In Reference to Murder: Mystery Melange

In Reference to Murder: Mystery Melange: Foreword Reviews announced the winners of its INDIES Book of the Year Awards, celebrating outstanding books published in 2025 by small, ind...

Want To Be A Guest?

 

As we stare in the face of summer when the flaming Sky God tries to kill us all, I thought I would remind you that I welcome guest posts here. If you have read this kind of post before, and have an interest, please read this updated post today as I have added a couple of things.

 

Guests are more than welcome and very much appreciated. Unlike some folks and their places, I don’t have a lot of forms to fill out or hoops to jump through as I have made the process as easy as possible. Most questions you are already answered here so please read the post before reaching out.

 

First and foremost, No AI for anything. Period. 

 

With that out of the way…. Depending on my reviews—Open days are currently Tuesdays and Sundays. Sometimes other says are as well as I don’t read that fast anymore. I usually run excerpts from published or about to be published works on Sundays as excerpts seem to work best on those days.

  

Topic--pretty much anything goes. While my blog is mainly aimed towards items of interest for readers and writers of mystery and crime fiction, I am open to pretty much anything. I do ask that folks avoid the topics of religion and politics unless either or both directly relate to the work being discussed or promoted.

 

Please Note --- I am not going to run anything that advocates big pharma is hiding the cure for cancer. Folks that come up with that stuff deserve a special place in hell.

 

Before contacting me, please have an actual idea in mind. I absolutely do not assign topics. That means I am NOT going to tell you what to write about. This is your opportunity to write what you want to write about. You know your books, your expertise in topics, etc. I do not. Your idea does not have to be set in stone. It does need to have some detail. Have something to say beyond the fact that you have a new book coming out and you want to talk about it in a guest post.  Have at least a couple of things that you know you want to have in your piece and tell me that in your pitch.

 

And, yes, book reviews are very popular here. Several folks regularly contribute book reviews. I would love to have more book reviews from guests.

 

Word Count: Totally up to you. I do not set a maximum or a minimum word count.

 

When your piece is ready, you send it to me by email and include a 100 words or fewer bio. Also send any pics that you think should be included in the piece. While some guest posts are super heavy in pictures, I think it works best to have two or so. While I can and do lift author photos and book covers from Amazon and author websites, it is easier if you just send it from the start as well as any other pics you believe should be included.

 

Exclusivity: The period should be original to my blog. I request that you allow me to be the exclusive home for the piece for 90 days. This allows me to make multiple posts about your guest post on social media and still bring in readers.

 

I have had folks write for me one weekend and, within two weeks, ignore the exclusivity period, and run the exact same piece elsewhere. Rather kills the point of my efforts to bring attention to your post.

 

This is, as always, a nonpaying opportunity. Yes, I absolutely value your work. I also have no income other than SSD (and that is just a few hundred each month) and am supporting myself, my adult son, and this old house on what little I inherited when my Mom passed. The bank account is steadily shrinking and I am doing the best I can to hang in here. Scott has been without work since mid April and that has made things massively worse. Things are going downhill, rapidly, but as long as I can keep this place going, I will.

 

While I have no funds to pay you, I can promise to promote the heck out of your appearance. You will be seen. I can’t promise a certain number of sales, but most guests do see a spike in their sales. Guests who are on the blog on a semi regular basis do far better than one off appearances, but everyone does see an impact.

Questions/ pitches should be sent to me at Kevinrtipple AT Verizon.net

 

I hope you choose to be a part of things here. Looking forward to hearing from you.

  

 

Kevin R. Tipple © 2026 

Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 86 Calls for Submissions in June 2026 - Paying markets

Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 86 Calls for Submissions in June 2026 - Paying mar...: This June there are more than seven dozen calls for submissions. All of these are paying markets, and none charge submission fees. As always...

Mystery Fanfare: Call for Articles: Mysteries set in France: Mystery Readers Journal (42:2)

Mystery Fanfare: Call for Articles: Mysteries set in France: Myster...: Call for Articles: Mystery Readers Journal : Mysteries set in France(42:2); Summer 2026 For our next issue, we are looking for articles, r...

Guesting On The Blog

  

It has been a few months, almost six now, so I thought I would remind you that I welcome guest posts here. If you have read this kind of post before, and have an interest, please read this updated post today as I have added a couple of things.

 

Guests are more than welcome and very much appreciated. Unlike some folks and their places, I don’t have a lot of forms to fill out or hoops to jump through as I have made the process as easy as possible. Most questions you may have been already answered below so please read the post before reaching out.

 

Depending on my reviews—Open days are currently Tuesdays and Sundays. I usually run excerpts from published or about to be published works on Sundays as excerpts seem to work best on those days.

 

No AI for anything. Period.

 

Topic--pretty much anything goes. While my blog is mainly aimed towards items of interest for readers and writers of mystery and crime fiction, I am open to pretty much anything. I do ask that folks avoid the topics of religion and politics unless either or both directly relate to the work being discussed or promoted.

 

Please Note --- I am not going to run anything that advocates big pharma is hiding the cure for cancer. Folks that come up with that stuff deserve a special place in hell.

 

Before contacting me, please have an actual idea in mind. I absolutely do not assign topics. That means I am NOT going to tell you what to write about. This is your opportunity to write what you want to write about. You know your books, your expertise in topics, etc. I do not. Your idea does not have to be set in stone. It does need to have some detail. Have something to say beyond the fact that you have a new book coming out and you want to talk about it in a guest post.  Have at least a couple of things that you know you want to have in your piece and tell me that in your pitch.

 

And, yes, book reviews are very popular here. Several folks regularly contribute book reviews. I would love to have more book reviews from guests.

 

Word Count: Totally up to you. I do not set a maximum or a minimum word count.

 

When your piece is ready, you send it to me by email and include a 100 words or fewer bio. Also send any pics that you think should be included in the piece. While some guest posts are super heavy in pictures, I think it works best to have two or so. While I can and do lift author photos and book covers from Amazon and author websites, it is easier if you just send it from the start as well as any other pics you believe should be included.

 

Exclusivity: The period should be original to my blog. I request that you allow me to be the exclusive home for the piece for 90 days. This allows me to make multiple posts about your guest post on social media and still bring in readers.

 

I have had folks write for me one weekend and, within two weeks, ignore the exclusivity period and run the exact same piece elsewhere. Rather kills the point of my efforts to bring attention to your post.

 

This is, as always, a nonpaying opportunity. Yes, I absolutely value your work. I also have no income other than SSD (and that is just a few hundred each month) and am supporting myself, my adult son, and this old house on what little I inherited when my Mom passed. The bank account is steadily shrinking and I am doing the best I can to hang in here as inflation, my worsening health, and other issues are making it even harder. Things are going downhill, rapidly, but as long as I can keep this place going, I will.

 

While I have no funds to pay you, I can promise to promote the heck out of your appearance. You will be seen. I can’t promise a certain number of sales, but most guests do see a spike in their sales. Guests who are on the blog on a semi regular basis do far better than one off appearances, but everyone does see an impact.

 

Questions/ pitches should be sent to me at Kevinrtipple AT Verizon.net

 

I hope you choose to be a part of things here. Looking forward to hearing from you.

  

 

Kevin R. Tipple © 2026

Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 74 Calls for Submissions in April 2026 - Paying markets

Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 74 Calls for Submissions in April 2026 - Paying ma...: This April there are more than six dozen calls for submissions. All of these are paying markets, and none charge submission fees. As always,...

Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 51 Writing Contests in April 2026 - No entry fees!

Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 51 Writing Contests in April 2026 - No entry fees!: This April there are more than four dozen free writing contests for short fiction, novels, poetry, CNF, nonfiction, and plays. Prizes range ...

Market Call: Novellas

As posted on Twitter…

 

Ruadan Books @RuadanBooks

 

Attention, authors! We open to novella submissions on April 1st.

 

We're looking for dark thrillers, crime noir, and dark speculative fiction—if you've got a complete manuscript between 25k-40k words in one of these genres, we want to hear from you.

 

Submission guidelines here: https://ruadanbooks.com/submission-guidelines/#Novella2026Guidelines

Market: Level Best Books: NOVEL SUBMISSIONS

 Level Best Books has reopened to novel submissions. Details on their new website. 

Submission Problem at Reckon Review

 This was just posted to Twitter....

Kathleen Marple Kalb: To the Letter

 Kathleen Marple Kalb: To the Letter

SleuthSayers: Simsubs: Yes or No?

SleuthSayers: Simsubs: Yes or No?:     NOTE: The topic of this post will probably be of interest only to writers of short stories--I doubt other people would even know what we...

Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 58 Calls for Submissions in February 2026 - Paying Markets

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SleuthSayers: The Waiting Game

SleuthSayers: The Waiting Game:  We happy few who specialize in short stories obsess about the length of time our little masterpieces sit waiting for verdicts by editors. W...

Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 69 Calls for Submissions in December 2025 - Paying Markets

Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 69 Calls for Submissions in December 2025 - Paying...: This December there are more than five dozen calls for submissions. All of these are paying markets, and none charge submission fees. As alw...

Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 69 Calls for Submissions in November 2025 - Paying Markets

Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 69 Calls for Submissions in November 2025 - Paying...: This November there are more than five dozen calls for submissions. All of these are paying markets, and none charge submission fees. As alw...

Guesting On My Blog

It has been a while, so I thought I would remind you that I welcome guest posts here. If you have read this kind of post before, and have an interest, please read this updated post today as I have added a couple of things. 

Guests are more than welcome and very much appreciated. Unlike some folks and their places, I don’t have a lot of forms to fill out or hoops to jump through as I have made the process as easy as possible. Most questions you may have been already answered below so please read the post before reaching out.

Depending on my reviews—Open days are currently Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays. I usually run excerpts from published or about to be published works on Sundays as excerpts seem to work best on those days.

No AI for anything. Period.

Topic--pretty much anything goes. While my blog is mainly aimed towards items of interest for readers and writers of mystery and crime fiction, I am open to pretty much anything. I do ask that folks avoid the topics of religion and politics unless either or both directly relate to the work being discussed or promoted.

Please Note --- I am not going to run anything that advocates big pharma is hiding the cure for cancer. Folks that come up with that stuff deserve a special place in hell.

Before contacting me, please have an actual idea in mind. I absolutely do not assign topics. That means I am NOT going to tell you what to write about. This is your opportunity to write what you want to write about. You know your books, your expertise in topics, etc. I do not. Your idea does not have to be set in stone. It does need to have some detail. Have at least a couple of things that you know you want to have in your piece and tell me that in your pitch.

Word Count: Totally up to you. I do not set a maximum or a minimum word count. 

When your piece is ready, you send it to me by email and include a 100 word or fewer bio. Also send any pics that you think should be included in the piece. While some guest posts are super heavy in pictures, I think it works best to have two or so. While I can and do lift author photos and book covers from Amazon and author websites, it is easier if you just send it from the start as well as any other pics you believe should be included.

Exclusivity: The period should be original to my blog. I request that you allow me to be the exclusive home for the piece for 90 days. This allows me to make multiple posts about your guest post on social media and still bring in readers.

I have had folks write for me one weekend and, within two weeks, ignore the exclusivity period and run the exact same piece elsewhere. Rather kills the point of my efforts to bring attention to your post.

This is, as always, a nonpaying opportunity. Yes, I absolutely value your work. I also have no income other than SSD (and that is just a few hundred each month) and am supporting myself, my adult son, and this old house on what little I inherited when my Mom passed. The bank account is steadily shrinking and I am doing the best I can to hang in here as inflation, my worsening health, and other issues are making it even harder.

At the rate things are going, if I am still alive, I fully expect to be homeless by the summer of 2026. So, this blog won’t matter. In the meantime, I do what I can, as I can.

While I have no funds to pay you, I can promise to promote the heck out of your appearance. You will be seen. I can’t promise a certain number of sales, but most guests do see a spike in their sales. Guests who are on the blog on a semi regular basis do far better than one off appearances, but everyone does see an impact.

Questions/ pitches should be sent to me at Kevinrtipple AT Verizon.net

I hope you choose to be a part of things here. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Kevin R. Tipple © 2025

Kathleen Marple Kalb's Blog: So You Wrote the Book, Now What?: You're the Package

 Kathleen Marple Kalb's Blog: So You Wrote the Book, Now What?: You're the Package

Kathleen Marple Kalb's Blog: So You Wrote the Book, Now What?: Sum it Up

 Kathleen Marple Kalb's Blog: So You Wrote the Book, Now What?: Sum it Up

Kathleen Marple Kalb's Blog: So You Wrote the Book, Now What?: A Great Pitch

 Kathleen Marple Kalb's Blog: So You Wrote the Book, Now What?: A Great Pitch