UPDATE: Tyrus Books permenently closed its doors as of April 7th 2017. This was after they became an imprint of Simon & Schuster.

Tyrus Books is a publisher of crime and literary fiction. All the work they publish leans towards literary. They offer advances to authors. They have a good distributor and a good reputation.

They have extensive notes for potential submitters on their website. These are worth reading to know more about what they are and are not interested in.

However, it is best to know upfront that they do not consider publishing novels where the protagonist works for the CIA, FBI, NSA, the military, or law enforcement of any kind. They are also not interested in books where the protagonist is an unrealistic “bad-ass” or involved in an important criminal syndicate. They also are not interested in cliches or tropes, like being pursued by a serial killer or defusing a bomb.

In other words if you wrote the book version of CSI, Criminal Minds, or a Hollywood blockbuster, they are not interested.

 They are interested in books that are set somewhere unusual in the States. They are interested in books where melodramatic violence and car chases do not play a significant role. They are interested in books set today and during the last decade.

They are looking for edited (no first drafts) manuscripts that are between 60,000-100,000 words.

It is good to look through their list of past publications to see if anything matches your writing style. If you think one of their books might be similar to what you have written and you don’t have the money to buy that title, you can tell them. They will either buy the book for you or offer a significant discount. That is a really unusual and impressive offer.

They try to respond to most queries within three months. If you have not heard from them in that time, consider your work rejected.

If you are interested in submitting your manuscript, send a a synopsis to them via email. You do not need to include any of the manuscript, but if you do, just make sure it is less than 20 pages in the body of the email.