Cozy Mystery Authors - Call for Submissions

22/10/2018

Each month I'm going to be putting together a collection of themed stories by 10 different cozy mystery authors, to run alongside my monthly cozy mystery collections. To be included in the collection, you must write a story on a set topic, of no more than 25,000 words, which has not been published anywhere else. The ten stories will then be edited and a cover designed for the collection, before it is released wide through Bundle Rabbit. Royalties will be automatically paid each month through Bundle Rabbit.

Each author will be required to sign a basic contract and to share the cost of editing and cover art design ($40 per author payable once we have the ten stories ready for editing and cover design). You can submit stories for as many or as few of the themes as you like, once we have ten stories we will get the book ready for publishing during that month. You can submit your story any time. If we have our ten stories ready to go long before the month of the collection, we can publish it anyway, and it will simply be featured during the collection's month. Some collections and themes are likely to be more popular than others.

The aim of the collection is to have some fun writing in different worlds, to promote each other as authors, to reach new readers, build up a following, earn some royalties long term, and who knows, we might even make the New York Times Best Seller list! Each collection will be on sale wide, for $0.99 to give us the best chance of sales and finding new readers. I'll be formatting and uploading the finished book, so all you have to do is to write the story that you want readers to discover.

Stories can be submitted by email in the first instance and once we have ten stories that we are all happy with, we'll set up the contract, and send the collection off for editing, and have the cover designed. I'm planning to ask Mariah Sinclair to create custom covers for each collection of stories for ebook and print. You'll receive a digital copy of the finished collection for your approval before it gets published. You will be able to publish your story as an individual after submission as long as it is not in KU since it will be available wide and you won't want to get in trouble with KU.

Happy writing!

Sarah x

Story Themes and Dates

November 2018 - Historical Cozy Mystery Month

Steampunk inspired
Downton Abbey inspired

December 2018 - Christmas and New Year Month

Mince Pie and Mistletoe murders
Murder at Midnight (New Year's Eve)

January 2019 - Paranormal Cozy Mystery Month

Vampires
Mystics

February 2019 - Animal Cozy Mystery Month

Murder at the zoo
Cats and Dogs

March 2019 - Ageing Sleuth Cozy Mystery Collection

No specific topic

April 2019 - Easter Cozy Mystery Collection

Alice in Wonderland inspired
Easter Bunny murders

May 2019 - British Cozy Mystery Collection

London stories
Celtic Collection (stories set in Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Cornwall, Brittany, Isle of Man)

June 2019 - First Book in Series Cozy Mystery Collection

Stories about the first person to....cross Antarctica, run a marathon, anything goes.

July 2019 - Travel and Destinations Cozy Mystery Collection

Stories set on desert islands/paradise islands
Stories set in Greece

August 2019 - Honeymoon, Wedding, Romance Cozy Mystery Collection

bridesmaid stories
wedding cake stories

September 2019 - Medieval Cozy Mystery Collection

Medieval taverns, ports, and castle stories
Viking stories

October 2019 - Halloween Cozy Mystery Collection

Witch stories
pumpkin stories

November 2019 - Other Worlds Cozy Mystery Collection

Atlantis inspired stories
stories set in space
thanksgiving stories

December 2019 - Christmas and Hogmanay Cozy Mystery Collection

Fairy tales retold with a Christmassy feel
Christmas Day stories
Christmas/New Year in Scotland stories

January 2020 - Knitting, Quilting, Crafts Cozy Mystery Collection

knitting stories
quilting stories
crafts stories

February 2020 - Butlers, Maids, Slaves Cozy Mystery Collection

The Butler did it...or did he? Could be a female butler on an alien planet, animal butler...
Servant and maid stories
Egyptian slaves...pyramids, mummies...

March 2020 - Fashion and Shopping Collection

book store stories
fashion week stories
sales stories (January, Black Friday, new season, closing down, back to school, etc)

9 Comments

Phyllis Cherry link

23/10/2018 14:06:34

New to this genre. Interested in finding out more about writing and publishing the cozy mystery.

Sarah Weldon

23/10/2018 23:23:04

Phyllis that's great news. I'm going to be sharing a lot of resources as part of NaNoWriMo as I'm a fairly new author myself so feel free to add me as a writing buddy if you decide to take part, and to get involved with the collections too. Should be a lot of fun.

Melissa link

23/10/2018 22:32:00

Love this! Your themes are great. Will be submitting a book. I’ve never written something that short so this will be a fun challenge. Thank you!

23/10/2018 23:26:04

A challenge is always good though:) Really pleased you like the themes Melissa...there are just so many stories I want to write. Will be super exciting to see how each author puts their own spin on the themes as well.

Avery Daniels link

26/10/2018 20:22:54

My cozy is Resort themed, so I'm thinking "Travel and Destinations Cozy Mystery Collection" since it doesn't fit into any of the others. ???

27/10/2018 00:33:30

Hi Avery, well we could always come up with another collection that would fit the story you plan to write, I'm always keen to write in new themes as a challenge, and there may be other authors interested too.

Kimberley Bailey

1/4/2019 13:44:23

Hello. These sound great! What is the minimum word count? Also, can anyone in the world enter? And, what are the deadlines for each one? Thanks so much!

Max Szadek link

20/12/2019 21:16:59

Good Afternoon,

My love of cozy mysteries lead me to write and produce a Cozy Radio Mystery podcast, Gingerbread Men Prefer Blondes, featuring a cozy mystery loaded with diabetes self-care tips and advice for cozy mystery lovers for my national diabetes organization, Divabetic (divabetic.org). USA Today Best-Selling Author, Tonya Kappes is a member of the cast. Here’s a brief synopsis: The happy healthcare host, Mr. Divabetic’s healthy culinary misadventures continue in this year’s escapade as he enters Annual Gingerbread Cookie Jamboree competition with headless cookies and pureed kale hot cocoa for the judges to sample. As if this dreadful combination wasn’t bad enough to land him at the bottom of the throwdown, his mother, Mama Rose Marie, is accused of poisoning one of the celebrity judges! Things go from bad to worse when the snake phobic Mr. Divabetic hears about the giant python’s escape. Now, the happy healthcare host must decide to face his fear of snakes and recipe rejection or throw in his apron and risk getting caught up in another murder investigation. Can Mr. Divabetic and his team of amateur sleuths hunt down the real killer and get Mama Rose Marie out of jail? Will he be the next murder victim? Can he ever create an edible recipe? Here's a link to the mystery podcast in the hope that you listen and possibly share it with your community: https://www.blogtalkradio.com/divatalkradio1/2019/09/10/gingerbread-men-prefer-blondes-mystery-podcast Thanks in advance for your help promoting a new attitude in diabetes education and empowerment to your community. Best,
Max 'Mr. Divabetic' Szadek

24/12/2019 07:44:09

Sounds like a lot of fun and a great way to raise diabetes awareness. Thanks for sharing.