Writer's Guidelines

Finding new authors is a great pleasure for all of us here, and we look forward to reading the fiction you send us. Since we do read all submissions, there is no need to query first; please send the entire story. You don’t need an agent.

Because this is a mystery magazine, the stories we buy must fall into that genre in some sense or another. We are interested in nearly every kind of mystery: stories of detection of the classic kind, police procedurals, private eye tales, suspense, courtroom dramas, stories of espionage, and so on. We ask only that the story be about a crime (or the threat or fear of one). We sometimes accept ghost stories or supernatural tales, but those also should involve a crime.

You might find it useful to read one or more issues of AHMM; that should give you an idea of the kind of fiction we buy. For a sample copy, please send a check made out to Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine for $9.50 (all double issues)* to:

Submissions

AHMM uses an online submission system that was designed to streamline our process and improve communication with authors. We encourage all submissions to be made electronically using this system, rather than on paper. Our online submissions form for fiction asks for your name, e-mail address, cover letter, story title, and story. Your cover letter should state a little about you and your publishing history (briefly!), and any other relevant information.  All stories and poems should be in standard manuscript format and submitted in .DOC, .DOCX, or .RTF format. For information about standard formatting, see William Shunn’s guide to Proper Manuscript Format.

After you have submitted your work, a tracking number will be displayed and an automated e-mail confirmation containing this information will be sent to you. If you have not received this e-mail within twenty-four hours, please notify us by e-mail. Your tracking number will allow you to monitor the status of your submission through our Web site, so please don’t lose it. NOTE: Some service providers occasionally treat our e-mails as spam, so please keep an eye on your spam folder.

Paper submissions can be mailed to: Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, 6 Prowitt Street, Norwalk, CT 06855. Please include an SASE for our response.

Style. We prefer that stories not be longer than 12,000 words; most of the stories in the magazine are considerably shorter than that. They should, of course, be well written. We are looking for stories that are fresh, well told, and absorbing, and have not been previously published elsewhere. They should be entirely fiction: Please do not send us stories based on actual crimes, for instance, or other real-life events.

Revisions. Revised versions of a story should be submitted only on our request, as a rule. At the very least, tell us in the cover letter that the story has been submitted before but has been revised, and explain how.

NOTE: Stories submitted to AHMM are not also considered by or for Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, though we share the same address. Submissions to EQMM must be made separately.

Although we do accept simultaneous submissions, we ask that you notify us immediately if your story has been accepted elsewhere before we’ve had a chance to read your story.  We do ask that you do not simultaneously submit the same story to AHMM and EQMM. If we reject your story, for whatever reason, you are then free to submit it to EQMM (and vice versa).