Crime is a series business. The economics of the genre live in read-through — the reader who finishes book one and buys book two the same evening — which means a crime launch is rarely about a single book. It is about a catalogue, even when the catalogue is only one title so far.
This changes the advice we give. The back matter of every book is built to carry the reader forward. Pricing on book one is set to bring readers into the series, not to maximise its own earnings. Advertising points where the data says the series earns, which is often not the newest title. Frontlist sells backlist; a new release is the best advertisement the older books will ever get, and we plan launches around that.
Positioning matters here as much as in any genre we work in, because “crime” is not one shelf. The procedural reader, the psychological-suspense reader, and the noir reader want different books, browse different categories, and respond to different covers. A cover that whispers literary suspense on a book that delivers a police procedural costs sales in both directions. Deciding which reader the book is for — honestly, based on what is on the page — comes before metadata, before the cover, and before a single advertisement runs.
The work itself: we read and assess the manuscript first, before fees are discussed. Then proofing, formatting, cover direction, categories and keywords chosen against market data, an advance-reader campaign through NetGalley and BookFunnel, and ad creative tested on small budgets, one variable at a time, before anything scales. For series, we also keep continuity in view — ages, dates, names, the threads closed in book three that must stay closed in book seven.
You keep your rights, your royalties, and your retailer accounts. We charge a fee for the work. We do not promise sales — we promise the work is done properly and measured honestly.
Some of the crime fiction we have published
The full catalogue is on the Titles page. Pricing and how an engagement runs are covered in the FAQ. If you have a book or a series in this genre, we would like to hear about it.
