You may have heard about Stephen King's upcoming book The Colorado Kid, to be published later this year by fledgling paperback crime house Hard Case Crime. Undoubtedly, this is going to signal a resurgence in the popularity of hard crime and pulp fiction. If you have a hankering to write about the goings on in the shady underbelly of the city, I asked Sarah Weinman, a writer and editor who reviews crime fiction for the Baltimore Sun and blogs about the genre at Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind for some tips and she was quite generous with her advice.

NOVELS
The bad news is that big name publisher consolidation has reduced the number of opportunities for noir writers to break in with them. But while they're after the next big-ticket high concept thriller or grisly forensic mystery, a number of upstart small presses have sprung up in recent years to fill the gap. Don't expect huge advances or instant success, but these are publishers that care, and who have the necessary attitude.

Hard Case Crime is the brainchild of Charles Ardai and Max Phillips, the former co-founders of Juno who harbored a deep and abiding love of pulp fiction from the 40s, 50s and 60s. The result is a new paperback line of original novels and reissues with gorgeous covers and lean, straightforward prose. Though Ardai and Phillips are quickly filling up their second season slots, you can still query them at editor@hardcasecrime.com with your pulp ideas.

Tom Fassbender and Jim Pascoe are seasoned veterans of the comic book world, but in 1998 decided they would indulge in one of their passions, and founded UglyTown Press out of their home base in Southern California. They quickly built up a reputation for quality crime fiction of the dark variety and for the overall look of their hardbacks - beautifully produced, fantastic covers, and of course, strong writing. After a brief hiatus, Uglytown will be publishing eight new titles in 2005 - including several in its new children's book division. Pulp fiction isn't just for adults...

Benjamin LeRoy was once named one of the country's top businessmen under the age of 40. He uses the acumen to spearhead Madison, WI-based Bleak House Books, a house growing in reputation and in backlist. They are currently seeking mystery/suspense and dark literary fiction titles. More information on how to query them directly is available here.

Brooklyn-based Akashic Books is another small press committed to showcasing underrated writers, whether on the crime or the urban literary side. They received notable attention last summer for the Brooklyn Noir anthology, which has spawned an entire series of regional-based noir collections. Most of them are closed submissions, but there's always a chance that if you can network with a particular editor, you might hit paydirt. On the novel side, unfortunately, they aren't accepting submissions at this time.

PointBlank Press, an imprint of Wildside Press, has sprung up over the last year or so with a wide variety of noir titles, whether originals (like Allan Guthrie's acclaimed Two-Way Split) or reissues, with a tinge of non-fiction. At the moment, though, they are also closed to submissions, but for cutting-edge pulp, this new house is a good bet.

Finally, for those located on the other side of the pond (or who think they might have better luck elsewhere) look at Serpent's Tail who aren't solely devoted to crime fiction but have a healthy backlist of titles, and No Exit Press who are mostly a crime fiction outpost.

SHORT STORIES
The market for pulp short stories has been cut back extensively, and if you want to start at the top, the two places to go are Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, both accessible here. Though they share office space, they have separate editors and guidelines and don't like you to submit to both simultaneously. They pay about 8 cents a word, but prefer if you keep profanity out of it. Which isn't to say they don't like noir writers, as someone like Ken Bruen, whose voice is so distinctive, cracked EQMM in 2004. Be warned: wait times can go as high as four months, but if you haven't heard from them in a reasonably timely fashion, they do respond to email queries after the fact.

Other print outlets (with varying degrees of pay) include Crimewave and Bullet, which are both based in the UK, and Crime Spree out of Milwaukee.

Though the print markets are few, there are a number of notable online journals that, while they pay zero to minimal, are known for their high quality submissions and rigorous editing process. For those wanting PI (private investigator) fiction, you can't beat Thrilling Detective headed up by Kevin Burton Smith and fiction editor Gerald So. Russel McLean takes care of Crime Scene Scotland, an e-zine that's very, very noir-bent. On the more generalist front (in that they take any story, be it hardboiled, pulp, noir or softer stuff) there's Shred of Evidence, run by Megan Powell, Hardluck Stories which has the unique calling card of having special guest editors for each issue, and SHOTS UK, whose fiction is edited by yours truly.

Pulp fiction is a trend whose time may well be coming once again, and if you're inclined to write it, then you're in luck, thanks to the devotion of passionate small presses, print journals and e-zines.

So you want to write pulp fiction? There's no better time to do so.