Samhain Publishing

I had the pleasure of being in New York City for RWA Nationals the week before last. And let me say, I enjoyed myself! It was so great meeting as many Samhain authors as I could, seeing my own authors, and meeting many other authors, aspiring authors, and industry professionals.

Our first Samhain event was a breakfast for Samhain authors in attendence that the wonderful and amazing Marty set up in the Sky Lobby. The food was wonderful and the company was even better. (My Indiana almost came up and I just had to stop myself from typing "even more better". Oh noes!) It was really great to be able to put names with faces.

The next Samhain event was our spotlight, led by Heather Osborn and Lindsey Faber. As always, they did a phenomenal job of answering everyone's questions. Our moderator, Nikki, did a great job of cutting them off, too, when they were so anxious to answer the question before she was able to repeat it for the taping. LOL They went over a lot of really useful information to current and prospective Samhain authors, so I urge you to purchase the audio of it. It's an absolute goldmine. =)

Our third event, and my absolute favorite, was the Samhain Booksigning. It went AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING! I loved seeing people lined up outside and waiting to get inside to get their hands on our books and see our authors. Almost all of our authors ran out of books. Yay! I took a ton of pictures, which I'll be posting as soon as I can get them off my misbehaving phone. I can't wait to share them with everyone!

I've been spending a lot of time reading submissions lately. My authors have been keeping me quite the busy editor. =) So, needless to say, my mind has been ruminating on it this past week.

One thing I love about reading submissions is that feeling of falling in love. That "oh my gosh I can't stop reading this" feeling. I love falling in love with the characters, the setting, the emotions, the plot… I love falling in love with a story and connecting with it and wanting to share it with everyone else. Wanting to see what other people think about it, wanting other people to fall in love with it as much as I did.

I love getting a new manuscript from one of my authors, something that's in a different vein than what they normally do, something that makes me fall in love with their writing all over again for different reasons. I like when my authors take risks, do something unexpected and outside of the box.

It's common knowledge that slush subs have less of an acceptance rate than manuscripts from "our" authors, but at one time "our" authors were slush too. Never forget that. No one starts out a NYT bestseller. I LOVE when I pick up an author out of my slush pile submissions. Especially an untried and unpublished author. That means I get to be the first one to see their talent, to go through the process with them, which is really exciting.

Sure, submissions are a necessary means, but they're exciting too. I love the excitement of opening a manuscript and becoming enthralled by it. I've even been late to social engagements and all sorts of things because I've been so wrapped up in reading a submission that I can't put it down. When that happens, you can better be sure the author is getting a happy email before I leave the house, and I'll be having a few celebratory drinks myself. 

For me, finding an awesome manuscript is a bit like winning something off a scratch off ticket (which, now that I think about, I've never done. LOL). When I open the document, I never know what I'm going to get, but we all love it when we get a winner. =)

Authors love to complain about editors and, let’s face it, there’s a lot to complain about. Who decides whether a publisher’s going to avail themselves of your masterpiece? An editor. If a publisher has the artistic taste and commercial savvy to offer you a contract for your masterpiece, will they publish it as is? Hell no. Who’s going to make you change it? An editor.

Among the definitions of the word edit is “to revise or correct, as a manuscript” and “to expunge; eliminate.” Most authors don’t like being revised or corrected, nor do they like to see any part of their masterpiece expunged or eliminated.

The painful truth, of course, is that editors – bless their fussy, nitpicking, arbitrary, judgmental, cold cold hearts – are a necessary evil. There, I said it.

I firmly believe there is no author, anywhere, who doesn’t need an editor. Jonathan Freaking Franzen has an editor. Loretta Chase has an editor. A very, very, very bestselling author some years ago released a book that garnered a lot of criticism from her millions of readers. They said, “It’s like she didn’t have an editor or something.” She said, “I’m ___________! I’ve sold a gazillion books! I don’t need an editor!” They said, “Um, yeah, actually, you do.” And they were right. (But Gawd, can you imagine being So Big that a Huge Publisher will release your books without an editor? Me neither.)

The fact is, you can’t judge your own stuff objectively. You can’t see a plot hole when you’re standing in the bottom of it. You might not realize that your hero’s motivation, so obvious to you – because, duh, you’re the one who thought of it – is not clear to the reader. What seemed really hot to you when you wrote it seems kind of ….icky to the reader. And the fact that your characters seem to sigh heavily on every other page? Yeah, you need to do something about that.

The reverse is sometimes true as well. The story you’ve worked on for so long that you’ve become sick unto death of it? Your editor reads it and says – “Hey! This is really good!” The tertiary character that you thought should be killed off in the second chapter? Your editor thinks he should be bumped up to the hero’s best friend.

That’s why your editor’s there. To see the flaws you can’t see, and the beauty as well. To help you polish the story a little more, after you’ve polished it for so long that your arms are about to fall off.

My first full length book is entitled Yours Mine and Howls – it’ll be released in February. And even though that’s five months away, it’s not too soon to start thinking about promoting it. It’s only my second book, so I’m nervous – Kiss and Kin has sold very well, and I want Yours Mine and Howls to sell even better. How to publicize it?

I thought – maybe I’ll do a series of free reads on my blog, once a month, and give readers a glimpse of things that happened to the hero before the book opens. It’ll be like five mini-prequels – six, actually, because the first one introduces Cade MacDougall, the hero, and his daughter.

My blog mates thought it was a great idea, and so did my buds at Romance Divas. My brand new editor, Mary, who’s going to be editing YMAH but isn’t the one who acquired it, said it might be a great idea, but she had caveats: I should be very careful, take my time, make sure it’s heavily proofed, and, most importantly, make sure I present the hero the way I want readers to see him. Mary said she wouldn’t be able to read over it for me – which I completely understood, because she’s buried in submissions [oh, for my very own editor who lives only to read my stuff!] – but to make sure I get other people to read it first.

And suddenly, I got scared. At first, I’d loved the idea of just writing something and posting it – not having to submit it, hope someone likes it, hope they want to publish it. Just instant communication between me, the writer, and Them, the Readers.

But then I thought – what if Them the Readers don’t like it? What if the people who bought Kiss and Kin read the mini-prequels and think, “Ugh. No thanks.” What if my brilliant promotional tool actually drives readers away before my book is published?

I need an editor!!!

Or at least someone to read this stuff and tell me what’s wrong with it (that is to say, an editor).

So I ran the first short story past my regular beta readers and, sure enough, they had problems with some of it. They thought I’d included too much back story, stuff that would seem repetitive when readers read the actual book, which kind of defeats the purpose – I want to get people interested in the story, so that they’ll want to buy the book when it comes out. And they had concerns with some of the actions and some of the dialog.

All of the criticisms were spot on, all of them pointed out flaws in the story I hadn’t been able to see, and all of them resulted in me writing a much, much better story than I had originally written. I’m very glad I didn’t post that story without first running it past my beta readers who, in this instance, acted as my editors.

As I mentioned, Mary isn’t the editor who bought YMAH. The acquiring editor left Samhain very shortly after I signed the contract. Mary seems like a lovely person, and I know she’s got experience editing romance, especially hot romance, and I trust she’ll give my book her best efforts. But I couldn’t help being nervous. What if she doesn’t like it? What if it’s not really the kind of book she would’ve acquired? She’s got another submission from me, a novella set in the same universe as YMAH – what if she passes on it? I am not the world’s most self-confident writer to begin with, plus I worked on YMAH for so long that I can’t read it anymore – I’m, yes, sick unto death of it, and I can’t tell if it’s any good anymore.

So I emailed Mary the other day to tell her I’d posted the first free read, and that I’d already gotten some positive feedback. She emailed me back to say that she’d cruise by and take a look.

And she told me how much she liked YMAH, and she actually kind of gushed about it, and I’m going to save the email and read it over and over again for years to come like people do with love letters.

See? Some editors aren’t evil at all. Some of them are brilliant and discerning professionals with a true appreciation of the writer’s craft…

Kinsey
www.kinseyholley.com

Some of you will look at this post and realize that it’s a repost of something I posted on my blog last week. But I know a lot of people don’t see that, and a lot of people like to know specifically what some editors are looking for. So, here ye be. =)

1. Foodie books a la Lousia Edwards. I love her “A Recipe for Love” books, and I’d love to see some contemporary foodie books. And when I saw foodie, I mean I want the details. I don’t want books that contain food. =P If you don’t know anything about being a chef, catering, how a restaurant runs, etc. then you probably shouldn’t even think about writing a book like this. =)

2. Harry Potter with a twist. I love the world Harry Potter is set in, I love the wizardry, I love the fantastical story/stories. I would LOVE to see something like this, only with adults instead, since Samhain is currently not accepting any YA materials. And when I say adult, it doesn’t mean add a bunch of sex scenes into it. No, that’s not want I want. Heck, there doesn’t have to be any sex in it at all, but it needs to have romance in it. Come on, you can do it.

3. Stories with a Pagan theme/character/s. No, not the Harry Potter type of magic. And really not “magic” as people think of it as all. I want to see people following real Pagan and Wiccan traditions. Blessed be. =)

4. The ’60s. I LOVE the 60s. Whenever someone asks me when I feel I should have lived, I always answer the 60s or the 20s. Give me Timothy Leary and Haight Ashbury, Grateful Dead, Janis Jopin, The Doors and Jimi Hendrix. Give me Woodstock. Give me the protests. Give me free love.

5. The ’20s. I love the 20s. Prohibition and flappers and gangsters….love it. There is a Purdue Bar in my town called “Harry’s Chocolate Shop” that is just steeped in history. Back during Prohibition, they turned it into a chocolate shop, but there was a trap door in the floor that led to an underground speakeasy. That same trap door is still there in the middle of the floor, except now they use the area for a cooler and storage. All of Harry’s shirts that you can buy say “Go ugly early.” The majority of people who see the shirts or don’t know anything about Harry’s think it’s some sort of drinking slogan. Nope….it was the password to get into the speakeasy during Prohibition. =)

6. Civil War/Underground Railroad/interracial. Oooh, this could really be a good one if done right. Gimme history, give me some hot loving between two people who shouldn’t be together during that time frame. I want to see how love can cross all obstacles…slavery, racism, war. Be aware when you submit me something like this, I’m a Civil War buff. Hint, hint.

7. The ’50s. Ah, the days of Leave It to Beaver and Father Knows Best. Where men worked and women stayed home to take care of the kids, clean the house, cook, and have a cocktail tell ready for their master…I mean husband, when they got home from work. Just think of all the neat things you can do with this genre. =)

8. Post-Apocalyptic/Doomsday. Do I really need to explain this one? smile

9. Serial-Killers/Cults/Etc. Did anyone say Dexter? Yeah, that’s what I want, baby. Dexter with more romance. Don’t look at me crazy, it can be done.

Note: One thing about all of the “historical” stuff I’m looking for…do your research and know the time period. I want to read the book and be immersed in that time frame. I want really history in it. That’s extremely important.

But remember… this is a marathon – not a sprint.

Yes, it’s one of my blog Mondays – so prepare for some incoherent rambling that will hopefully make some sense in the end.

So, Forest Gump references aside, what am I on about?

This writing thing – it’s all about waiting, hard work, patience and pacing yourself.

Kind of like a race. But a long race – a marathon, not a sprint.

I think it’s important for authors to realize and remember this.

Writing your novel takes time. Getting it ready for submission takes time. Waiting to hear back from an acquiring editor takes time. And you know what…the starter’s gun hasn’t even gone off yet. If you’re in this business for more than a one-book deal you should know…this marathon business is long and hard (I just read that phrase back and realized who my audience is… ah, gonna leave it in anyway )

The rejection letters are the tough hills. The ones that you have to steadily climb, cursing and sweating all the way up, because if you stop halfway it’s even harder to get going again. The harsh reviews are those cramps you have to run through. Like the muscle cramps that let you know your legs are still attached, those reviews let you know at least is someone is reading your book. The promotion you put in is that good pair of shoes you invest in that’ll carry you farther than going barefoot would. Each book release is a water table you can grab a bottle off of, and each good review is that cool breeze you feel at your back when you hit a good rhythm.

So, what am I trying to say with all this marathon nonsense? Put things in proportion people!

I know, I know…that’s often easier said than done. But seriously, if you want a career in this business you have to be in it for the long haul – blisters, sore feet, early morning training runs, cramped muscles and all. Nothing comes easy, nothing comes quickly, nothing comes without some blood and tears. No one buys a pair of shoes and runs the New York marathon the next day. There’s a whole lot of hard work and thought and training that comes before that starter’s gun on Staten Island.

A career in writing is a marathon—not a sprint.

Titles.

I’ve been thinking about them a lot lately. A friend of mine asked me to help her come up with a good title for her book. Might as well have asked me to name her unborn child. Let me tell you, titles are tough. A title is a bold, bright, snapshot of what’s inside the pages described with a few precious words.

And if that’s not daunting enough, a good title should also:
1) be witty, clever, sexy, or snappy,
2) be active not passive, exciting not dull,
3) relate to some element in the story. (How many times have you picked up a book and wondered what in the world the title had to do with anything?),
4) mean basically the same thing to everyone,
5) grab the reader—and I mean reach out and grab, as in don’t let the reader pass by the shelf without stopping to pick up the book,
6) convey the genre—is it a romance? A paranormal thriller? A little of both?
7) give a flavor of the tone—is it humorous, or rip your heart out scary? Poignant, deep, titillating?
show the setting if it is an unusual one
9) indicate the time-period—contemporary? Historical? A bit of both?
10) match the colors and picture of the cover. A dark, heart-stopping title most likely will not be placed on a bright pink cover.

See? Titles are tough. And so darn important. I am sure I have passed up some awesome books because the title didn’t grab me. That’s the nature of the beast.

My recent print book had several titles before I settled on Catch Me in Castile.
Here are a few of them:
Entwined —I liked it because my book is really two parallel stories set in the past and present that twine together. The title didn’t convey genre (romantic suspense/paranormal) and didn’t hint at the humor. It also didn’t tell the reader that the story is set in Spain.
Don’t Look Down —liked this one because it had the hip and humorous tone and gave a clue to the mystery in my story. I might have kept it until Jenny Crusie and Bob Mayer wrote a book with the same title. Yeah, stuff happens. Plus, it didn’t tell the reader that it was a paranormal set in two time periods in Spain.
Don’t Let Go —similar to the other title with the tone, but didn’t convey the parallel stories, or that it takes place in Spain.
Catch Me in Castile —loved this one because the first person is contemporary and most likely humorous. A chick lit sort of tone. The reader knows where the story is taking place. And hints that the heroine is on the run from…something. Or maybe the hint relates to falling into the hero’s arms. Plus, the double C’s sound good together. The title looks awesome against the dark red and golden colors on the cover. The Spanish castle and the attractive couple look hot together. It’s perfect!

Next time you go into to a book store, look at the titles. What catches your eye? What makes you want to pick up the book?

www.kimberleytroutte.com

Picture this: you’re sitting in the crowded waiting room of your local clinic about to go in and have your baby weighed and measured. Besides the occasional scream from inside the nurses’ rooms of someone else’s baby being jabbed with some vaccination or other there’s the general noise of a room full of people who’d all probably like to be somewhere else. (Hopefully you’re not starting to have a similar feeling)

The woman to the right of you is chatting to another young mother. She starts talking about how her brother, Justin, has just started working at this new company. He’s not the type who likes to get up early and is allergic to commitment. (Are you still there? I have a point, I swear.) Justin’s last girlfriend was called Shelly, and she got tired of hanging around waiting for some finger bling from him. Justin has dark brown hair that borders on being too long for a guy who works in an office, but he clings to his individually just like he’s clutching on to his freedom—with white knuckles and a smart-ass grin. (If you’re still reading, I’m well on my way to that point.) Justin recently moved into this new apartment building where he literally ran into this beautiful young woman who turned out to live in the apartment above him. (Getting to that point soon…promise

Now, just as you’re about to hear the very nice story of how Justin met his new neighbor, a conversation someone is having on a cell phone to your left grabs your attention—-

“Apart from the little towel, she was as naked as the day she was born.”

Suddenly poor Justin is the last thing on your mind.

“He was backing through the door with a box of books in his arms, and she’d run out in her towel when she heard the mail being delivered. Next thing she knew… Bam.”

You find yourself leaning to the left, hoping to catch what the person on the other end of the call is saying, wondering just what went bam.

“She was holding the letter from the lawyers in both hands, so when he bumped into her there wasn’t anything holding up that towel.”

Now—and here’s that point I was promising you—in both cases you were about to hear how Justin met his new neighbor. But seriously, which version grabbed you more? Which version made you want to hear more?

Betcha it’s the second version.

Version 1 gave you more information about who the characters were.

Version 1 had about double the word count.

Version 1 set the story up.

Version 2 was better.

It started where the action was. It grabbed the reader from the first sentence. I didn’t need everything the first version told me about Justin before I got to his story. I’ll get to know him later when details about who he is are threaded throughout the story and shown through his actions. Or I might not get to know poor Justin at all. Depends on which version of his story you pitch.

The best example I can think of right now to show how to jump right in to a story and grab your reader is the third Die Hard movie. The movie opens with a catchy tune and a view of the city that zooms in to a view of a particular street. By the time Lovin’ Spoonful is singing about how hot the city nights are, half the side of a building blows out, cars fly through the air, people scream, dust and noise are belched out across the screen.

Bam

Audience engaged.

My point is: don’t introduce me to the characters so that I’ll care what happens to them when the action starts. Start with the action. I’ll care more.

The first few pages are often all an unforgiving reader or an evil editor will give you. Use that space wisely. Don’t waste time you don’t have setting the story up. Don’t waste words you don’t have getting the characters to the action. Start with the bam. Grab your readers by the short and curlies.

Of course, once you have their attention you have to keep… But that’s another post all together.

Reading some of my old rejected pathetic manuscripts—did I mention pathetic?—has lead to me do some thinking about heroes in romances.

Readers want their romance heroes to be moral and smart. Heroes should be gorgeous—or at the very least sexy. Readers want a strong hero with just enough of a soft inner side only visible to the heroine. And of course, for me, my hero HAS to make me laugh.

Tall order, huh?

Well, along with all those characteristics, mostly every writing book will tell you that flawed characters are good to have, too. They’re more real. Easier to identify with. Less boring.

Of course there is a fine line that you can accidentally cross with your reader.

I’m wondering if I might have crossed that line recently. You see, I have a problem hero. I don’t know why but for some reason in the small cramped crazy portion of my mind, I thought it would be interesting to have my hero smoke. Yes, he’s a smoker and it’s a contemporary romance.

Do I smoke? No way.

Does my hubby smoke? Not a chance.

So why did I do that? Well, my hero is his own man, for sure, but for all the rough and toughness of him, I wanted this to be his secret vice. His weakness that he is trying to give up, but cannot…until he has a reason to give up cigarettes. Namely, the heroine of my story.

(PS. This is in no way a major plot point, but rather, something subtle I wanted to write into my story.)

As I keep mulling over my story, I wonder if having my hero smoke is a huge turnoff to romance readers? Yes, it makes him real. But does this ruin the fantasy of what a hero is by giving him that particular kind of imperfection?

I’m curious to know: in this day and age—is having your hero smoke a huge no no in a romance book? Or is it a forgivable flaw?

Jennifer Shirk
“Always Fun, Always Feel-Good Romantic Fiction”
http://www.jennifershirk.com

For every good query letter I read, there are five not-so-good ones. No matter how many times we editors—and agents—go over it, a lot of writers don’t seem to listen or care about what we want to see and what we don’t want to see. I’m really good at listing things, so I’m sure you can figure out what’s coming. =)

1. We are not the administrators of a dating site. You’re not going to find the love of your life by submitting a profile to us. We are not interested in how tall you are, how much you weight, what color your hair or eyes are, or how old you are. Nor do we care if you like long walks on the beaches and long soul-searching conversations. We don’t care if you’re divorced or how long you’ve been married or how many kids you have. What we do care about? Your story.

2. At this point in time, your initial query letter, we don’t care why you write. We only care about if you can write a good story. If a nasty divorce caused to to write the story, of if another life-changing event caused you to write, we don’t want to hear that. At this point, we don’t have a relationship with you. I’m not saying that we won’t care about that, but that wouldn’t come until we have an author-editor relationship with you. You wouldn’t lay every little thing out on the table during a first date, would you? The same theory applies here.

3. If you have a relationship already with the editor you are working with, you still need to write a query letter for your submission. If you had to do a huge report at work and present it in front of the Board of Trustees for your company, would you simply throw the report on the table in front of them and say “Here it is”? No, you would explain it and try and make yourself look as good as possible. When you don’t take the time with us, we feel like you don’t care as much as you should. There are certain times when you have such a good relationship with your editor, and you’ve been talking about a manuscript, you may not need a query letter. That is rare, though. If you have to even stop and wonder if you have that relationship with your editor, then you need to write a query letter and send it with your manuscript.

These are just a few of the things that are standing out in my mind right now. If I searched my brain even more, I would have about ten times this to share with you, but that wouldn’t be a blog post, that would be a novel. Not really what we’re going for here. =)

What are your thoughts on query letters?

This blog gives a little peek into one facet of an editor’s job. It applies not only to Samhain, but to probably almost every other publisher/editor out there. The Rejection Letter.

There are multiple reasons manuscripts get rejected, and it is hard for an editor to write a rejection letter (yes, really, regardless of what you may read). These reasons can range from: the story wasn’t well plotted; there are too many characters; the hero moves aimlessly through the story; and, the characters have no specific conflict. There are other reasons, but there is one reason I reject manuscripts automatically. I don’t have to think. It doesn’t matter how wonderful the story is, how beautiful the descriptions are or how perfect the characters interact. I reject the story. This may seem callous and cruel, but when you read this reason, I think you’ll understand.

Imagine a perfect night out with your significant other or friends. The food is wonderful, you have a table by the window overlooking the most beautiful scenery and the conversation is scintillating and fun. Then it’s time to leave the restaurant and watch the movie that you’ve been looking forward to for months. Your favorite stars are in it. You haven’t read any reviews, it’s all been hush-hush. But you know it will be funny and romantic. You sit through several previews anticipating that moment when the movie starts.

The movie starts and…it’s a horror movie. Blood and guts are spilling in every direction, people are dying, the dog dies, the cat dies and, by the end of the first scene, there is a firm belief in your mind that the entire planet will be destroyed. What happened to the romantic comedy? Where are the stars? Where is the happy ever after? Ahhh…the management just threw a new movie on instead of the one you were expecting. The disappointment is overwhelming.

Now think about submissions we receive at Samhain. I usually skim a synopsis to get a general idea of what the story is about, who the main characters are, how it will end, etc. There are times I am scratching my head by the time I’m done reading the synopsis wondering what the story is about, but usually I am ready to give the story a shot.

Here is the interesting part. Imagine my surprise when I open the submission document, begin reading it looking for the romance, the plot, the build up to the happy ever after (or at least happy for now) ending and instead find—cue horror music—blood and guts spilling in every direction, people are dying, the dog dies, the cat dies and, by the end of the first scene, there is a firm belief in my mind that the entire planet will be destroyed. The disappointment is overwhelming.

What just happened? My number one reason for an automatic rejection. The author didn’t read our submission guidelines. (Insert heavy sigh here.)

In this day and age, we have directions for everything. Directions on heating a frozen entrée in the microwave, connecting new cameras to the computer to access images, creating Microsoft Word macros…AND…submitting to a publisher. It’s not just Samhain. I don’t think I’ve ever found a publisher that doesn’t have submission guidelines.

It’s important to remember that any information found on a market list may be incomplete, out-of-date or just plain inaccurate. There’s no excuse not to check out the site before you submit and follow them. Publishers have different preferences as to how to prepare/deliver submissions. Most print markets do not accept electronic submissions unless they’ve worked with you before. Many web-only publications don’t accept hardcopy. Before you ask—no, Samhain does not accept hardcopy submissions.

Here are some of Samhain’s submission guidelines:

The preferred word count is 60,000 or longer, but we are quite happy to publish shorter works with word counts of no less than 12,000 and no more than 120,000. We will consider manuscripts up to 130,000 words, but only on the understanding that the book will have to be edited down to 120,000 or less before publication.

Any book that glorifies depraved or illegal acts will not be considered. No pedophilia, bestiality, racial intolerance, rape as titillation, necrophilia—no ick factors, please!

I’ve worked at Samhain for a little over two years. During that time, every one of these submission guidelines has been broken by a submitter.

The moral to this story—please, please read the submission guidelines before submitting a manuscript, not only to Samhain, but also to any publisher.

If you’re about to submit a manuscript to Samhain, look it over first. Make sure it complies with our submission guidelines.

I’ll save telling you about some of my submissions until a later blog. You’ll love the one about the dead rabbit!