Cindi Myers Market News's Blog

“The profession of book writing makes horse racing seem like a solid, stable business”  John Steinbeck

The winners of my contest are 

Jenna Bayley-Burke 

Cynthia Boris

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“Be persistent. Editors change; tastes change; editorial markets change. Too many beginning writers give up too easily.”  John Jakes

The big buzz this week is about Harlequin’s new e-publishing venture, Carina Press.  Headed by veteran Malle Valik and edited by Angela James, formerly of Samhain Publishing, the e-book only publisher expects to release its first titles in the Spring of 2010. Though the parent company is Harlequin, Carina Press is structured as a separate entity. They’ll have an e-book store just for Carina Press. Contracts will be similar to other e-publishing contracts: i.e. no advance but higher royalties. Royalties will be 30% of cover price, paid twice a year.

Plans are to publish “a broad range of fiction with an emphasis on romance.”  They will look at almost anything except young adult, poetry or nonfiction, including: romance, women’s fiction, science fiction, fantasy, mystery, adventure,  thrillers, horror, futuristic and erotica. They are interested in complete manuscripts only at this time, but ask that you query first. Send your query to submissions@carinapress.com Fine the complete submission guidelines here.

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Markets for short genre fiction are hard to come by, so it’s always nice to be able to share a new one. The pay is not great, but if you have a short story you’d love to find a home for,  Untied Shoelaces of the Mind might be for you. The editors are looking for genre and literary stories between 100 and 2000 words. Payment is 3 cents a word up to $30.  They’re interested in romance, humor, science fiction and fantasy, thriller, mystery, horror and mixes of the above. Find all the details at the website.

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Thank you to everyone for your great blog comments. Keep them coming. The contest is open until Sunday, November 15. Post a comment on the blog and you could win one of three platinum memberships to AutoCrit.com.

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Her Christmas Wish is available from eHarlequin.com now and will be for sale in stores soon. This is the last of my Crested Butte mini-series for Harlequin American. Think romance in a snowy ski-resort town. Perfect for curling up with in front of the fire or under the Christmas tree — or while you’re digesting that Thanksgiving feast.

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I’m guest blogging today at RomCon. Please stop by and say hello.

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Thank a veteran today. Their service means so much.

“I write when I’m inspired, and I see to it that I’m inspired at nine o’clock every morning.”  Peter De Vries

I’ll start this first week in November with a look at the Spotlight on Bethany House from the Romance Writers of America conference in Washington, DC.

David Long, Sr. Acquisitions Editor for Bethany House presented this spotlight. Bethany House is owned by Baker Publishing Group. Baker is the fourth largest Christian publisher in the world. In 1979, Bethany House published Love Comes Softly by Jeanette Oke, one of the very first inspirational fiction titles. They are pioneers in the field. Bethany House is known for its beautiful covers.

Bethany House today publishes best-selling and award winning authors. They publish in a variety of genres. Historical romance is a big part of their list. Of the approximately 40 books a year they publish, 18-20 are historical romance. They are usually set in the 1800s in the US. They publish prairie romances, as well as other historical time periods. They do a few books set in England in the Regency and Victorian eras.

They also publish historical women’s fiction or multi-generational sagas. There may be a romance element to these stories, but romance is not central to these books.

An emerging genre of successful inspirational fiction is Amish fiction. Every major Christian publisher is publishing these books right now, which have proved very popular with readers. Bethany House publishes Bev Lewis, one of the first successful authors or Amish fiction.

This has led to other books about closed communities, featuring Mennonites, Shakers, the Amana Colonies, etc.

Bethany has not done a lot of romantic suspense, but they are interested in romantic suspense. Long cited romantic suspense as the area at Bethany where there is the greatest opportunity for new authors. They don’t do cozy mystery type stories. The stories should be darker and more intense and he’s very interested in historical romantic suspense. He’s not so interested in typical roles such as FBI agents and law enforcement characters or serial killers.

Bethany has not published straight contemporary romance but they’re interested in contemporary women’s fiction with romance as a subplot. They don’t do Chick Lit or Mom Lit. They do some romantic comedy.

They also do suspense and mystery and some speculative fiction aimed at teens and twenties. (But no vampires.)

They don’t have a hard and fast word count. They’ve published 120,000 word books (though not a lot) and 65,000 word books.

Bethany’s books are carried in Christian Booksellers Association (CBA) stores, in mass merchandisers such as Walmart, Sam’s and Costco as well as the Christian Fiction sections of general interest booksellers such as Barnes and Noble and Borders. Walmart is the number one retailer of Christian fiction in the world.

Bethany House has no formal list of dos and don’t. Content concerns are addressed on a book by book basis. “If you’re looking to get into the inspirational market, that’s something you’re going to have to face and reconcile as a writer,” Long said.

Bethany House is looking for books that has Christian themes woven in in an organic way. They arise from the characters and the issues in the book.

“We are a house that values new writers and new voices.” They continue to buy new authors. They don’t accept unsolicited submissions. They generally prefer agented submissions. However, if you meet an editor at a conference or another Bethany House author recommends you, you can send a query or any requested material.

For more information, visit their website at http://www.bethanyhouse.com

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To celebrate the launch of this blog, Autocrit.com, an editing website for writers, has donated three Platinum memberships for me to give away to three lucky readers of this blog.  You can find out more about Autocrit at http://www.autocrit.com.

Here’s how the contest works. Anyone who posts a comment this week or next week will be eligible to win. The cutoff day for posts is Sunday, November 15. I’ll draw the names and announce the winners sometime after the 15th. Good luck!

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Strangetastic (http://www.strangetastic.com) is a new online publication looking for all kinds of supernatural fiction, from dark fantasy to light horror.  Stories should be between 1000 and 6000 words. Payment is $25. Find all the details at http://www.strangetastic.com/submissions

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Her Christmas Wish is available from eHarlequin.com now. This is the final (for now) installment of my Crested Butte series. You can order the book here: http://www.eharlequin.com/storeitem.html?iid=20572&cid=244  Or wait for it to show up in stores December 12.

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