Lyrical independence
Kensington Publishing Corp is an independent, family-owned publisher founded in 1974 and based in New
York City. According to its chairman, president and CEO Steven Zacharius, it is the largest independent paperback publisher in the US, with over 300 fiction and non-fiction titles a year. It also publishes many titles in hardcover and ebook formats.
The company is actively seeking unagented submissions for its Lyrical Press imprint, including all romance genres (including historicals with unique settings), compelling psychological suspense fiction, thrillers, women’s fiction, new adult, and cozies. The imprint publishes a lot of UK-set titles, with recent releases including A Deadly Walk in Devon by Nicholas George, and Secrets of a Scottish Isle by Erica Ruth Neubauer.
Lyrical is hoping to find edgy and daring new voices, and will consider novellas and serials as well as full-length novels as long as they tell a satisfying and well-written story.
Submit to one editor only from those listed below, with a cover letter and synopsis. If the project is suitable but they are the wrong editor, they will pass it over to the most appropriate member of the team. Send to only one of these editors per project:
John Scognamiglio: Romance, women’s contemporary fiction, historical fiction, gay fiction, cozy and historical mysteries, dark suspense and thrillers. jscognamiglio@kensingtonbooks.com
Michaela Hamilton: Nonfiction inc. pop culture, narrative nonfiction, true crime, biography, law enforcement, pop science. mhamilton@kensingtonbooks.com
Alicia Condon: Romance, women’s fiction, historical romance with unusual settings, cozy mystery. acondon@kensingtonbooks.com
Wendy McCurdy: Historical fiction and nonfiction, military/ wartime history. Mainstream women’s fiction, beach reads, sagas, commercial literary fiction, romcom. Include the first chapter as an attachment. wmccurdy@kensingtonbooks.com
Esi Sogah: Romance, historical (esp. American historical), contemporary, cozy mysteries, historical mysteries, suspense/ thrillers, upmarket fiction. Non-fiction and narrative non-fiction with a focus on arts and culture. Personal memoir with a focus on identity. esogah@kensingtonbooks.com
James Abbate: Historical fiction, nonfiction, inc. biography, memoir, pop science, music, culture, true crime; dark suspense, psychological suspense, thrillers, with a particular emphasis on WWII fiction and nonfiction. jabbate@kensingtonbooks.com
Norma Perez-Hernandez: Historical and contemporary romance, LGBT romance, traditional and cozy mysteries, suspense, and thrillers). nperez-hernandez@kensingtonbooks.com
Elizabeth May: Romance, mysteries, women’s fiction, historical fiction, and science fiction/fantasy) emay@kensingtonbooks.com
Essential to follow full guidelines at: www.kensingtonbooks. com/pages/lyricalsubmissions/