About Us
Founded in 2003, Level Best Books is the publisher of crime fiction novels and short story anthologies. Well-regarded by readers and reviewers, stories published by Level Best have won the Agatha, Anthony, Macavity, Derringer, and Robert L. Fish Award for Best First Short Story presented at the Edgar® banquet. Level Best short stories have also been recognized as Best and Distinguished Mystery Stories by the editors of the Best American Mystery Stories series.
Level Best Books is a traditional, royalty-paying publisher with world-wide distribution and in-house marketing support. Headquartered outside of Washington, DC in the historic city of Frederick, Maryland, Level Best also has offices in Boston, Massachusetts and London, England.
Level Best Books are distributed worldwide to retailers via Ingram. Our books are discounted and fully returnable through our distributor.
Our books are available for purchase at most online retailers as well as independent and chain bookstores.
Our Imprints
Level Best Books is dedicated to publishing high-quality crime fiction, showcasing both emerging and established authors, and bringing their stories to a broad audience of readers. It strives to champion unique voices, compelling plots, and authentic characters, ensuring every book it published delivers the intrigue, suspense, and quality mystery-lovers deserve.
Level Best Books is a proud member of Mystery Writers of America.
Founded in 2019, Historia publishes mysteries, thrillers, and crime fiction novels that take place prior to the last 40 years. Level Best editors are passionate about historical fiction. It is the mission of Historia mission to highlight historical mysteries to the widest possible audience.
LBB is a proud member of the Historical Novel Society.
Level Best Books is passionate about promoting literacy and publishing authors focused on fiction for younger readers. Level Elevate was created to highlight authors writing quality fiction for middle grade through young adult audiences.
Level Best Books got its start publishing anthologies, most notably The Best New England Crime Stories. Because of that, our mission is to continue publishing the very best crime fiction anthologies featuring a wide variety of themes and diverse array of authors.
Level Best Books is passionate about all things crime related, from fiction to well researched and presented volumes of true crime. Our Level Tru imprint is the banner under which our non-fiction crime stories are released.
Level Best Books is passionate about all things food related, from culinary mysteries to cookbooks we feel bring something new to the table. Level Zest was founded to publish the very best culinary books and stories.
Level Best Productions
Level Best Productions is the content creation extension of Level Best Books. LBP is the producer of media and content in the form of podcasts, audiobooks, streaming, digital content, online experiences, television, and film.