Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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Only one more week until The Woman Who Loved Jesse James Goes on sale!

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Lyrical Press is holding its first annual How Lyrical Is Your Romance? Contest.  First and second place receive $200 and $100 respectively, plus a contract for Lyrical Press to publish your book. Third place receives a critique of their work from one of Lyrical’s editors. Both previously unpublished and published writers may enter the contest. Submit your full manuscript (15,000 to 100,000 words) plus 2 to 3 page synopsis by February 5, 2012. Lyrical accepts manuscripts of any heat level, in any romance subgenre: contemporary, historical, paranormal, romantic suspense, urban fantasy and steampunk romance. Get all the details here.

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January 22, 2012, the editors at Entangled Publishing will be taking online pitches at The Rockville 8 blog. Senior Editor Adrien Luc-Sanders, Associate Editor Libby Murphy, Associate Editor Kerry Vail, Associate Editor Kerri-Leigh Grady, Associate Editor Josh Vogt and Associate Editor Lewis Pollack will be taking pitches for Entangled’s Flirt, Ever After and Indulgence romance lines. You’ll need to post your pitch in the comments section of the website. All the details are here. Be sure to read through this not only for directions on how to pitch, but for details about the lines and what each editor is specifically looking for.

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I got a great review for West With the Wind from Night Owl Reviews. The reviewer said the book was “one of the best historical westerns that I’ve read in a long time.” Read the complete review here.  *******************************

Editors  David Conyers, David Kernot and Jeff Harris are accepting submissions for Extreme Planets, a science fiction anthology that explores alien worlds. Stories should be 4,000 to 10,000 words. From the guidelines: “These could be planets with gravities many times that of the Earth or orbiting neutron stars so their oceans are elongated into egg shapes. Carbon worlds or diamond worlds, iron worlds, or planets with extremely elliptical orbits. Worlds made of exotic elements or with bizarre atmospheres. Planets were time and space behaves strangely or against the laws of physics. Even artificially created worlds can find a home in this anthology, either transformed by bizarre technology or the creation of alien civilisations. Mostly, we hope you dazzle us with worlds we haven’t even thought about.” Deadline for submissions is June 30, 2012. Payment is 3 cents a word plus 3 copies of the anthology. Find all the guidelines here.  And be sure to read D.L. Snell’s interview with the editors to find out more.

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As always, feel free to pass along the information in this blog to others. You may reprint the info in your newsletters, repost and share. All I ask is that you give me credit for the information, and include a link to this blog. Thanks, Cindi

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Black Lyon Publishing is celebrating its fifth anniversary as a publisher of trade paper and digital books. Black Lyon publishes contemporary, historical and paranormal romance. They publish both full-length novels and novellas. Novels are published simultaneously in e-book and paperback; novellas are e-book only. Contemporary romance may be sweet or sensual, but no erotica, 45,000 to 60,000 words. Paranormal romance should have a dark, Gothic feel and should be sensual, but not erotica, 60,000 to 80,000 words. In historical romance, the editors are open to any time period, but are especially interested in stories set in Ancient times. 65,000 to 85,000 words. Novellas, 20,000 to 40,000 words, fall into the same categories as novels, with the same guidelines. For these, the editors are especially interested in holiday themed stories. You can find all the submissions guidelines here.

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Black Rose Writing is an independent publisher that publishes approximately 75 titles a year in paperback and digital format. Editor/Publisher Regan Rothe is interested in all genre fiction: romance, fantasy, horror, suspense, action-adventure, as well as non-fiction. They pay 10 percent royalties on the first 5,000 print copies sold, with escalating royalties after that. Check out their guidelines here.

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Nice review of The Handsomest Prince at the Bibliophilic Book Blog.  Check it out!

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Highland Press Publishing is a small, independent publisher that publishes about 30 titles a year. Though they started out specializing in historical romance, they’ve expanded to publish contemporary romance and romantic suspense titles as well. They publish full-length novels, but they’ve also had success with themed anthologies. The editors are actively seeking novella submissions for a number of upcoming anthologies:

Bling! Kick butt women who know what they want and don’t let anything get in the way of them going after it – whether it be jobs, their lives, or the men they love. 12,000-15,000 words.

Into the Sunset. Everyone loves the Old West, but cowboys abound nowadays, too. Whatever time period your hero lives in, create your magic and let us know how love thrives under the western sky. 12,000-15,000 words.

Danger In His Arms. Suspense and intrigue abound as women fall for men who are not only dangerous to the current situation they find themselves embroiled in, but also to their vulnerable hearts. 12,000-15,000 words.

Regency Royale — Traditional Regency stories, 15,000 – 20,000 words.

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As always, feel free to share the information on this blog with others. You may reprint it in your writing group newsletters, forward it, etc. All I ask is that you give me credit and include a link to the blog. Thank you!  Cindi

]]> http://cindimyersmarketnews.wordpress.com/2012/01/11/small-presses-looking-for-romance-manuscripts-and-more/feed/ 2 Cindi Myers Market News http://cindimyersmarketnews.wordpress.com/2011/12/28/looking-toward-the-new-year/ http://cindimyersmarketnews.wordpress.com/2011/12/28/looking-toward-the-new-year/#comments Wed, 28 Dec 2011 14:39:22 +0000 Cindi Myers Market News http://cindimyersmarketnews.wordpress.com/?p=387 ]]> I haven’t had much market news to share during the holidays. Things should pick up after the first of the year. For now, I have a few tidbits to pass on, and I wanted to thank all of you for your support in the past year. I look forward to sharing much more with you in the coming year. May 2012 be a wonderful writing year for us all.

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Narrative is an online literary magazine “dedicated to storytelling in the digital age.” Narrative publishes short stories between 500 and 15,000 words, as well as one-act plays, novellas and novel excerpts. They pay $150 for a Story of the Week, with $400 each for the annual Top Five Stories of the Week, $150 to $350 for 500 to 2,000 word manuscripts and $350 to $1,000 for 2,000 to 15,000 word manuscripts. In addition, they have an annual $4,000 prize for new and emerging writers. They do charge a $20 reading fee. This fee is waived during open reading periods,which are posted on their website. The next Open Reading period is the first two weeks of April. Narrative is interested in all types of short stories. See their writer’s guidelines here.

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Editors Maurice Broaddus and Jerry Gordon are looking for submissions for the Dark Faith 2 anthology, to be published by Apex Publishers in 2012. As the title of the story suggests, the stories should be dark, though they require no particular genre. From the guidelines: “Everyone believes in something and we want you to put those beliefs to the test. We’re looking for the story only you could write, something deeply personal and at the same time universal. We’re looking for smart, literate stories that don’t proselytize or stereotype. Stories that make you think, that comment on the human condition and the social order. Stories that are rich in their use of language.” Payment is five cents a word, to 4,000 words. Check out the guidelines here. Then head over to D.L. Snell’s Market Scoops to read his interview with the editors.

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Did you get a Kindle or a Nook for Christmas? Looking for some good books to load onto your new reader? Check out my ebooks at Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com or MusaPublishing.com. And if you’d like a free book for your reader, my novella, The Christmas Quilt, is still available for free download here.

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As always, feel free to share the information in this blog. All I ask is that you give me credit and provide a link to the blog. Happy New Year! Cindi Myers

In the Snake magazine pays $50 for short stories, up to 7500 words. The editors are interested in both literary fiction and speculative fiction. Find their guidelines here. Through January 16, they’re also accepting entries for their Winter 2011-2012 Elephant Prize for stories under 7,500 words. There’s a $10 entry fee for the contest, but first prize is $500.

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The deadline for the Spring 2012 Glimpse Correspondents Program has been extended to December 20th. The Glimpse Correspondents Program is an opportunity for writers and photographers who will be living abroad in 2012 to have their work published and recognized in nationally renowned publications. Correspondents receive critical feedback on their writing and photography and develop a portfolio of highly accomplished work. Glimpse Correspondents receive a $600 stipend. Previous correspondents have gone on to develop their stories into books, become professional journalists, enter MFA programs, and graduate from some of the country’s top universities. Find all the details here.

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Noble Romance is the rare epublisher that offers an advance agaisnt royalties. Noble offers advances of up to $1,000 against royalties. Noble publishes everything from smoking hot erotica to sweet romance, in lengths from short stories (3,000 to 10,000 words), novellas ( 10,000 to 29,999 words) and novels (30,000 words and up.) Stories should focus on romance and have Happily-Ever-After or Happy-For-Now endings.  They also publish straight erotica. A couple of their special lines include Sweetheart Romance, which contains little or no sexual content, and Foreign Affairs — all kinds of romances set in foreign locales. Find out all the details here.

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As always, feel free to share the information in this newsletter, reprint it, forward it, etc. All I ask is that you give me credit and include a link to this blog. Thank!  Cindi

I just got the final cover for The Woman Who Loved Jesse James and I’m pretty excited about it. Here’s the back cover blurb:

“I never meant to fall in love with Jesse James, but I might as well have tried to stop a tornado or a prairie fire. The summer that sealed our fate, when we saw each other with new eyes and our love began to grow, Jesse was all heat and light, and I was tinder waiting for a match.”

Zee Mimms was just nineteen in 1864—the daughter of a stern Methodist minister in Missouri—when she fell in love with the handsome, dashing, and already notorious Jesse. He was barely more than a teenager himself, yet had ridden with William Quantrill’s raiders during the Civil War.

“You’ll marry a handsome young man,” a palm reader had told her. “A man who will make you the envy of many. But . . . there will be hard times.”

Zee and Jesse’s marriage proved the palmist right. Jesse was a dangerous puzzle: a loving husband and father who kept his “work” separate from his family, though Zee heard the lurid rumors of his career as a bank robber and worse. Still, she never gave up on him.

And he earned her love, time and again.

The book will be available in late January/early February in trade paper and ebook. Watch for it!

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As a special Christmas gift, Musa Publishing is giving away a number of free reads until Friday, December 9.  You can snag my free historical novella, The Christmas Quilt here. Look around the Musa site for other free stories and bonus deals. For instance, if your purchase all three books in my Titled Texans trilogy, you get my historical romantic comedy, Great Caesar’s Ghost, for free.  You can also purchase gift certificates — great if you know someone who’s getting an e-reader for Christmas.

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Move Books is a new middle grade publisher, Founded by Eileen Robinson, former executive editor at Scholastic’s Children’s Press. Move editors are eager to see stories that will appeal to 8 to 12-year old boys. They will accept manuscripts from both agented and unagented authors. The first titles in the line will be published in Fall 2012. Please mail a query, plus synopsis and the first 25 pages of your completed novel to:
Move Books
P.O. Box 183
Beacon Falls, CT 06403

Find all the publishing details Here.
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The Book Wish Foundation is holding an essay contest in conjunction with the release of a book of stories by prominent young adult authors that benefits refugess from Darfur. The contest is free to enter, but you must write an essay about one of the stories in the book, What You Wish For.  The prize is a critique by a literary agent, or by one of the authors. For details go here.

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And speaking of essays, Driscoll’s Berries is holding a Celebrate the Sweeter Moments contest. Write about “a special occasion when berries made the moment sweet” and you could win a $1,600 Viking cookware set or $100 worth of berries. Get the details here.

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Do you love geeks? Entangled Publishing is looking for stories featuring geeks for a 2012 anthology. The stories should be 20,000 to 40,000 words and contain strong romantic elements, but may be any sub-genre of romance, including science fiction or fantasy romance.  A geek must be the primary character, whether professor or starship engineer. Find the submissions guidelines here.

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As always, feel free to share the information in this blog, reprint it and pass it on. I only ask that you give me credit for the information included here, and include a link to the blog. Thank you. Cindi

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Attica Books Ltd. is a new digital first (Ebook) publisher that is looking for new authors. They set me the following Call for Submissions to share with my readers:

Dumped by your publisher? Looking for a home for your backlist? Or just not tempted by the Big Six’s one-sided contracts?

Attica Books is an independent ebook-first publisher founded by industry professionals who’ve both worked in the trade and published with several of the Big Six. We know how important proper editing, proof-reading and format checking are, and what a difference it can make to have your book in the hands of a publishing house which properly supports it. We’ve also, as authors, experienced orphaned books, constant changes of editor, miserable royalties and too many other tricks. We aim to offer you the first part without the second.

 Our trial phase is done and we’re looking in the first instance for submissions from previously published authors for lists in mystery, fantasy, and wit & whimsy – think for that last anything from Jane Austen to Terry Pratchett. If you’ve got underappreciated backlist in these genres, we’d like to see that too. Full details, and submission guidelines, on our website

Our royalties are 35% of net receipts to 5000 copies and 50% thereafter, paid quarterly, and based entirely on what we receive from retailers. No returns, no joint accounting: what comes in we split with authors. We want to make money from your books, yes, but we want *you* to make money from them, too.

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The wonderful Deni Dietz also has news to share this week:

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As a special Christmas gift, Musa Publishing is giving away a number of free reads for the next couple of weeks. You can snag my free historical novella, The Christmas Quilt here. Look around the Musa site for other free stories and bonus deals. For instance, if your purchase all three books in my Titled Texans trilogy, you get my historical romantic comedy, Great Caesar’s Ghost, for free.

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Elise Howard, the former senior vice president and associate publisher for HarperCollins Children’s Books has been picked to head up Algonquin Books’ new YA ad middle grade fiction  line.  The new line, as yet unnamed, will launch late 2012, with as many as six titles. Algonquin currently publishes about 20 to 25 adult titles annually. Howard said that, at least initially, the focus will be more on YA, but that depends on the manuscripts she sees. She would love to find “a great memoir.”

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As always, feel free to copy this link and pass it along to others. You may reprint information from this newsletter — all I ask is that you give me credit and include a link to this blog. Thank you! Cindi Myers

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Fender Stitch is an online magazine interested in all genres of short fiction. They pay five cents a word for stories up to 4,000 words, though they prefer stories between 1,500 and 2,500 words.  They also pay $100 for artwork to illustrate their stories. Find all the details here.

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I received a real treat this week. Bell Bridge Books sent some Advance Reading Copies of my upcoming release, The Woman Who Loved Jesse James. Watch for it in late January. 

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I hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving. I have much to be thankful for, including the readers of this blog. Best to you all. Cindi Myers

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Substitution Cipher is a new anthology from Candlemark and Gleam. The editors are looking for all kinds of alternate history stories, from 6,000 to 20,000 words — any genre and any time period or setting. Deadline for submissions is January 15, 2012, and the anthology will be published in July 2012. Payment is $75, with royalties if the anthology sells at least 1,000 copies. Find all the details here.

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Fans of noir fiction and horror will want to check out the Twisted Americana Short Story contest from PJM Publishing. Send in your story of 1,500 or more by January 28, 2012. No entry fee is required.  See the details here.

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Carina Press is looking for holiday-themed science fiction stories for an anthology to be released in 2012. Deadline for submissions in March 15, 2012. This is the only open-call for submissions for Carina for the year. Normally, their anthologies are by invitation only, so this is a good opportunity to catch the eye of Carina editors.  Editor Angela James is looking for 18,000 to 35,000 word stories. The stories may or may not have a romantic element and may incorporate mystery, horror and any other sub-genre that works within the science fiction umbrella. Find the details here.

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My newest sexy romantic comedy is now available. If you enjoyed my Blazes, Flipsides or Temptations, I think you’ll like The Handsomest Prince. (For Kindle, find it here.)

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As always, feel free to pass along information from this blog and reprint it at will. All I ask is that you give me credit and include a link back to the blog. Thank you!

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The self-publishing platform, Lulu, is holding a short story contest. Publish your 600 word story for free on Lulu between November 1 and December 1 and you could win $500, a Barnes and Noble Nook, gift cards and more. Find all the details here.

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I have a new release this Friday, November 11. If you enjoy sexy romantic comedy, check out The Handsomest Prince.  Susan Murphree’s mother always told her she’d have to kiss a log of frogs to find her handsome prince  — until her sexy new neighbor turns out to be real royalty.

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I removed the information about MoonGypsy Press. Thanks to the alert reader who pointed me to news released yesterday that they are closing and returning rights to authors.

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All this week Harlequin is holding online workshops in conjuction with its second So You Think You Can Write competition. From November 11 to December 15 you can submit your completed manuscript to the contest.  First prize is publication with Harlequin. The winner will be announced March 1, 2012. Even if you don’t plan to enter the contest, the online workshops and bulletin boards have lots of great advice about writing for Harlequin from editors and authors with the line. Check it all out at So You Think You Can Write.

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The Editors at Carina Press recently revealed what they’d especially like to see in their submission in-box:

Rhonda Helms: Steampunk, urban fantasy, gladiators, historicals featuring real historical people

Gina Bernal: military heroes and heroines, romantic adventure — especially pirates, shapeshifters

Melissa Johnson: “deep and difficult conflict” and big stories with series potential

Alison Janssen: space opera, steampunk, redemption stories

Denise Nielsen: gothic suspense, dark characters with secrets

Lynne Anderson: cross-genre, multi-cultural, LGBT

Deb Nemeth: high-stakes thrillers, steampunk, Arthurian fantasy

Elizabeth Bass: historical mysteries, westerns, 20th century historicals

Mallory Braus: a zombie hunter romance, psychics, historical mysteries

Check out all the details here.

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As always, feel free to share the information in this blog. All I ask is that you give me credit and include a link to this blog. Thanks! Cindi

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Thomas Nelson Books, a force in Christian publishing for more than 200 years, has been purchased by HarperCollins. HarperCollins alaredy owns Zondervan, another prominent Christian publisher. The sale makes HarperCollins the  largest Christian publisher in the world.

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Glimmer Train publishes a variety of short fiction every month and is very open to submissions from new writers. In addition, the magazine hosts regular contests for fiction writers, with cash prizes. For November, the competition is for previously unpublished authors. The contest will accept short stories up to 12,000 words, though the preferred length is 1,500 to 6,000 words. There is a $15 entry fee for each story, but you could win a substantial cash prize: $1,200 for first place, $500 for second place and $300 for the third place story. Find all the details here.

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The Woman Who Loved Jessie James, my novel based on the love story of Zee and Jesse James, has been moved up on the publishing calendar at Bell Bridge Books. The book will be published in January 2012.

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The 2012 Jim Baen Memorial Writing Contest is accepting entries now through February 1, 2012. Send your short story of no more than 8,000 words, that shows the near future (no more than about 50-60 years out) of manned space exploration. The story should be previously unpublished and each author may submit only one story. No entry fee. “WHAT WE DO WANT TO SEE: Moon bases, Mars colonies, orbital habitats, space elevators, asteroidmining, artificial intelligence, nano-technology, realistic spacecraft, heroics, sacrifice, adventure. WHAT WE DON’T WANT TO SEE: Stories that show technology or space travel as evil or bad, Star Wars type galactic empires, paranormal elements, UFO abductions.” The Grand Prize is publication as a feature story on the Baen Books website and standard payment for a feature story, as well as other prizes. Find all the details here.

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Sunday, November 14, I’ll be participating at the Barnes and Noble Bookfair. From 1-3 I’ll be signing at the Barnes and Noble at the Shoppes at the Meadows, 8374 S. Willow St. Lonetree, CO. This is a benefit for Pikes Peak Writers.

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As always, feel free to pass along information from this newsletter. All I ask is that you give me credit as the source and include a link to this blog. Thank you.  Cindi