Submission Guidelines

Unfortunately, we are not reading new submissions at the moment. Feel free to read the following guidelines and check back with us later in the year.

Pemberley Press is dedicated to publishing escape fiction for readers with eager minds—readers who like to learn through fiction. Due to our small staff, at present we only publish mystery novels. We will only consider manuscripts that deliver on our promise by enriching the reader’s entertainment experience through a well-researched setting, profession, or time-period. Since we only publish hardcover and trade paper mysteries, our books should be longer, more complex, and richer in content than is typically found in a paperback on the newsstand, but should still deliver an entertaining, escapist read. The audience we seek is the reader who wants a happy or just resolution to a crime novel, but also an intellectual challenge, a fresh or unusual setting, or a "novel" reading experience.

Guidelines

Completed, novel-length manuscripts of 75,000 words or longer. No short stories or novelas, please.

For a real understanding of what we publish, please read a sample of our novels.

Our focus for now is limited to mystery novels, preferably historical mysteries (By its very nature, historical fiction has the potential to educate, but it must be accurately researched and contain sufficient references to time and place that the reader will come away with more than he or she previously knew about the period.) The plot must be a traditional whodunit with a murder solved by preferably an amateur detective. No other fiction genres, non-fiction, poetry, children’s books, men’s adventure or horror, please. We are also unlikely to accept a novel that portrays extreme cruelty or violence, unless it is an accurate and necessary reflection of the setting or time-period. With respect to contemporary settings, the market for extreme criminal violence is amply filled by other publishers.

We do not seek to compete with the major publishers by producing books with the same popular settings and "hot topics" that have already been amply exploited. We are not looking for thrillers, and do not want stories that take place largely in bars, nightclubs, casinos, or exotic beach spas or are built around the international drug trade -- the settings exploited by sensational TV and movies -- as these hold no fascination to an intellectual reader who likes to learn through fiction.

Instead, we seek a fresh setting with a more intimate group of well-developed characters whose lives have been disrupted by crime. The detective must be someone readers can admire. Flaws and quirks enhance any character, but the detective of a traditional mystery should have a moral core and make ethically courageous decisions. The resolution of the mystery should give the reader the feeling that the moral balance of the universe has been restored

Foreign settings are preferable, although unusual American settings will be given a fair read.

Stories set in modern day New York City and Los Angeles are not likely to find a home at Pemberley unless they explore an interesting professional world within those cities, little known to outsiders. Small town or rural settings are quite acceptable if the characters drawn reflect the history and geography of that place. (Examples would be Tony Hillerman's Navajo series or Mary Daheim's Alpine series.)

The setting should be an integral part of the plot and characterization--in other words, the story could not have taken place in exactly the same way anywhere else or with a different group of characters.

Cross-over novels—novels containing elements of other genres, such as romance and fantasy—are welcome, as long as they have a mystery as the main plot and they satisfy our promise to educate as well as entertain. This means, for instance, that a fantasy would have to take place in an actual setting, such as Medieval France—no purely fictional worlds. Romance as a subplot or even co-plot is always acceptable, as long as the main story is more intellectually stimulating than is typically found in a romance novel, since the market niche for pure romance and romantic suspense is already well served by the major publishers.

Character-driven stories with thoroughly developed, unforgettable characters—we are not in the market for strictly plot-driven stories in the vein of men’s adventure tales.

The following are examples of books we would have loved to publish.

• Historical novels by Dorothy Dunnett
• The Navajo Mystery Series by Tony Hillerman
• The Regency and Georgian romances of Georgette Heyer
• The historical novels of Sharon Kay Penman
• The Art History Mysteries by Iain Pears
• Historical mysteries by Rosemary Stevens, Carola Dunn, Judith Cook, Peter Tremayne, among others.

Instructions

Query first with brief description of your novel, including length of manuscript in number of words. Either by email to editor@pemberleypress.com or to our physical address. Email is preferable.

Please do not waste our time or your postage by querying or sending manuscripts for books that do not satisfy our publishing niche. We will not make exceptions and, with little time to waste, may not bother to reply. Our list will remain very small for the foreseeable future, and with little capital to risk, we will be extremely selective.

Note

Pemberley Press is a member of The Authors Studio. Any author published by us will be given the opportunity to participate fully in the design of his or her book. In exchange, the author will be expected to assist in the formation of a marketing plan and to actively promote the novel.