Submission Guidelines

Unsolicited submissions to Criminal Brief should be sent by email to

editor@criminalbrief.com .

There is no remuneration for publication, but you retain all rights to your piece except for first electronic publication rights, which you agree to assign to Criminal Brief upon acceptance.

Your piece must be original and must never have been published elsewhere in any form.

Submissions should be between 800 and 1200 words long. Any subject peripherally related to writing short crime fiction is acceptable — and when I say “peripherally”, I am being very liberal. A column on writing columns, for example, would be perfectly fine. I prefer articles that are of general interest to readers rather than to writers, but writing about writing is a staple on CB and it's perfectly OK to do so.

There are three categories under which unsolicited submissions may be published:

• Mystery Masterclass: This category is restricted to professional writers. A “professional writer” is defined as a writer who has been paid by an editor, publisher, or producer for contributing a manuscript that was published or produced. The form of publication or production isn’t relevant as long as there was money paid for the manuscript, i.e., web publication, ebook publication, film and television, radio, and traditional markets are all included. This category is not open for contributions by the self-published.

• De Novo Review: This category is open to all readers who wish to submit a review of a short story, anthology, magazine, or other work relevant to short crime fiction. Reviews of novels are generally not acceptable, unless there is a clear nexus to short crime fiction. Self-promotion is expressly forbidden.

• From the Gallery: This category is open to fans to write on any topic of their choice, reviews excepted, as long as it is of interest to the readership and has some relevance to the mystery short story.

By submitting your article to CB, you agree to allow me to edit it. This usually takes the form of clarifying grammar and correcting misspellings, and rarely word choice if I detect a misused word, e.g., “wrecking havoc” instead of “wreaking havoc” and so on — but I promise you that if I accept your column for publication, I will try to sustain your literary voice as closely as I can, and I absolutely promise that I won’t alter your piece semantically at all without consulting you first. Any revisions I may make I will submit to you for your approval and give you the opportunity to object if you aren’t satisfied with my proposed changes, unless I’m up against the deadline and have to publish immediately.

Direct disparagement of any living person except for convicted criminals is prohibited — CB is not a gossip column. You are free to express your political opinions, but keep it light and related to your topic — the object is not to engender controversy, although I certainly have no desire to suppress any opinion or conviction — but any article that focuses on an ideology will not be considered for publication, since the CB readership embraces persons of all political persuasions. There are other blogs for political opinionation, after all.

Submission of the column can be in any format: word processing file, email text, html file, and so on.

If you have specific illustrations in mind, please send them as attachments to your email submission. This isn’t necessary, since if you don’t have any illustrations, I will select one (or maybe two) that I think is appropriate and send it to you for your approval.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with a modicum of self-promotion, but anything that reads like an advertisement is not suitable. If you have any published works that you would like to call to the attention of our readers, please mention them, but the principal aim is either to entertain or educate the reader, not to promote any agenda, sales or otherwise, unless it is on point — a piece advocating literacy, for example, is welcome, and by all means quote your own work if it illustrates the point you are trying to make. Likewise, if you are writing criticism, please back up your views with concrete examples.

Please provide me with a brief biographical or personality sketch not to exceed 100 words and a JPEG photo of yourself, preferably a head shot. The sketch doesn't have to be elaborate, and can be as simple as

James Lincoln Warren is a frequent contributor to Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine.

or as complex as

James Lincoln Warren is the author of the “Treviscoe of Lloyd’s” series of 18th century mystery stories (one of which, “Black Spartacus”, was featured in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine Presents Fifty Years of Crime and Suspense) and of the contemporary “Cal Ops” series concerning a multiracial Beverly Hills detective agency. He is the founder and editor of “Criminal Brief: The Mystery Short Story Web Log Project”, and a past President of Mystery Writers of America’s Southern California Chapter. He received his B.A. in the Humanities from the University of Texas San Antonio and has served in the U.S. Navy.

—James Lincoln Warren, Editor