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Showing posts from June, 2011

A New Agent in Town and Linkage

Last week I found out that my long-time critique partner Linda Glaz was just made an agent at Hartline Literary !!! Woohoo! So apparently for years I've been rubbing shoulders with an agent in the making. :-) Linda is a kind and funny person. She's very savvy regarding the industry and craft and she loves romance. If you're looking for an agent to query, I'd recommend Linda. She mostly loves any subgenre of romance and suspense, but she'll never turn down a great story regardless of genre. The guidelines for querying Linda are HERE . Congrats Linda! As for linkage, there some news on the digital royalties publishing front. Here are a few interesting links. Harlequin Raises E-book Royalties Agent Kristin Nelson's Take So Far Dear Author Asks Harlequin Some Other Publishers Royalty Rates Brenda Hiatt's Show Me The Money (this site is a good representation of what publishers pay on average) What do you think about digital royalties? Had you heard an

Getting Visual

A cool thing about Love Inspired is that authors are asked to give input into the covers of their books. The uncool thing is that I'm so NOT visual. Some writers have pictures of their scenes and characters taped to the walls. I don't. I have a vague idea, so when I was asked to supply pictures for cover ideas, I was befuddled. Thank goodness I have a friend who is the Queen of Visuality (you know who you are!). She supplied me with links to helpful websites where I could brainstorm who exactly my characters look like. Are you visual? Do you already have cover ideas? If you were a character, how would you be physically described?

My Call: The Journey

I sold to Love Inspired Historical !!! Here's how it happened: " You should write a book. You'd make more money doing that." In 2006 my editor at the newspaper I freelanced for told me this. In that moment, a lightbulb went off in my head. Write for money? Sure, I'd written stories all my life, but to actually write a book and be paid for it was a concept that had never occurred to me. That same year, I started a historical romance. Why historical? Because Love Inspired was launching a historical line in 2007 and I was aiming for that. I also love reading historical romances. "The characters should be talking by now." So said agent Steve Laube at my first writer's conference in 2007. He'd gotten to page 7 and my heroine was still thinking of backstory. I made every newbie mistake with that first manuscript. So I read articles and did my best to make the manuscript shine. Then I submitted it to agents. Form rejections. I decided to submi

Behind the Badge by Susan Sleeman (You can win stuff!)

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I first met Susan a few years ago at a Tampa meeting. She was really friendly and nice. After going through some publishing glitches that might turn a writer's hair gray, she's now flourishing in the publishing world. Her new book Behind the Badge is out this month. I read the excerpt and plan to buy the story because it sounds great! I always love a sexy cop hero. Enter to win a copy of Susan Sleeman's Behind the Badge and a $50 Amazon gift card! Susan Sleeman here. Behind the Badge , my second romantic suspense book for Love Inspired Suspense will release on June 6th and in honor of all of you, the readers, I am hosting a special contest on my website for the month of June. Let’s face it. Without you, the wonderful readers, books would not exist and I wouldn’t be able to wake up looking forward to a job that is fresh and exciting each and every day. Praise God for this incredible opportunity! Now back to the contest. All you have to do is read the excerpt below then g

What I've Been Reading

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I've read some great books in the last six months This is an intriguing novel by Ariana Franklin that blends history with science. I enjoyed the premise, coupled with solid writing and a cover I kept looking at over and over again. This book by Nancy Werlin is also an interesting mix of genres. Not only that, but she did some great things with POV, seamlessly moving from third person to first. . I really enjoyed this book by Camy Tang . Lots of twists and I wasn't sure who the villain was, which is always nice in a suspense. A sweet love story by Ruth Logan Herne that introduced a lifestyle I didn't know existed, or not much about it. (raising sheep) I absolutely loved this book by Cathy Gohlke . I've never read her before but I thought her writing was exquisite and she brought the era of the story to life for me, as well as the characters. What are you reading? Do you tend to span genres or stick with the tried and true?