Before scrolling down to our list of places to submit professional crossword puzzles, take a look at our guide, “How to Make a Crossword Puzzle”. There you can learn all about size specifications, standard practices, and tips for construction. Then, put these skills to the test with our crossword puzzle maker. We recommend creating an account first and selecting a newspaper-style puzzle from the “My Puzzles” page, as it contains features for writing professional crossword puzzles not available in the standard puzzle maker.

Once you’ve made a puzzle you’d like to submit, use this list of places to submit professional crossword puzzles to get yours published.

List of Places to Submit Professional Crossword Puzzles

Submission guidelines for crossword puzzles change constantly for various publications. The chart below lists the basic guidelines for each submission. Visit the linked websites for further guidelines and contact information.

Submission	Size and Maximum Word Count	Theme Desired	Payment
The New York Times	78 words for 15×15 72 for themeless 140 for 21×21	Yes, but themeless accepted	$300 for 15×15 $1,000 for 21×21
The Wall Street Journal	78 words for 15×15 140 for 21×21	Yes	$200 for 15×15 $500 for 21×21
The Chronicle of Higher Education	78 words for 15×15 81 for 15×16	Yes	$150
Crosswords Club	144 words for 21×21	Yes	$300
The Magpie Crossword Magazine	N/A	Yes	£90
Puzzle Junction	15×15 or 21×21	Yes, but themeless accepted	$25 for 15×15 $50 for 21×21
Puzzle Society Crossword	N/A	Themed and themeless accepted	$110 for 15×15
1 Across Crossword Magazine	N/A	Yes	N/A
Games Magazine	78 words for 15×15 98 for 17×17 140 for 21×21	Yes	$50 for 15×15 $100 for 17×17 $200 for 21×21
3D Crossword	Three 9×9 puzzles	Yes	$175
LA Times	78 words for 15×15 72 for themeless 144 for 21×21	Yes, but themeless accepted	$85 for 15×15 $250 for 21×21
The Orange County Register	78 words for 15×15	Yes	N/A
Simon & Schuster	76 words for 15×15 98 for 17×17 126 for 19×19 142 for 21×21	Yes, but themeless accepted	$75 for 15×15 $110 for 17×17 $150 for 19×19 $200 for 21×21
Alberich Crosswords	N/A	Yes, but themeless accepted	N/A
The American Values Club	N/A	Yes, but themeless accepted	N/A
Listener Crossword	N/A	Yes	N/A

Other Crossword Puzzle Publications

The list below consists of other publications that publish crossword puzzles. Their submission guidelines are unknown. Some may not accept freelance submissions. Their contact information is provided where available.

PAPP Puzzles

Kappa Puzzles

Penny Publications

Telegraph

Penguin Random House

Sterling Publishing

Clarity Media

Additionally, if there is a publication you would like listed here or that needs updating, please email [email protected]. If you’d like to know more about people working as professional crossword puzzle writers, visit our related article.

This page was last updated on July 12th, 2018.