Cindi Myers Market News's Blog

I’m back from vacation and have not one, but two brand new books out.  Get ’em while they’re hot!

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Pockets magazine is looking for Christian fiction aimed at children ages 6-12, with the theme of “laughter” for the July 2014 issue. Send your story of 600 to 1000 words that explores this theme. Payment is 10 to 14 cents a word. The deadline for submissions is December 1. For more information, go here. 

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If you write snarky, irreverent humor, The Family Farce is looking for you. This new online publication is looking for funny short stories related to the theme of family — 1,000 to 5,000 words. Payment is approximately 17 cents a word.  Find their submission guidelines here.

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Harlequin is hosting an Editor Pitch Challenge with Editor Ann Leslie Tuttle. If you’re accepted for the challenge you’ll be able to pitch directly to Ms. Tuttle for Harlequin’s contemporary, digital first imprint.  Start by attending the live chat with Ms. Tuttle on November 5th. Submit your 100-word blurb by November 14th.  You’ll be notified by November 18th if you’ve been selected for the challenge, which will take place on November 21st.  Find all the details here. 

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MacMillan Publishing Group is launging Swoon Reads, a YA romance imprint which will publish both digital and print books, based on ratings and reviews from readers.  Manuscripts that receive the most positive ratings will be in the running for a publication contract with a $15,000 advance and an option for the author’s next book.  These should be love stories for readers 16 to 19 or 19-23, with happy endings, set in any time period and any sub-genre of romance. No erotica.  Length: 50,000 to 70,000 words.  Get all the details here. 

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As always, feel free to share the information in this blog with others. Please credit me as the source, and include a link to the blog. Thank you. Cindi Myers

“Writing gives you the illusion of control, and then you realize it’s just an illusion, that people are going to bring their own stuff into it.” David Sedaris

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This week, I’m summarizing the Spotlight onsBelle Books and Bell Bridge Books from the Romance Writers of American conference in Atlanta.

Deb Dixon and Deborah Smith presented this Spotlight. Belle Books and Bell Bridge Books are a publishing house found by authors and are a very author-friendly publisher. They began as a print publisher and have expanded into ebooks. Everything comes out in trade paper and digital editions. Most of their sales today are in ebook. They have done very well, with many best-sellers. They pay 40% ebook royalties. They pay a small advance.

Their titles are available at all major retailers. They produce books in audio, sell to the library market and in the large print and foreign markets. They do extensive marketing – featuring books on Amazon, pricing promotions on Amazon and other e-tailers, sending out print ARCs, NetGalley, etc. They are also active on social media.

They have published debut authors and established authors. They have published side projects for best-selling authors who want to write in different genres, such as Jill Marie Landis’s mystery series and Sharon Sala’s YA books. (They also published my historical novel, The Woman Who Loved Jesse James).

They publish romance, fantasy, YA, cozy mystery, women’s fiction, urban fantasy, historical fiction, romantic suspense, paranormal, inspirational, and literary fiction. They also have published backlist titles that authors have regained the rights to.

After the presentation, they took questions.

They accept both agented and unagented work. They receive about 100 submissions per day. The wait time is from 2 to 6 months, generally, to hear back on submissions.

Though Belle Books started out publishing titles with a Southern emphasis, that is no longer a requirement for their books – they publish all kinds of books in all kinds of settings, from all types of authors.

Find out more about Belle Books and Bell Bridge here.  Submit romance, women’s fiction, cozy mystery, southern fiction to Deborah Smith. Pat Van Wie is the editor for non-cozy mystery, suspense and thriller. Send fantasy, science fiction, horror and young adult manuscripts to Deb Dixon. They want a full manuscript, a query letter and a full, detailed synopsis (12-24 pages).

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Here’s a sneak peak at my February Harlequin Intrigue, Rocky Mountain Revenge:

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Penumbra Magazine is accepting submissions for their 2014 issue Each issue has a theme, listed below.  Submit your short story of up to 3,500 words that explores this theme within any speculative fiction sub-genre: horror, fantasy, weird fiction, etc. Payment is five cents a word. Fine more details here. 

January: Winter Deadline November 1, 2013

February: Egyptian Mythology, December 1, 2013

March: A Night at the Villa Diodati, January 1, 2014

April: Isacc Asimov, February 1, 2014

May: Superheroes, March 1, 2014

June: Isolation, April 1, 2014

July: Hyperspeed, May 1, 2014

August: Pain, June 1, 2014

September: Lewis Carroll, July 1, 2014

October: Paranormal Adventures, August 1, 2014

November: Aliens, September 1, 2014

December: Arthurian Legends, October 1, 2014

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If you’d like to read my novel, The View From Here before the sequel, The Mountain Between Us, comes out at the end of the month, you can grab an ebook copy for only $2.99 (normally $9.99) at the following e-tailers. The View From Here is set in a small town in the Rocky Mountains and follows the adventures of the sometimes quirkly residents. I call it “Northern Exposure comes to the Rocky Mountains.”

Barnes and Noble Nook http://bit.ly/15kn93R

Amazon Kindle http://amzn.to/1cDtAmZ

Sony Ebooks http://bit.ly/16PLZMg

Kensington ebooks http://bit.ly/15TvwG6

All Romance ebooks http://bit.ly/jMFA4

Amazon hasn’t dropped the price yet for the Kindle version, but I’m hoping they will. (If you want a Kindle Version, you might click the “Notify us of a lower price” button at the bottom of the listing for the book to enourage Amazon to price match. )

If you’ve already read The View From Here and want a copy of The Mountain Between Us, I’d appreciate it if you’d pre-order. Pre-orders really help my rankings and increase the chances that there will be more books in the series. Thank you!

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As always, feel free to share the information in this blog with others. Repost, reprint and pass it on. Please give me credit as the source, and include a link to this blog. Thank you. Cindi

“Words, once they are printed, have a life of their own.” Carol Burnett

This week I’m summarizing the Spotlight on Samhain Books from the Romance Writers of America conference in Atlanta.

Publisher Lindsey Faber, Editorial Director Heather Osborn, and Editor Amy Sherwood presented this spotlight. Samhain is a digital first publisher; titles appear in digital format and are released about a year later in print. Anything over 50,000 words goes into print in trade paperback. Shorter works may be grouped together for print titles. They publish romance, horror, and science fiction, fantasy and urban fantasy with strong romantic elements. They started in 2005.

In addition to publishing original material, they publish a line of Retro Romance in which they reprint previously print-published books that are at least 10 years old or older, if the authors have the rights back to the work.

The Spotlight was conducted primarily as a Q&A. Some of the material covered in this section include:

It takes six to eight months from the time the author turns in the manuscript until publication. They release 4 to 6 books a week.

They love series – readers love them, too.

With a new author, they usually contract one book at a time. They don’t offer an advance, so why would you want to contract for six books at once with no advance?

They wouldn’t rule out contracting on proposal, but they prefer a full manuscript so that they can go to work on it right away.

They have sold very well in contemporary romance, particularly contemporary western romance. They’ve done well with paranormal romance in the past, particularly shape-shifters, although that market is tighter now. Paranormal is still selling well, but it’s not growing as rapidly as it was, though it is still very popular. They also sell very well with gay romance – male/male, particularly in digital sales. They are growing in historical and romantic suspense. They are working to develop a larger multi-cultural romance market. “We are still looking for things across all genres.”

There was a long discussion about trends. The gist was that digital publishing has been particularly successful in reaching readers who are fans of genres and niche markets that are not widely available in brick and mortar stores. Authors can make a living in digital publishing with books that appeal to niche markets.

Samhain accepts agents and unagented submissions. Anyone can submit to them, anytime. They prefer a full manuscript and a short synopsis. Fine more information here. 

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If you’d like to read my novel, The View From Here before the sequel, The Mountain Between Us, comes out at the end of the month, you can grab an ebook copy for only $2.99 (normally $9.99) at the following e-tailers. The View From Here is set in a small town in the Rocky Mountains and follows the adventures of the sometimes quirkly residents. I call it “Northern Exposure comes to the Rocky Mountains.”

Barnes and Noble Nook http://bit.ly/15kn93R

Sony Ebooks http://bit.ly/16PLZMg

Kensington ebooks http://bit.ly/15TvwG6

All Romance ebooks http://bit.ly/jMFA4

Amazon hasn’t dropped the price yet for the Kindle version, but I’m hoping they will. (If you want a Kindle Version, you might click the “Notify us of a lower price” button at the bottom of the listing for the book to enourage Amazon to price match. )

If you’ve already read The View From Here and want a copy of The Mountain Between Us, I’d appreciate it if you’d pre-order. Pre-orders really help my rankings and increase the chances that there will be more books in the series. Thank you!

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Alloy Entertainment’s book division — the folks behind the Gossip Girls and Vampire Diaries, to name a few — is launching The Collaberative, to work with authors who have complete young adult, middle grade, chapter books or women’s fiction manuscripts. Warner Brothers will retain the right to produce any projects acquired in film, television and new media. The Collaborative hopes to acquire works from 12 authors a year, and is open to submissions from both agented and unagented authors. If you are not agented, please submit a query with a brief overview of your book, a description of your writing background, and the first five pages of the manuscript to thecollaborative@alloyentertainment.com. Find more details here.

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Entangled Publishing is seeking sexy historical romance short stories for an as-yet-untitled anthology to be issued under their Scandalous imprint. The editors are interested in stories set in hot and romantic stories in any historical setting up through World War II, with explicit sex scenes. Stories should be 15,000 to 20,000 words. The deadline for submissions is December 31, 2013, and the stories will be published in fall 2014. Find all the details here.

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As always, feel free to share the information in this blog with others. Reprint it, repost it and pass it on. All I ask is that you give me credit as the source, and include a link to this blog. Thank you. Cindi

“Write down the thoughts of the moment.  Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable.”  ~Francis Bacon

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This week I’m recapping the Spotlight on Sourcebooks from the RWA National Convention in Atlanta.

Leah Hultenschmidt, editorial manager and Dominic Racca, publisher and CEO, presented this spotlight. Sourcebooks has grown 200 percent over the last five years. They started as a nonfiction publisher in Dominic’s upstairs bedroom, but have expanded into fiction, including romance and young adult. They have been publishing ebooks for 14 years. They also publish in mass market and trade paper.

They have an online romance portal, Discover New Love. For $9.99 a month, subscribers get access to up to six featured selections per month for the one price.

Deb Werksman heads up the romance list at Sourcebooks. She was unable to attend the conference, but is acquiring authors.

Leah also acquires for romance and heads up the young adult imprint at Sourcebooks.

Sourcebook romance authors have been New York Times bestsellers, USA Today bestsellers, and have received many starred PW reviews. Leah and Dominic talked about how they have built new authors into bestsellers.

Sourcebooks also publishes women’s fiction.

Sourcebook publishes a lot of debut authors. They like working with new authors.

Leah is looking for a heroine the reader can relate to, a hero the reader can fall in love with, a world that’s created – whether that’s a historical or contemporary setting or a paranormal world, and a hook that allows them to sell the book. The hook should be one to three sentences that capture the flavor of the reader and differentiates it from other books on the market. The hook also helps them sell the book to retailers. They are also looking for an author who has a career arc. They want to buy more than one book at a time. You should have a plan to build yourself in a sub-genre.

They’re interested in historical and contemporary romance, erotica and romantic suspense. They also publish paranormal, but it’s very hard to break in here. They are interested in a wide variety of historical – Americana, westerns, Regency, etc. She’d love to see a contemporary cowboy story. They love contemporary military romance. She prefers romantic suspense based on a group of guys, ala Suzanne Brockman. They have a partnership with Excite, a UK publisher of erotic romance. They’re publishing these books in digital and trade paperback. Their Young Adult list is growing. They like contemporary romance and strong female protagonist. They’ve done some fantasy elements in YA also. They also like YA thrillers.

Leah is open to manuscripts from about 75,000 to 110,000 words. They accept both agented and unagented submissions and prefer to see the complete manuscript. Submit to Romance@Sourcebooks.com

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Calliope, a history magazine for children ages 9 to 14, is seeking history/adventure stories around the theme of “Birth of Democracy and Citizenship.” Submit your story of up to 800 words. Payment is 20 to 25 cents a word. The deadline for submissions is October 25. Follow their writing guidelines here. 

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Harmony Ink Press has issued a call for submissions of novel-length YA manuscripts that feature a memorable LGBT hero or heroine.  Stories should appeal to readers 14 to 18. They are open to lengths from  15,000 to 90,000 words. Stories under 45,000 words will be published in digital format only, while works over 45,000 words will be issued in both digital and print formats. Harmony Ink pays a $500 to $1000 advance against royalties of 30 to 40 percent.  See their guidelines here.

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Crossed Genres magazine is seeking science fiction and fantasy short stories of 1,000 to 6,000 words on the theme of “Unresolved Sexual Tension”.  The editors are especially interested in hearing from LGBT writers, women writers and writers of color. Payment is 5 cents a word. The deadline for submissions is October 31. See their guidelines here.

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As always, feel free to share the information in this blog with others. All I ask is that you credit me as the source and include a link to the blog. Thank you!  Cindi