Cynthia Sterling Market News

First up, a couple more Spotlights for the Romance Writers of America national convention in Dallas:


The Spotlight on Samhain Publishing http://www.samhainpublishing.com was presented by Executive Editor Angela James and Publisher Chris Brashear Samhain Publishing has been in business for a little over a year. They publish all genres of fiction and romance, primarily as ebooks. Many titles are also released in trade paper. Printed books are distributed by Ingram. Samhain also is partnering with Kensington books to create a line of Samhain titles published by Kensington.

Samhain publishes stories 12,000 words and up. Complete novels should be 60,000 words or more. They are interested in all genres of fiction. Right now they would especially like to expand their interracial, fantasy and inspirational romance offerings. Paranormal and erotic romance continue to do well for them. In paranormal, readers seem to be looking for ‘different’ paranormal -- shape-shifters, angels, demons, etc. In erotica, multiple partners and male-male stories have been popular. Samhain pays a royalty of 40% of the cover price for ebooks. Manuscripts should be submitted electronically. Follow the directions on the website.

In addition to regular submissions, Samhain is currently seeking material for two upcoming anthologies: The Red Hot Summer Romance anthology will feature four erotic romance stories. Deadline to submit is January 10, 2008. The Psychic Powers Anthology will feature four stories of any genre that feature psychic powers. The deadline for those submissions is January 13, 2008. Stories for both these anthologies should be 20,000 - 30,000 words. All the submission information is on the website.

Samhain does some re-releases of books that were previously published by other electronic publishers, but they require that the author publish original material with Samhain first.


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The Spotlight on Loose Id Books (http://www.loose-id.com) was presented by Chief Financial Officer Doreen DeSalvo, Chief Marketing and Technology Officer Allie McKnight and Editor-in-Chief Treva Harte. Loose Id was founded in February 2004 with its first books released in July of that year. They are primarily an e-book publisher, with select titles released in trade paperback format. They pay a 35% royalty on gross sales.

Loose Id publishes erotic romance and erotica - heterosexual, homosexual and polyamorous. They prefer cross-genre romance — romantic suspense, multi-cultural, and paranormal elements. All stories must be erotic. They love humor in stories. Stories should be 20,000 words and longer. They will consider previously published stories if the author has retained all rights, and if the author agrees to write an original work for Loose Id as well. Complete guidelines are available on the website.

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Cindi Myers
Marriage On Her Mind, Harlequin American, Oct. 2007
Wild Child, Harlequin Blaze, Nov. 2007
A Perfect Marriage? #7 in Mediterranean Nights miniseries
www.CindiMyers.com www.MySpace.com/CindiMyers