Welcome to the submission guidelines page. Here you will find out how to submit a short story or maybe a manuscript to us.
Letter from the President:
Suspense Publishing continues to expand its reputation and influence in the publishing industry, offering some of the best titles in the suspense, thriller, mystery, and horror genres. It is our intent to build on our reputation as a relationship-based publishing firm that partners with quality writers. Our commitment to the publication of first-rate fiction carries with it the requirement that our current authors, as well as those we add to our team of authors, follow a professional set of guidelines when working with us.
Please read our guidelines below. They are required on all submissions and accepted manuscripts, regardless of submitter:
- Suspense Publishing only accepts manuscripts in the suspense, thriller, mystery, and horror genres.
- Before a manuscript is submitted to Suspense Publishing, it must be thoroughly content-edited by a professional editor. Although the Suspense team will still do read-throughs and editorial work with the author upon acceptance of a manuscript, it must be as ‘clean’ as possible before Suspense can begin the process of readying the title for publication. Manuscripts that are not “ready for prime time” will be discarded.
- ‘Special requests’ relative to the publication date of a manuscript will not be granted. Suspense prepares a release date calendar as much as 18 months in advance and cannot manipulate that calendar to accommodate an exception.
Submissions from New Authors (or their agents):
- Submit an electronic query by following this link: SUBMISSION LINK after your manuscript is complete and has been professionally edited. Do not include chapters or your manuscript with e-mail queries. An editor will respond if we are interested in seeing your manuscript based on the content and professionalism of your query.
- If we request that you submit your manuscript or chapters, they should be sent as a Word document, unless otherwise specified, typed in 12-point Times New Roman font, double-spaced, and paginated. Include title and author in file name.
- In the end, our mission remains the same—to assist our family of writers to become recognized names by publishing the best suspense titles for maximum reading enjoyment.
If you are interested in submitting a short story here are the rules (cause everything has a rule).
- Email all stories to editor@suspensemagazine.com
- All stories need to be in the body of your email, we don’t open attachments.
- All stories need to be 5000 words or less. If your story is a little over, email us first to let us know and give us a quick synopsis of your story to see if we are interested.
- We will not accept any stories that are sexually graphic in nature, descriptive violence against children or sexually violent in nature. Any stories that have these elements we will delete.
- Because of the volume of stories we receive we can’t answer everyone back. We will only contact those who we have accepted for publication in the magazine. This can take up to nine months.
- Any story that is submitted is subject to possible publication in the magazine and / or on the website. We do not retain any further rights than those.
- We do accept simultaneous submissions and stories that have already been published in another magazine or website, just please let us know when you submit.
- If you don’t see your answer here, email us since we can’t think of everything.
Thank you. We look forward to the future!
Suspense Publishing
“My relationship with Suspense Publishing is one of the best elements of being an author. From the company’s president on down, every member of the SP staff is committed to my success. They always respond in a timely fashion and obviously care about advancing my career. The fact that they want to publish only quality fiction makes me proud to be a member of the Suspense Publishing family of writers.”
Joseph Badal, Amazon Best-Selling Author of Award-Winning Suspense Novels
