Crime Writer's Corner

Writers’ Guidelines for Crime Magazine

We look for well-written, well-researched, well-organized, high-profile crime or criminal-justice stories. Our articles vary in length from 1,500 words to 20,000 words, but we believe the shorter the better, generally speaking. One of our goals is to publish the definitive account of the subjects we write about, so our articles do tend to run long.

Crime Magazine generates only nominal income. Thus we are only able to pay token amounts for the exclusive Internet rights in perpetuity to the articles we do publish, e.g., $25 for reprints and short pieces, $50-$75 for 3,500 word pieces and $100 for longer articles. No kill fees. The writer retains all print rights to the material we publish.

We do take articles on spec, but it is best to query the editor first with your story idea by email: (crimemag (at ) crimemagazine.com). The editor, by the way, actually edits.

The crime categories we cover are listed on the Crime Magazine web site. We do not publish fiction. The best way to get a flavor for the type of writing and research we are looking for is to read some of the articles on the site. First-person writing is accepted as long as it is even-handed. We believe that a compelling presentation of the facts is the best way to get across the point you want to make. We discourage "editorializing" and "sermonizing." Although we are particularly interested in bringing to light injustice and corruption, we shun raw opinion and palpable bias. We do look for articles with a strong point of view, provided they are fair, fact based, documented and make a persuasive argument. Please submit your articles as an attachment to your email, using Microsoft Word formatting.

Please use only a single space after a sentence. Do not indent your paragraphs; instead use a double line to separate them. If you have any other questions about our writers' guidelines, please don't hesitate to ask.

Thanks again for your interest,

Pat O'Connor, editor