Cutter’s Final Cut, Issue 6: Crafty Crime - Call for Stories

Theme

I’m looking for cozy mystery short stories where crafting hobbies are involved, such as knitting, sewing, quilting, glass blowing, jewelry making, beer making—any kind of DIY that could be considered a craft. While there can be some romance, the focus should be on the mystery.

The genre is cozy mystery. Your story can be either straight cozy mystery or paranormal cozy mystery. I don’t care if you’re modern or historic.

Your story must be a cozy. That is, no dark stories. No bodies (at least not looked at up close and personal), no blood, no gore, none of that. Not a nailbiter, on the edge of your seat tense either. Light and mostly carefree.

Length

Stories must be between 2000 to 10,000 words. I have to read all the submissions, and much longer than that takes too much effort. Remember, I’m not paying by the word (see below).

Reprints

Sorry, no reprints. Period. Because of the nature of the publication of this anthology, I will not consider any reprints at this time.

Schedule

The dates on this call are tight and unforgiving.

All story submissions must be in my inbox by June 15, 2024.

I will read all stories and send out all acceptance/rejection notes on or before July 10, 2024.

As I accept stories, I will send out invites to the project on PubShare. Writers need to accept these promptly. After the third reminder to accept a PubShare invite I will pull your story and you will not be published in the anthology.

I am doing a cozy mystery genre StoryBundle starting August 14^th and running for four weeks. The Crafty Crime anthology will be exclusive to the StoryBundle for that time, after which it will be published widely. (This is part of why no reprints. I must have all original material for the bundle.)

As part of the StoryBundle, I plan on doing a set of interviews, basically, canned questions for authors to answer. These make easy, pre-made posts for people to like and share. All authors in the anthology have the option of being interviewed as well.

Payment

This is a royalty-share project, done through PubShare, with the house taking 20% off the top and the rest being divided between contributors. This includes all StoryBundle profit as well.

Other

Questions can be addressed to the editor at LRCUTTER at GMAIL.

Send submissions to the same email address, with the subject line of “Crafty Crime Anthology” to get past my spam filters. I will acknowledge every submission I get within 24 hours. IF YOU DO NOT HEAR FROM ME after 24 hours of sending me something, please send a second email with the same subject line but no attachment.

I am looking forward to hearing from you!