SUBMISSIONS

HARD-BOILED BOOKS 

HARD-BOILED PULP MAGAZINE 

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

Hard-Boiled Pulp, (referred to as HBP) is OPEN for SUBMISSIONS.

What we are looking for-

Stories that take the reader back to a simpler time when fiction was written in a hard hitting pulp fashion and produced in dime store rags. In the day, there was a hoard of pulp fiction magazines. These magazines were produced in very much the same format and size as comic books. Think 1930’s to 1950’s. And the print edition of HBP is published in the classic format.  The only exception, we are not printing on “true pulp” paper. Sadly we admit this. The paper quality is much better, blame technology on that and our printer. But to continue, we have strived to create a look and feel with our pulp rag. A feel that reminds readers still around (those still living) of such detective pulp magazines like True Detective and Crack Detective.

Supplementing our regular content is period advertising from old pulps. Which further aids, to the look and feel of an old pulp mag. With such being said, we are looking for stories that complement our magazine. Stories preferably about PRIVATE DETECTIVES, OR PRIVATE INVESTIGATORS for those don’t’ grasp the difference. Written in FIRST PERSON or THIRD PERSON. We like both.

FEMME FATALE is acceptable and POLICE DETECTIVE. SPY stories will be considered. There should be a strong protagnatist in the story that carries the story from beginning to end. Now to make your piece of work SHINE!!! Do the following and it will make it worth our while to read it-


  • PROOF READ 
  • FOLLOW THE GUIDELINES (there not rocket science)
  • SEND YOUR BEST COPY 


Include with your work in your email NOT in your manuscript a brief 300 word or less bio and you may mention your other titles or website and or both (please do not exceed more than 5 titles or links). Include a pic of yourself if you like.

NOTE: Bios do not appear in the magazine or your picture. If we publish content that is from an existing book such as an excerpt, we will publish the Front Cover of your book or use it for Book Reviews/Author Interviews. Bios and Author Pics (not book pics) will be published on the Hard-Boiled Books website. If we choose to interview or book review you for the Magazine will use author pic, book pic, and bio info in aiding in the Magazine Interview.

Nuts and Bolts: Now because we are a small press and wear a lot of hats, we ask that all MANUSCIPTS meet the following specs to be considered for publication:

  1. 12 pt type NEW TIMES ROMAN 
  2. INDENT first line (word) “.2” 
  3. SINGLE SPACE 
  4. 0 line spacing after Paragraphs 
  5. JUSTIFIED PARAGRAPH ALIGNMENT – do not align to the left. 
  6. At the END of your story. Please type THE END. Typed as The End. NO CAPS with a period. 
  7. Do not include PICS or GRAPHICS embedded in your text. 
  8. DO NOT PAGE NUMBER 
  9. NO HEADERS OR FOOTERS 
  10. SAVE AS .DOC or .DOCX 
  11. DO NOT OVER USE CAPS! OR ITALICS 
  12. FIRST PAGE: Starting at the top of the page (left margin) Type YOUR NAME, PEN NAME if used, MAILING ADDRESS, EMAIL ADDRESS, PHONE NUMBER if you like, and WORD COUNT. Keep this information in one BLOCK PARAGRAPH. Aligned to the LEFT. Go down 5 carriage returns and start your story with the TITLE and BY LINE if using your pen name USE IT. Double space after title and byline and input your body content. 
  13. PROOF READ 
  14. SEND YOUR BEST COPY. Don’t stress if you realized later you made a typo or some minor, we will edit your work if accepted, but fill free to email us an updated copy or we may request an updated copy before continuing further in the publication process. 
  15. DO NOT PESTER US if we accepted your piece. WE WILL CONTACT YOU. 
  16. Allow 3-4 weeks for us to read your story and get back with you. We may take longer time if the work is a longer piece. 


Now to highlight further what we are looking for, we mentioned the type of stories we want to see now here is some further details. Flash fiction is welcome Short Stories up to 5k. Stories of this length or shorter we can print in 1 issue. We will consider NOVELETTES and NOVELLAS. If accepted these pieces will be broken up into parts usually 3-4 chapters per issue to the story is completely published. Thus a longer piece could span 3-4 or maybe longer issues. We will shy away from longer novellas at this time and do not want to exceed 5 issues to complete a printed story. So basically don’t go over 18,000 words, and make novellas exceptional if you want to see it in print with the magazine. Do to space at this time we can only print 1 novella or long novelette (in parts) per issue and still maintain space for individual short stories. If our reader and subscriber increases we can add more pages to the magazine thus more content. HOWEVER, we would be EXCITED to hear proposals or see CHARACTER SERIES from authors that fall within a flash range 1000-1500 words or short stories up to 3,000 words focused on a CHARACTER that can hold the attention of readers monthly.

We would also consider and love to see work from GRAPHIC ARTISTS and ILLUSTRATORS that would like to do cover art or possibly illustrations for a story, or even run a short comic strip like the old Dick Tracey comic strips.

The NITTY GRITTY 
Payment: At this time we do not offer payment beyond RECOGNITION and contributor copies. We offer electronic copies PDF, KINDLE to all contributing authors. To Contributing authors in the UNITED STATES we do supply you with a PRINT COPY of the magazine mailed to your door for the issue that your work appears in. Our first issue will be published this October, and we have content for the Next 2 months after that, possibly 3. Content that can shifted around for New authors to appear or to appear in issues after # 3. If we start getting Subscribers HBP will begin paying its contributing authors. Our GOAL is to begin paying writers by issue # 13. There are few Magazines of this genre or even Mystery that pay at this time, and even a well established mystery magazine that still doesn’t pay its writers. The goal of HBP is not only build a pulp magazine that people will love, but create a paying market for hard-boiled pulp writers and firmly establish ourselves in the publishing industry

BE COME A HARD-BOILED AUTHOR TODAY!
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