widely acknowledged to be the most prestigious awards in the genre.

Membership is open to professional writers in the crime/mystery/suspense field whose work has been published or produced in the U.S., and who reside in the U.S. (special memberships are offered to those living abroad); agents, attorneys, booksellers, editors, reviewers, librarians, journalists, and publicists. 

The MWA website features an extensive list of author newsletters, author blogs, and an extremely useful list of over 150 approved publishers (including periodicals and ezines).

5) International Thrillers Writers

The International Thriller Writers is an honorary society of authors, both fiction and nonfiction, who write books broadly classified as “thrillers.” This would include (but isn’t limited to) such subjects as murder mystery, detective, suspense, horror, supernatural, action, espionage, true crime, war, adventure, and myriad similar subject areas.

There are two ITW membership classes, Active membership for commercially published writers, and Associate membership for industry professionals, non-commercially published writers, and others. ITW is an honorary organization that does not charge membership dues for qualified, active members. Membership is free. Instead of charging dues, ITW asks its members for their volunteer work, their effort on behalf of fellow writers, and their time and energy supporting reading and literacy.

Some benefits of membership include:

• Marketing and promoting your work to over 12,000 readers, bookstore owners, librarians, reviewers, and other thriller fans through THE BIG THRILL monthly webzine.
• The opportunity to participate in successful ITW thriller collections. Previous bestselling projects include THRILLER ANTHOLOGY and the award-winning CHOPIN MANUSCRIPT audio book. Recently published projects include THRILLER ANTHOLOGY 2, FIRST THRILLS, WATCHLIST, COPPER BRACELET, and FEAR (YA Anthology).
• Being a part of ThrillerFest, the publishing industry’s fastest growing writer’s conference along with accompanying CraftFest and PitchFest
• Opportunities to participate in exclusive strategic relationships with Amazon.com, Audible.com, and other author-oriented websites.
• Participation in the exclusive Debut Author Program helping to launch new thriller writers into the exciting world of publishing
• Opportunities to have your book reviewed by noted websites such as BookBitch.com and others
• Many opportunities for midlist authors to advance their careers through special programs, signings, events, free promotions, publicity, and advertising, networking, and participation in anthologies.

Additional sites of interest

Crimespree Magazine - a recently updated website has given Crimespree a sleek new look. Founded in 2004, Crimespree is an award-winning print magazine that covers all aspects of crime fiction, including books, movies, DVDs, comics and more.

The Criminal Element - "Murder. Mystery. Mahem. Boiled daily." Criminal Element is a community website featuring daily content for fans of the crime and mystery genres in all of their forms. The site features original short stories and excerpts from upcoming crime and mystery novels along with daily blog articles.