Crimeucopia

23rd August 2025

Crimeucopia is intended to be a First Filled - First to Publish anthology series of vaguely themed short fiction, designed to cover a broad spectrum of crime fiction - though we do have a backstop in the form of an irregular Free-for-All edition depending on the amount of submissions received.

Submission window - Please Read Our Submissions Guide & Checks Before submitting

Submissions will be open as follows:

6th to 14th October - For A Coterie Of Dicks

13th to 21st October - For New Kids In Da 'Hood

Crimeucopia is intended to be a First Filled - First to Publish anthology series of vaguely themed short fiction, designed to cover a broad spectrum of crime fiction - though we do have a backstop in the form of an irregular Free-for-All edition depending on the amount of submissions received.

Multiple Submissions are acceptable (within reason) - due to several recent experiences Simultaneous Submissions are no longer being accepted

Reprints - Please, please, please leave a respectable amount of time between initial publication and offering them up to us.

The original publishers will want to generate sales, rather than having them undermined by yet another instance of the fiction appearing elsewhere.

Manuscript formatting - Please, please, please use a standard Manuscript format, with as little or ideally no 'personalised' formatting as possible as it sometimes plays merry Hell with typesetting.

(Templates here - https://www.shunn.net/format/story/ )

Due to our Indie Small Press/Semi-Pro nature, MIP is not our full-time, salary paying job. This means we are not scanning for emails 24/7-366 (to take into account Leap Years), so please hold off for around 60 to 90 days before clicking the send button on that Why aren’t you bastards talking to me about my submission!?! email. We don’t intend to run a slushpile, however, we will accept material with a provisional publication date that may slide right if unforeseen circumstances raise their nasty little pointed heads. Your understanding in regard to this happening is much appreciated. To make this more palatable, we also to pay on acceptance, rather than on publication.

Submissions are via email attachments to submissions@murderousinkpress.co.uk with a subject line of SUBMISSIONS_Crimeucopia_<Your Name>_<Story Title>

Publishing will be through both Amazon (Online Paperback and Kindle) and IngramSpark (Bookshop Paperback and ePub/eBook distribution). If in doubt, or have difficulties with Amazon, then please use the ISBN and order from a local bookshop. Resellers, please talk to sales@murderousinkpress.co.uk in regard to mixed low run orders which we can supply at approximately 50% discount + shipping & tax.

Having originally worked with the standard UK Paperback size (129mm x 198mm), since the end of 2022 we have gone over to the US B-Format of 6 x 9 inches. We usually run with a matte cover, and around 250 to 280 pages.

Please Note:- We are not looking for pure Horror, Science Fiction, Fantasy, or work involving pre-existing characters (ie Fan Fiction).

A Coterie Of Dicks (March 2026)

We have to admit that we had a lot of fun working up and getting Great Googly Moo! (the humorous all-Private Detective anthology) to press. The contents also doubled up as a group of Shamus 2024 Award entries, rather than just a single or couple of pieces of short fiction.

As we’re not going to be able to pull that stunt again this year (all 5 title slots are now filled) we’re going to be lobbing another humorous all-PI edition over the PWA battlements as our 5th Anniversary Crimeucopia—release date March 2026.

The only ‘controlling’ factor is that the detective(s) in your pieces need to follow MWA guidelines (see here: https://privateeyewriters.com/ )

Please Note: Even though the Patron Saint of Intelligence Officers is St Joshua, we believe that despite the numerous claims, the Patron Saint of Private Detectives is definitely not Saint Columbo.

New Kids In Da Hood (June 2026)

We originally set up Murderous Ink Press in order to give, amongst other things, a platform for new and unpublished crime fiction writers. However, we have always been happy to put such writers side by side with more established ones because, as we always say: You never know what you like until you read it.

With New Kids In Da Hood, we are looking to go one step further, and put out an anthology containing only new and previously unpublished writers.

Please read our Submission Guides carefully. Shunn Modern should be your defacto go-to manuscript format/template, and although we have the ability to handle a fine collection of file formats, we draw the line at PDF submissions.

However, please note the following:

If you send us an AI generated/AI aided submission, we will take great delight in publicising your details any and every chance we get, as a warning to other publishers. If you cannot create something yourself, then don't denigrate others who do by submitting AI generated shite. And if you do sneak something passed us, and we subsequently find out, then we will pursue legal recompense very aggressively. It's what we have contracts for, after all.

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