Three Things We Loved This Week: 5/15/25

BAMS authors on Substack, a self-published fiction prize, and S.A. Cosby in conversation with James Patterson

Whenever a call for submissions goes up, there’s always that little admonishment: “Be sure to read some back issues to get a sense of what we publish.” So what do you do when there are no back issues to read?

To help give a sense of our sensibilities (and just to share stuff we love), we’re publishing quick weekly roundups. If you like what we post, we’ll probably like what you write. So send us your stuff, okay?

Best American Series Editors Announced

LitHub ran an article this week announcing the guest editors for the 2025 Best American series. That includes Best American Mystery & Suspense, which features stories from a few folks you really ought to be following here on Substack, including:

• J. D. O’Brien

• Tom Andes

• Meagan Lucas

• Victor De Anda

• James D.F. Hannah

We’ve all be online long enough I don’t really have to tell you to “like, comment and subscribe,” do I?

Naomi Kanakia on Substack Self-Publishing

For anyone interested in publishing fiction on Substack, Naomi Kanakia has written a long, worthwhile essay about her own experiences self-publishing on this platform, as well as the larger literary movement that has emerged here. It’s a very compelling, very thoughtful read.

But if that weren’t enough, she ends on this note:

I am announcing a novel contest: The Samuel Richardson Award For Best Self-Published Literary Novel. It is named after Samuel Richardson, one of the first novelists in the English language. He was a printer, and he quite literally printed and sold his own books, often financing them by collecting subscriptions, in a sort of 18th century version of Kickstarter.

I’ve already collected a crackerjack crew of six judges for this contest, which will be based on the long-running Self-Published Fantasy Novel contest. Rules will hopefully be forthcoming next week, but the precis will be this:

• The contest entry must be a story collection or a novel that’s over 40,000 words in length, available for purchase (or serialized online) at the time of submission. Please submit the book as an epub document or pdf.

• We will divide up the pile, and each of the six judges will read their pile and select one finalist.

• After the finalists are publicly announced, all the judges will read each finalist and decide upon a winner.

• Reviews of all the finalists will be published in each of our newsletters.

• The deadline for entries will be July 31st, 2025 (at an email address TBD).

Full details at the end of this post.

James Patterson Interviews S.A. Cosby

Two things always stands out when I read or listen to interviews with S.A. Cosby: This is a guy who has worked extremely hard to get where he is, and he’s absolutely in love with his craft. This interview is no different. Really fun conversation with James Patterson.