Marketing your Books

The CWA’s mission is to promote the crime-writing genre, both fiction and non-fiction, and support our membership of professional authors. We offer our members a wide range of promotional outlets, and the help of our Bookseller and Library Champions.

CWA Readers News

Every month more than 12,000 email subscribers, all members of the Criminal Contenders mailing list and our reader-focused organisation the Crime Readers’ Association, receive CWA Readers News. This free newsletter features articles written exclusively by CWA members about their work, careers, and the writing life, as well as event news, special offers, competitions and more. Submit articles of 400-450 words to comms@thecwa.co.uk, along with an author photo and photo of your latest book. And feel free to subscribe yourself right here.

Case Files

CRA and Criminal Contenders subscribers also receive the bi-monthly Case Files, highlighting new book releases by CWA members alongside regular features such as The Daily Grind, in which a featured author gives a whistle-stop tour of their desk, and The Low Down, interviewing one of the showcased authors.

Read past editions of Case Files

The Crime Readers’ Association website

The CRA website is a place for authors to be seen by readers. We publish blog articles by members, list their events and appearances, and showcase their searchable author profiles complete with links for readers to buy their books. The website also has a section with short stories by CWA authors, holds archives of CRA News and Case Files, and regularly showcases members’ work in the Featured Author and Read of the Month sections.

Visit the Crime Readers’ Association

Find an Author/Find a Book

A fabulous resource for our authors where they can feature their bio, tell readers about their books and provide details of their websites, blogs and social media platforms as well as links to each of their books. Every book entry is also given a link enabling readers to buy it quickly. This section is searchable by author name, title, sub-genre, historical period and Dagger winners, and is divided into fiction, non-fiction, true crime, short story and anthology categories.

Find a book now

Event Listings

We regularly list and promote events featuring our members on both the CWA and CRA websites, in our newsletters, and on social media.

Members can access a simple form so that their own public events can be uploaded to the CWA and CRA sites.

Visit the Events section

National Crime Reading Month

Every year in June the CWA organises National Crime Reading Month, a celebration of the genre, uniting events all over the UK and Ireland to spread awareness of crime reading, our members, and their books.

Visit National Crime Reading Month

Social media

Find us on Instagram, X (Twitter), Facebook, and YouTube! Thousands of people follow us for news and announcements, including the latest books by our members, the CWA Daggers, writing competitions, events, festivals, insightful author videos and more.