UPDATED MARCH 2021: They have not published a new book for over a year. I would not submit.
Felony Books is a publisher of urban fiction. Urban fiction is also called street lit or street fiction. It’s fiction based in an urban setting and it usually deals with socio-economic realities and leans towards the gritty. In most contexts, it is written by and for African Americans. In the context of Felony books based on the marketing and the covers, this seems very much to be the case (although I’m always open to being corrected). If you do not write urban fiction, this is not the publisher for you.
You can get a feel for what they publish by viewing their catalog here.
Felony Books publishes a number of genres, including romance, thriller, horror, mystery, and suspense. All seem to fit under the umbrella of street lit.
Felony Books publishes works of most lengths, including novellas and short fiction. They also publish a number of series.
They ask that you submit three chapters, a cover letter and a synopsis. You can submit via email or mail, but they (like most publishers) do not return material. The response time to submissions is stated to be one week, which is remarkably fast.
I have not seen the contract, so I do not know if it is fair or not (this is a new disclaimer I’m adding to all reviews of companies whose contract I have not seen).
The same authors seem to publish again and again with the publisher, all or most using pen names, so that is a good sign.
To learn more or to submit go here.
Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, The 2019 Guide to Manuscript Publishers, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The Authors Publish Guide to Children’s and Young Adult Publishing.
She occasionally teaches a course on manuscript publishing, as well as a course on publishing in literary journals.
