Soho Press and Soho Crime Submission Guidelines
Dear Writers:
Soho Press primarily publishes literary fiction and international crime. While most of our fiction comes through agents, we put a priority on unsolicited manuscripts from new writers.
On the crime side, our books are almost entirely 1) series and 2) set abroad. If your crime manuscript doesn’t fit this profile, it’s probably not for us. Our authors/locales include Cara Black (France), Stuart Neville (Ireland), Martin Limon (South Korea), Collin Cotterill (Laos), James R. Benn (World War II era Europe), and Lene Kaaberbol & Agnete Friis (Denmark).
On the literary side, we cast a relatively wide net. Our novels include Luminarium by Alex Shakar, The Funny Man by John Warner, The Detour by Andromeda Romano-Lax, How Evan Broke His Head by Garth Stein, Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat and The Darkest Child by Delores Phillips. We are looking for novels with strong voices, great writing, and unique ways of seeing the world. (At the risk of opening a can of worms, we are not the right publisher for genre fiction such as romance, sci-fi, fantasy, or really any genre apart from international crime—though we like literary novels, such as Luminarium, that explore genre conventions.)
Start by sending three chapters (or fifty pages) and a cover letter to Soho Press at 853 Broadway, New York, NY 10003, care of acquisitions editor. Please accompany all submissions and queries with postage and packing materials for their return. It’s not advised to send a query letter without sample pages—without seeing the actual writing, it’s hard to get enthusiastic about a book.
Because of the volume of submissions, it can take two to three months for us to respond to queries (though often we are much quicker). Please wait for three months to pass before checking on the status of your submission.
Soho Teen Submission Guidelines
*Please note: currently we are not accepting unsolicited manuscripts. Please check back later for updated information. Thank you.
Soho Teen publishes a small list of YA mysteries: twelve titles a year. In part, it was conceived as a natural complement to Soho Press—in particular, its legendary Soho Crime imprint. But it was also conceived with a simple question in mind: What recent YA bestseller doesn’t involve a mystery in some part? How many times does a YA reader ask: What don’t I know? And what will I discover?
Soho Teen offers an unapologetic take on that thrill, putting mystery at the front and center of all our titles. In our list, you’ll find the paranormal and dystopian. You’ll also find hilarity, heartbreak, tragedy, euphoria, reflection, jealousy, love, loss and gain: the entire spectrum of the teen experience. You’ll meet characters you trust at first glance and others who make your blood boil.
The sole unifying Soho Teen criterion: All titles feature a unique protagonist, aged 14-17, who plays a crucial role in resolving a high-stakes mystery.
If your project meets that criterion, please submit the following to Rachel Kowal: rkowal[at]sohopress.com. You can expect us to respond within 6-8 weeks.
- An introductory letter
- The first 50 pages—double-spaced, numbered, and proofread—in a Word Doc
- A paragraph pitch (single spaced)
- A 2-3 page synopsis (single spaced), with ending. Please do not leave anything to our imagination. If there are shocking surprises and twists, that is wonderful, but we need to know what they are in advance.
As of now we are not interested in acquiring series. If your stand-alone title has the potential to become a series, please include future plots in your synopsis.
Finally, we tend to favor agented submissions from agencies we know and trust. If you’re an author representing yourself, or an agent we don’t know, it might take a little longer for us to respond. Please be patient!
Many thanks,
Daniel Ehrenhaft
Editorial Director, Soho Teen