Get ready to be a .... Star!

Sapphire Star Publishing is a small press publisher, dedicated to bringing reader’s quality romantic fiction. “We understand that publishing is only the beginning,” reads their website.  “We work alongside the author to provide the tools to help their work reach readers all over the world, ensuring each publication the opportunity to reach its full potential.  By seeking out and publishing talented authors, Sapphire Star is able to deliver quality fiction that inspires, provokes, intrigues, and entertains the most important part of the equation—the reader. 

Win a Kindle

If you can impress the editors with tales of first love, broken hearts, triumphs, tragedies and, of course, a happily ever after, you could win a Kindle Fire and a publishing contract with Sapphire Star Publishing! 

Rouge Romance Launched!

Ebury Publishing, a division of the Random House Group, launched their straight-to-digital romance list today! 

They have opened up with eight titles and after that will be publishing four titles a month. Their web site is at www.rougeromance.co.uk so bookmark the site and have a look!

They will be offering book extracts, competitions and more for readers. And, you guessed it, they will be looking for new authors too!

Editorial Director (Fiction) Gillian Green said 'Given the growth in eBooks and new developments in technology, we felt that the time was right to launch a dedicated romance list. We know that romance readers have been among the first to embrace ebooks and we want to bring them the best romantic fiction out there.  Our list is diverse and there's something for every romance reader on it. What all the titles have in common is they are all utterly escapist sexy romances with a guaranteed happy ending from some of the brightest names in romantic fiction. Whilst we're initially looking at eBooks, we have print rights in all the titles on the Rouge list and are looking forward to launching print editions of our most popular titles too.'

There will be a selection of six sub-genres—Regency, Historical, Suspense, Contemporary, Paranormal and Occasions—with every title to be available for under £5.

You can find their submission guidelines here.

Let us know about your experiences if you have dealt with Ebury.

New publishers, contests and pitches

Two new romance publishers on the block!

Astraea Press is releasing its first titles in January 2011. They are a new eBook publisher of non-erotic romance based in the US and they're open to submissions. You can find out more about them at their website and blog.

Knox Robinson Publishing are actively seeking historical romance submissions. Details on their website are still a little sparse, but they plan to revamp the website in February.

A cautionary note: as with all new and untried publishers, do your homework before you submit.

The 2011 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award

Thanks to Each Grand Prize winner will receive a publishing contract with Penguin, which includes a $15,000 advance. All Entries can be submitted through the CreateSpace platform and must be received no later than February 6, 2011. Up to 5,000 Entries will be accepted within each category.
Don't miss your opportunity to win - submit your Entry today!
Read more about the Contest and review the Official Rules.

Two Short Story Contests

ROSA member Kathleen Bosman has shared this info with us:
For those interested in trying out a short story, the annual Commonwealth Short Story Competition is now on. It's very different from novel writing but it's still fun. Here is the link to their website: www.commonwealthfoundation.com/shortstory

And courtesy of Bronwyn Desjardins:
The Writers' & Artists' Yearbook 2011 short story competition is for published and aspiring writers alike. They're offering the chance to win £500, plus a place on an Arvon residential writing course of your choice, and  publication of your story on the Writers' & Artists' Yearbook website! All you have to do is enter a short story (for adults) of no more than 2,000 words, on the theme of 'compulsion' and email it to competition@acblack.com with `WAYB11 competition' as the subject line. The closing date is 14 February 2011.

And Another Contest

Harlequin Desire author Tessa Radley is offering herself as mentor for a month. Entrants need to write a 1,000 word opening to a secret baby Valentine-themed novel. You can find out more at eHarlequin.

Editor Pitch

Harlequin's Nocturne Bites line is offering aspiring paranormal writers the chance to pitch direct to an editor. To enter, send a two paragraph blurb to doeraemi@gmail.com by 17th February. More information is available here.

Carina Press: a call for novellas

Carina Press' Executive Editor, Angela James, tweeted recently that she would very much like to see more novellas / short easy reads, so dust off those novellas and get them subbed.

They're also looking for historical novels, anything from 15,000 words and upwards, as reported on the Risky Regencies blog. Regencies remain ever popular, but they're also looking for other time periods and most exciting of all, Carina are open to all genres, time travel and historical fantasy stories are also welcomed.

We've blogged about Carina Press before (see here) and our excitement has grown considerably since then. Though the official launch is still a few weeks away (on 7th June) this new publisher is already causing a stir in the publishing world and I predict that they're just going to go from strength to strength.

Our very own Claire Robyns, whose novel Betrayed, is among Carina's first releases, will be blogging here closer to the launch date.

For Carina's submission guidelines, click here.

Kimani Romance

Kimani Romance is Harlequin's African-American imprint. The novels are quite rare here in South Africa, which is surprising considering our multi-ethnic society and the popularity of all things American, but for any of our blog readers who read Kimani novels and are interested in writing for them, you'll be interested to know that eHarlequin are running an editor pitch in January. Editor pitches are a fast track way of getting your work seen by an editor, though they do require a basic knowledge of on-line chatting.

For more information, check out the writing guidelines here, the editor podcast here, and books can be bought online here. Please note that the deadline for entries is 6th January 2010.

Carina Press

I'm jumping up and down with excitement this morning! I woke to the news that Harlequin Enterprises, arguably the world's biggest publishing house, has opened a new imprint for digital format books (ebooks to you and me).

What is so exciting about this new imprint, named Carina Press, is that they are open to all genres, all lengths and all heat levels, from sweet to erotica, from Space Opera to historical thriller.

Have you ever had a manuscript rejected because it didn't quite fit Harlequin's category guidelines? Then submit it to Carina.
Written a murder mystery with a lesbian heroine that you you don't know where to submit? Submit to Carina.
Or a single title chick lit that you can't find an agent for? Submit to Carina.

Like most ebook publishers, there will be no advances but the royalty percentages will be higher than for traditional print books. For more information on Carina Press and their submission guidelines, click on the link below.