Guidelines sometimes change. Please refer to them each time you submit a piece of work.
WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR?
Mysterical-E is dedicated to presenting quality material and to providing a showcase for talent old and new. One thing we especially enjoy is giving new talent an opportunity to show what they can do.
So, what kind of work are we searching for? The mystery field has expanded. According to the MWA: The mystery field is “ all over the map” now – from noir to cozy; from down to earth tales to mysteries in the fantasy and science fiction field; from mysteries that are grounded in historical romance to futuristic techno-thrillers.
But at the heart of all the various genre types is a mystery and the sleuth who solves it.
Mysterical-E is interested in mysteries of all kinds: softboiled, hardboiled, not boiled at all; cozies and thrillers; the traditional P.I. as well as unorthodox finders, amateur sleuths, police detectives, new age detectives, magical Private Investigators, you name it. Who says a werewolf can’t be a P.I.? Or, perhaps you can do something completely different. Cross-genre tales are most welcome. Historicals also have a place here. Alternate realities, alternate history, tales with a supernatural or speculative fiction touch are among stories we would like to read.
As long as your story contains a mystery and a sleuth, we will consider it.
Stretch your imagination, send us something startlingly good.
Send your stories to us at:
mystericalmail AT gmail (dot) com
PLEASE READ CAREFULLY
Reprints — We accept these, with proper permissions and citations
Simultaneous Submissions — We do not accept these. This never works for anyone.
Multiple Submissions (sending us several of your stories at the same time) are fine. It helps us when we have more of your work to choose from.
IN FICTION WE ACCEPT any word length as long as it allows for a complete mystery tale to be told.
You need NOT list word count. Mysteroical-E exists in cyberspace. We don’t have to worry about story length or word counts.
Some examples of story types and word lengths for each:
Drabble – 1 to 100 words
Flash — up to 500 words
Short-Short — 501 to 1000 words
Short Story — 1001 to 7500 words
Long Short Story — 7501 to 15000 words
Novella — 15001 to 40000 words
Longer Works — more than 40001 words
NOTE: Both Novellas over 25,000 words and Longer Works (more than 40,001 words) may be divided with parts appearing in successive issues
SERIES — YES! — We love doing series stories, continuing characters, etc.
Book excerpts — YES! – either from books with firm publication dates OR books published within the past two or three years. Excerpts should be a tempting taste of the book from which they’re drawn.
Keep excerpts to around 10,000 words.
IN NONFICTION WE ARE LOOKING FOR:
INTERVIEWS:
Chats with people in the Mystery business — authors, agents, publishers, convention organizers — the entire range, even voracious readers. Nice to know what they’re thinking and reading. A simple Q&A format will suffice but a good, solid profile type of interview is appreciated.
Query with ideas to mystericalmail (AT) gmail (dot) com
ARTICLES:
We are looking for articles dealing with aspects of the mystery genre, character studies and analyses, retrospective reviews of the works/styles/characters of great names in Mystery, news of what’s going on in the field, spotlights on publishers and markets, be creative, come up with ideas and ask. Or articles about any of the other genres we publish.
Query with ideas to mystericalmail (AT) gmail (dot) com
REVIEWS:
Books, movies, TV, websites, etc. — as long as it’s a mystery or something mysterious, we’re interested.
Queries to: mystericalmail (AT) gmail (dot) com
COLUMNS:
Have an idea for a column? Send a query — we can always use more columnists.
Queries to: mystericalmail (AT) gmail (dot) com
OTHER IDEAS?
You have an idea? We want to hear about it.
Maybe it will pan out, maybe not. You won’t know unless you ask.
Query with ideas to mystericalmail (AT) gmail (dot) com
Send submissions to:
mystericalmail (AT) gmail (dot) com
RIGHTS:
Writers are invited to submit quality work, which will be featured on the website for the life of an issue AND then in our Archives (imagine it as the stacks of a library’s periodical section with back magazines).
Being featured in Mysterical-E means you’re a published writer and as such have rights to your work. We ask first-time electronic rights (for original pieces) and archival rights. Just because your story sits in our archives doesn’t mean you can’t submit it elsewhere.
All other rights revert to the author.
Payment
Right now Mysterical-E is not a paying market.
As we explore the financial side of things, we hope to find ways of paying our writers and artists.
Submissions should be sent via e-mail to:
mystericalmail (AT) gmail (dot) com
Put the word “SUBMISSION” and then “Title of Your Story” in the subject line
FORMATTING NOTES
Format your story as you would for any submission to other journals or contests or publishers.
Remember to Edit your work: spelling, bad grammar, missing words, etc. should be fixed before submitting.
Check your manuscript for errors in spelling — don’t rely on SpellCheck.
Fix any grammar or punctuation errors.
