Vote For John Fish!!- please repost!

VOTE FOR JOHN FISH!



Good Morning All,

There is a Cyber Award for Mr. Romance and Our model John Fish is in it! The voting ends this Friday at 5:00pm. John, by far, is the best looking and was winning until I think some of the other contestants got huge groups of folks to vote for them. So...you know how we at EC hate to share the lime light with anyone...We're wondering if you wouldn't mind making a post on your MySpace account asking your friends to vote for John. If you can think of any other way to get more folks to vote for him that would be greatly appreciated.

To help John win, visit www.dorchesterpub.com & look on the right side of their home page. You'll see a picture of Jason (in a cowboy hat) and a caption about Mr. Romance. Click there. Scroll down until you see the names of the contestants and then select John Fish.

Thanks from John and everyone here at Ellora's Cave!!

7:00 AM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Being Smart About Submissions

So you've had a fantastic erotic romance idea. You've fleshed it out, you've researched it, you've tied yourself to the computer chair and finished it and, of course, you've run it through multiple critique partners until it shines. Now, finally, you're ready to submit. You print out your masterpiece on glossy pink paper, pepper it with kisses and FedEx it to its final destiny as a bestseller for Ellora's Cave. You've done everything in your power to insure that you'll be signed and published, right?

Wrong.

Many authors jeopardize their chance at being published by not presenting a professional submissions package in the style requested by the publishing house. Every week, it seems, our Publisher has to throw away paper manuscripts that have been mailed to her, returning a form letter explaining that we only deal in electronic submissions. That's time, money and aggravation that could be saved if the submitting author had read the guidelines.

Acquiring editors face a similar frustration with the electronic slush pile when it comes to cover letters and synopses. A cover letter should go in the body of the e-mail. It is a short letter including all the basics: your name, how to contact you, a sentence or two about your book and any relevant publishing history.

When I say a sentence or two about the book, I do not mean a summary—that comes later. The appropriate thing to put here would be:

Passion's Flower is a 60k Romantic Suspense told entirely in iambic pentameter. It follows the story of a woman on the run from the Editing Mafia and the English Professor who shows her all's well that ends well.

(Though if you write a book entirely in iambic pentameter, your readers would likely kill you.)

Don't give us your life story. Don't tell us this is the book of your heart (see previous blog entry for why). Don't tell us that we are your only hope, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and that if we do not publish this book, you will eat your computer and waste away into a shriveled husk of wasted talent. I know I sound flip, but this is done and it doesn't impress the editor. Even the most kindhearted editor cannot let his or her professional judgment be ruled by personal stories. I as a person feel deeply for you. I as an EC editor have to judge the book entirely on its merits. So keep your cover letter short and topical. Do, however, mention any major awards or publishing history. If you've won the Golden Heart or have a three-book deal with Tor, we definitely want to know! Having publishing cred doesn't automatically mean you have a better chance, but it does show you at least have some familiarity with the publishing world. Likewise, if the book you are submitting has been published before, we want to know that too…as well as whether you have the rights back or not.

The synopsis is a huge make-or-break issue with many submissions. It's often said that an agent or editor can know whether a book is sellable by the first three pages. What isn't often said is that an agent or editor can often tell by the synopsis what the outcome of the potential sale will be. A synopsis tells us who the characters are, what the conflict is, how the plot unfolds and how the story is resolved. I always read submissions despite a bad synopsis, but I can usually tell by the synopsis whether the author has the chops to write professionally. How do I do that?

Content. Is this story suitable? Does it have any of our taboos? Is the plot interesting or complex enough? Has this been done a thousand and one times? Is it too category? (The definition of category could take up an entire entry on its own. A quick and dirty definition would be: is it something only Harlequin would publish? Does it have secret babies, Navy SEALS, small-town sheriffs, amnesia or women inexplicably running from the mafia? These in themselves do not define category, but they're a few of the staples, so watch out if you write about them!) Is it something we're interested in? Do I think it will sell well? Can I spot any major plotting problems?

Presentation. Is the synopsis riddled with typos and grammatical mistakes? That's a red flag to make us look more carefully and critically at the story itself. Please edit your cover letter and synopsis. These are our first impressions of your novel—make them good!

Overall flow. Is this a contest junkie? (Again, an entire post could be written about those! In short, contest junkies are writers who polish the first three chapters to perfection and let all the middle chapters sag.) Is this professional?

A synopsis should be 3-5 pages giving a detailed but not too detailed overview of the plot. Please, please, please do not write a chapter-by-chapter summary. There is no easier way to make the acquiring editor frustrated and unhappy. Please do not end with "Will she choose Joe or Adam? Read the book to find out!" A synopsis is not a teaser—we need to know how the book ends. The synopsis should tell us who the characters are, what their conflict is and how they go about resolving it. Don't give us the kitchen sink, but definitely give us something we can sink our teeth into. The synopsis represents your work. Make sure it's doing its job.

If you've polished your novel until it shines, written a strong synopsis and kept a professional attitude while fulfilling the publisher guidelines, you are one huge step ahead of the pack and one giant leap toward seeing your book contracted.

Mary Altman

Editor, Ellora's Cave Publishing Inc.

7:02 AM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Pillow Talk!

PILLOW TALK

A Completely Biased List of What This Particular Editor Thinks Does Not Work in Erotic Dialogue

By Heather Osborn

Any author will tell you that authentic dialogue between characters is one of the hardest things to achieve in fiction. It is also one of the most important things to get right, because nothing can pull you out of a book faster than awkward, stilted (and often unintentionally hilarious) dialogue. In my experience as an erotic romance editor, I have found that an area where a lot of authors or aspiring authors can go really, really wrong with dialogue is in the bedroom. What follows is my biggest list of no-no's and a few tips to keep in mind for creating authentic dialogue.

1. Poetic Bluster AKA the 500-year-old vampire speech. Please, for your editor's sake, don't fill your sex scenes with things like this. HERO: "your lips glisten like the finest rubies…oooh, baby…your hair is like darkest midnight…yeah, baby…I would be lost with your sparkling essence in my dark forsaken life…uh, oooh, oh!"

Please remember that although heroes are fantasy men, they should have some grounding in reality, and any man who is able to say something like this in the midst of some really hot sex is doing *something* wrong!

2. Extremely literal speech/talk/sounds. This is the opposite side of the coin from number one. Please, no "unh, unh, ohhhhhhh, do me, baby!". Gross. Things like this are best expressed in description, not dialogue. For example, the above dialogue can be expressed as: He gave several feral growls as he thrust deeply into her depths. (Okay, that was a pretty cheesy sentence, but you get what I am going for here, right?) Can literal grunts and sounds work in dialogue? Yes, of course, but it is very, very rarely done well and it mostly comes across as pretty campy.

3. Bow-chicka-booow-booooooow. In other words, straight-up porn dialogue. What every romance writer must keep in mind is that they are ultimately writing romance. Not erotica/porn/etc. with a little bit of romance thrown in. Every sex scene should in some way directly address the romance. Dialogue like "Your titties jiggle like Jell-O!" and "Take it, bitch/slut/etc, etc, etc." are, for the most part, straight-up porn, and quite often extremely offensive to the readers.

In fact, words like tits, titties, slut, whore, etc. lend a really dirty and nasty vibe (which is quite different from a kinky and exciting vibe) to sex scenes that in my opinion should not be found in erotic romance. Have I seen it work? Yes. But authors need to be willing to work heavily on characterization so that the reader understands exactly where these people are coming from when it comes to their word usage. In my experience, few people can pull it off without it reading as dirty porn.

4. Shut-up and let me enjoy it, okay? You know that person who sits behind you in the movie theater and won't stop rehashing the events on the screen? The one who must incessantly repeat EVERYTHING in his own words? Yeah. Well, oftentimes that is what overly talkative characters do to a sex scene. Hello? We are right here reading it. Do you really need to describe it to us again?

This is where the fine art of self editing comes in. Every sex scene need not be seen in both characters POVs. For that matter, the characters need not verbalize everything in a sex scene. If the author is doing their job descriptively then oftentimes dialogue can be kept to a minimum. Dialogue between characters should be used to enhance the act, not explain it.

5. Tee-hee-hee! What *is* that thing? Is there still room for virgin heroines in Romancelandia? Yes, and I am sure there always will be. But please, no "I am a 32-year-old, aggressive, high-powered businesswoman, but due to unforeseen circumstances I am not only a virgin, but also completely sexually naive! I mean it! I don't even *know* what a penis is! Clitoris? I would never dream of touching it!" That is unbelievably annoying in the bedroom. Yes, even in (erotic) historical novels. "M'Lord, what IS that? It won't fit!!!" GACK.

Keep in mind that virgins, especially in contemporaries, and especially ones who are college educated with jobs in a big city, are NOT sexually naïve. Most everyone about 40 or younger has had some form of SexEd in school, and at the very least should know what a penis and vagina are. Including overly innocent dialogue from these uber-virgins in sex scenes makes her seem beyond stupid, and immediately makes readers dislike her.

Okay, so that is my list of top 5 annoyances when it comes to pillow talk. Now it's your turn to play ask the editor. Are there any particular tropes that you see in sexual dialogue that drive you up the wall? Do you have any questions about dialogue that you would like answered? Any topics you would like to see addressed in future posts? Comment away!

8:15 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

A Chink in His Armor—A Word on Alpha Heroes
Category: Writing and Poetry

It's tough being a romance hero. Sure, the attention from the ladies for being a well-over-six-feet-tall wall of muscle is flattering, but it creates a hard standard to live up to. After all, we can't forget that other important measurement—success. Our heroes punch in at a variety of jobs—CEO, construction worker, doctor, warrior, highlander, lawyer, cop, cowboy, personal trainer and then some. But whatever he does to bring home the bacon, a romance hero doesn't need to be rich or powerful to succeed at the ultimate goal. The true measure of success comes in the hero's ability to be irresistible—inside and out—to the heroine (and/or other hero), of course, but also to the reader. Naturally, no book can appeal to the tastes of every reader in every way, but we want our guy to be popular. We at Ellora's Cave are known for the signature—and often notorious—alpha hero. But though some preferences for the perfect man can be quite personal, in their efforts to appeal to as much of the reader market as possible, many authors anxiously await the answer to the resonating question—what makes an alpha hero? And how does one create an alpha hero without making him into, well, another a-word?

Editor, Ellora's Cave Publishing Inc.

10:14 AM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Surfing the Genre Wave
Category: Writing and Poetry

One of the most important things to remember when you're striving for publication is that you must always keep in mind what is going on in the market and what your targeted house is interested in buying.

Writing often isn't as solitary and muse-inspired a profession as the movies would have us believe. Writers write in and react to an ever-changing market. In order to really gain commercial success, you have to be aware of what is hot or (even better!) what will be hot within the next few years. This is harder to do for New York print publishers than it is in the ebook world. The span of time between acceptance and publication is, generally speaking, quite long in the print world, so it's difficult to gauge when a genre fad may be flourishing or getting ready to die out. Ellora's Cave has the benefit of being quicker on the draw, which means that trends and hot buttons are more visible.

There's an easy way to gauge genre fads if you're looking to break in with a popular trend book. Take a look at Ellora's Cave releases every week. Look at the Coming Soon page. Poke around review sites and web boards and see what's being received very well. By keeping an eye on these things, you can get a pretty good idea about what we're selling a lot of. It's easy to extrapolate from there: if we're selling a large number of, say, werewolf books, then werewolves must be really popular.

That is how you spot a market trend to find the "hot" items. To help you get started in your research, I can tell you that paranormal is doing well, male/male is doing well, shifters are doing well... You can tell these things by being aware of the publisher you're interested in and watching their sales carefully.

But writer beware: trends have an alarming habit of ending just as quickly as they began. The market is in a constant ebb and flow with genres rocketing to the top and then flagging as another genre becomes popular. Once you spot a new trend, be sure to act quickly and decisively if you are interested in using that market boom to strengthen your sales and encourage new readers to become engaged in your career. If you are a markedly slow writer, this may prove nearly impossible. There is, however, one solution to this problem.

Sit down one day with an array of index cards and a sheet of paper. On the sheet of paper, list all the erotic romance genres and subgenres you can think of, mixing and matching as needed. Target the ones you're particularly interested in, then try your hand at second-guessing the market. Have you seen a surge of Rubenesque books lately? Is there a television show or movie about an interracial couple coming out that you think will influence sales? Are world events encouraging a high interest in suspense?

Take each major genre that you feel could experience a sales boom and write them on the top line of the index cards. Gradually, as time passes, brainstorm a few book ideas for each genre. Get as much detail as you can and have a research game plan, then tack them to a corkboard or keep them in a file and go about your daily writing. If and when one of those genres hits a sudden boom, you'll know it (you're still watching the release page and keeping an ear to the ground, of course) and will be able to grab one of your semi-plotted ideas and have a research plan and a basic idea of what you're going to write about ready and waiting. This will help you streamline the process and get that book out as quickly as possible while the genre boom is still fresh.

And who knows? With all your research and preparation, you may find yourself the next big thing.

Bleeding All Over the "Book of My Heart"
Category: Writing and Poetry

A piece of advice for authors and aspiring authors: When you submit that wonderful manuscript, or if you get the fantastic news that it has been accepted, DO NOT tell us that it is the *book of your heart*. Red flags go up with the publisher, and the editor is likely to run screaming from the room.

Why? Think about this. The publisher is interested in one thing only - will enough people buy this book that we can make a nice profit? The publisher does not care why the author wrote the book, how meaningful it is to them, or even what the author thinks about her own work. It is only what potential readers/buyers will think that counts.

So when an author indicates an overly emotional attachment to a particular story they've written, it is a signal of possible rocks in the road to publication:

(1) The more attached you are to your story, the more likely you are to object to revisions and editing. All stories are improved by editing. Your editor is the best judge of what makes a story appealing to readers -- you as author do not have the detached perspective necessary. And no editor wants to knowingly entangle themselves with a resistant and uncooperative author who whines about how the editor is destroying her dream, altering her voice, stabbing her in the heart - nope, we're just trying to help you turn this draft manuscript into something that more than just your mother or best friend would pay to read.

(2) You, the author, are likely to have an inflated opinion of your special story's value and marketability. You are going to be devastated by any less than glowing reviews, and disappointed by any sales numbers lower than a gazillion. That will make you unhappy, when the publisher may well find the sales perfectly decent.

The book of your heart just may not touch sufficient other hearts.

I know it is hard, but authors need to remember that this is a BUSINESS, and sales are the driving factor. If you feel that emotional about this special heart book, then consider getting it self-published and giving it to all your friends and family. They probably will appreciate it, there just aren't enough of them to convince a publisher to appreciate it.

Impress us with your business-like professional attitude, rather than worry us by your emotionalism.

Raelene Gorlinsky

Publisher, Ellora's Cave Publishing Inc.

11:37 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment