Cindi Myers Market News

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Spotlight on Avon Romance and more

Posted: 21 Aug 2013 04:47 AM PDT

"Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need
to start somewhere." ~Anne Lamott

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I'm continuing this week with my look at the publisher spotlights from
the Romance Writers of America's national convention in Atlanta in
July. The Spotlight on Avon Books was presented by Jesse Edwards,
Assoc. Publicist; Tessa Woodward, Editor; Amanda Bergeran, Editor;
Shawn Nichols Sr. Director of Marketing and Eric Tsang, Editorial
Director.
Avon publishes historical, contemporary and paranormal romance and has
a long tradition of publishing best-selling romances. "We're always
looking for different ideas in all genres [of romance.] We're looking
for the right story. We're looking for good stories and we hope you'll
keep us in mind."\
Avon began publishing new adult stories this year. Tessa Woodward
talked about Avon's new adult books. "drama filled fun stories that
keep you reading." Heroes and heroines between 18 and 26 or 28.
Amanda talked about Avon Impulse, Avon's digital-first imprint that
launched two years ago. They publish about one book a week,
occasionally more. They publish authors who are new to Avon as well as
established Avon authors. In 2013 they have published 13 debut authors
so far. They can publish as quickly as in 12 weeks, though they can
take more time also. Impulse publishes everything from paranormal,
romantic comedy, erotica, historical — pretty much everything. The
same art, marketing, and editorial team works on Avon and Avon
Impulse.
Sean Nichols in Avon's marketing department talked about Avon's
marketing and publicity team. Campaigns are tailored to each book and
start three to six weeks before the book is released. Examples of the
kinds of things they do are free e-samplers with excerpts from
upcoming titles; QR codes "everywhere"; Facebook; Twitter, as well as
working with retailers to get books primary placement.
Jesse spoke about publicity. Every book has a dedicated publicist and
a dedicated campaign. They also make heavy use of social media,
especially Twitter. They've partnered with Little Black Dress Wines to
sponsor events. They use Street Teams — the Avon Addicts — 25
super-readers who receive a package of swag and books each month.
The final segment of the workshop discussed submitting to Avon. On
Avonromance.com you can post excerpts from your book and get feedback
from other romance fans, writers and some editors, who pop in
occasionally. AvonImpulse.com is the portal to submit your manuscript
to the editorial team. Use the online form to upload your book. They
accept anything from novellas to long novels. They accept agented and
unagented submissions, and will accept simultaneous submissions.

The editors spoke briefly about some of their personal preferences:
Amanda –Contemporary romance with high concept and great new adult.
Romantic suspense, serialized erotica
Tessa — more erotica, whether full-length of serials. "super dark and
dirty heroines and heroes." Historicals — would love a new historical
series with "an amazing concept." She's also looking for contemporary
and new adult.
Erica — "anything but zombies." She does a lot of historicals, also
likes paranormal. She also likes more emotional, gothic historicals
and "dark, angsty stories."
Tip: Follow the editors on Twitter. They sometimes issue calls for
submissions via Twitter

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Entranced Publishing is a Minneapolis-based e-publisher that publishes
young adult, new adult, romance and erotica. They're also interested
in fantasy, science fiction and urban fantasy with strong romantic
elements. Entranced currently released three to four titles each
month. YA and NA titles should be 50,000 to 90,000 words. Other
manuscripts may be from 10,000 to 120,000 words. They pay royalties of
40 percent of net. Find their submission guidelines here.

Entranced is accepting novellas of 25,000 to 35,000 words for an
upcoming anthology of contemporary takes on classic fairy tales. The
editors are interested in stories with strong heroines who rescue
themselves — or maybe even rescue the hero. "Simmering sexual tension"
is a must. The deadline for submissions is November 30, 2013. Find
more details here.

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Authornomy, a project of HarperCollins, is sponsoring a First Line
contest. The winner will receive a package of self-publishing bennies,
including a professional editorial review, a professional book cover,
a book trailer and an e-press kit. Simply enter up to the first three
sentences of your book (no more than 100 words) by September 8. You
must be an Authornomy member to enter, but membership is free. All
genres of fiction are welcome. Get the scoop here.

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