The day has finally arrived!

Denene and I are very excited to announce the launch of New Arc Books, a new imprint at Level Best Books, founded in 2020.

How and Why

Since 2006, I’ve spent most of my waking hours helping writers, and others, learn solid, factual information about law enforcement, firefighting, EMS, and forensics. It’s my mission and I enjoy it.

This all started nearly 15 years ago when I ran across an ad promoting a creative writing class to take place in Los Gatos, California. I immediately signed up and drove up into the Santa Cruz Mountains for the classes, and I loved it. The instructor, Becky Levine, a wonderful writing teacher, by the way, soon invited me to speak to her small critique group in San Jose, California. My brief presentation was to be, of course, about police procedure and crime scene investigation.

Becky actually triggered an avalanche because one of the critique group members was the director of the East of Eden Writers Conference in Salinas, Ca., and she invited me to present a night owl presentation at their next event.

The East of Eden conference, by the way, was where I first met Jeffery Deaver and Rhys Bowen. E of A is also where  I met Lee Goldberg, and enjoyed chatting during breakfast with actress and writer Adrienne Barbeau (Escape From New York, Swamp Thing, The Fog), and her sister.

From there I wound up presenting 12-16 workshops annually at major writers conferences all across the country. And in the beginning, it was Becky Levine, my beta reader and editor, who urged me to write a book. In the meantime, during one of those many events, I met Jane Friedman who, at the time, was an acquisitions editor for Writer’s Digest Books. In a span of approximately 10 minutes Jane and I agreed that I had a book to write and that WD should publish it. Police Procedure and Investigation was published in the fall of 2007.

Next came this blog that started out as a compliment to the book. As many of you know, it’s become much more.

In 2008, the writing world saw the birth of the Writers’ Police Academy, an exciting hands-on event that provides detailed, cutting-edge instruction never before available to writers. Former ATF agent Rick McMahon and I first discussed the idea of such an event in a hotel lobby after a day of presenting workshops at a Sisters in Crime conference.

If you’ve never been to the Writers’ Police Academy or MurderCon you should attend this year. Don’t wait. You owe it to yourself and to your readers.

Denene and I spend most days of each year planning and coordinating the Writers’ Police Academy. It definitely consumes much of our lives. It’s a full-time job and then some. Even today, while writing this article I’ve had cut away several times to respond to messages about MurderCon.

Full Circle

We enjoy the WPA, sure, but after a dozen years of providing quality programs we felt there was something more that needed to happen to complete the circle. Then it hit us like a ton of bricks. We should publish the type of books that started it all. So right away we approached our good friends at Level Best Books with the idea and together we formed a partnership.

Today we welcome you to New Arc Books and hope to hear from you soon.

We are seeking wonderfully fresh voices and stories that beg to be told by someone with a passion for telling them. Our dragnet is also out for nonfiction that reads like a top-shelf novel. We want to open your books and feel and see the settings pour from the pages. We want to hear your characters speaking to us, and to sense their emotions as they encounter and overcome each of the hurdles that stand between them and the final chapter. What we don’t want is something as overwritten as this paragraph.

Submission Information for New Arc Books

We are actively seeking submissions, from agents or authors, of novels between 70,000 and 100,000 words. Again, we are also seeking quality works of nonfiction.

We will not consider manuscripts that are currently on submission to another publisher, or previously published manuscripts.

Fiction

Mystery, Crime Fiction, Police Procedural, Literary Fiction, Romantic Suspense, Fantasy, Science Fiction

Works of fiction should be complete and have undergone extensive editing and revisions.

Submit query letter, synopsis (maximum three paragraphs) and Chapter One.

Nonfiction 

Police Procedure, Forensics, Narrative Nonfiction

Submit a proposal including the author’s biography (credentials–why you are the person to write this book, sample of prior work, presentations at seminars or conferences, media and social media presence), book synopsis, detailed table of contents, two sample chapters, estimated length of book, competitive title analysis, similar books on market and what distinguishes yours from others, outline of marketing plan and target audience.

Not considering at this time

Children’s or middle grade

Novellas or short story collections

Manuscripts containing erotica, extreme violence, cyberpunk or dystopia

True Crime

Submission Guidelines

• Place the book title and your contact information in the body of the email
• Attach documents in Word or PDF format
• Times New Roman, 12 point
• Double-spaced
• One-inch margins
• Format: author’s last name, book title and page number in the footer

Electronic submissions only. Email to NewArcBooks@gmail.com. Include the novel genre and the word SUBMISSION in the subject line.