Updated September 5th 2025
Crooked Lane was founded in 2014 as a press specializing in crime books. They have an experienced staff and have managed to publish some well known authors already. They publish a range of mysteries that lean towards the cozy, and they are not opposed to publishing a series of books. You can see their catalog here. They have recently started publishing horror fiction, also and are open to submissions in that genre as well.
Crooked Lane is distributed by Penguin Random House, and I regularly see their books in bookstores. They also have an imprint focused on book club books, called Alcove Press.
They are also upfront about editorial staff. Most came to Crooked Lane from major publishers including Penguin and St. Martin. You can learn more about the staff by going here and scrolling down.
They do offer advances to their authors but I don’t know how much and they have a reputation for paying royalties on time.
All submissions should be made via email and include a query letter. Send your query letter as well as the first two chapters of your manuscript. Make sure to include contact information. Because they receive so many submissions they only respond to queries they are interested in. If you haven’t heard from them in two weeks, assume rejection.
You can learn more here.
Bio: Emily Harstone is the pen name of an author whose work has been published internationally by a number of respected journals. She is a professional submissions adviser. You can follow her on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/emilyharstone/
