I’m posting over at the Casablanca Authors blog today on this month’s theme of scary things. Submission info, turnaround time, sex advice (for your writing, of course!), market trends and more. Come visit! I’ll hang around through the weekend to respond to comments posted there.
October 21, 2010
Visiting with the Casa authors
Posted by Leah under Guest Blogs, Submissions | Tags: Casablanca, Fire, YA |1 Comment
October 5, 2010
Help choose a cover, get a critique & $1.99 ebook
Posted by Leah under Ebooks, General interest, News | Tags: charity auction, contest, Geoff Herbach, Joy Preble, YA |[7] Comments
Be part of the publishing process. We need help deciding a cover direction for YA release STUPID FAST, a seriously funny debut by Geoff Herbach. Tell us which one you like best here and you could win an advance copy of one of our most highly anticipated books for the spring.
Need help polishing your manuscript? Joy Preble, author of DREAMING ANASTASIA, is taking part in a charity auction to raise money for the Family Violence Prevention Fund. Bid on a critique for 10 pages of your work here. And scout out the rest of the listings for critiques from agent Nathan Bransford and Flux editor Brian Farrey, signed ARCs and loads of other great stuff.
It’s liiiive–oh, wait, wrong book. The iDrakula app is up at iTunes–and it’s free. Check it out and you can get the ebook for only $1.99. Great deal and an adorable icon.
September 30, 2010
With all the slew of terrific submissions I’ve been getting lately, I’ve been bringing quite a few projects into our weekly acquisitions meeting. At that meeting, all the editors present the titles they want to make an offer for, weighing pros and cons. Most of the final decision rests with our publisher and editorial director, but everyone’s allowed to chime in with an opinion. And it’s important to stress that the group is all editors–not sales or marketing, though we obviously have to keep marketing and sales points in mind whenever we acquire.
But before we even get to the meeting, there’s a whole process of filling out title information so everyone coming to the meeting get a sense of the project. For each title brought to the meeting, we have to include:
- A brief, engaging description (about 1o0-150 words)
- A short author bio with hometown and any award wins/special recognitions
- main selling points and marketing hooks
- author sales history (if any)
- comparison titles and sales figures
Some genius agents are used to dealing with the acquisitions board process and put all this info right in their cover letter. God, I love them. They make it so easy to cut and paste.
But we accept agented and unagented material, so now even if you’re submitting on your own, you know exactly how to present your project in a way to make the editor love you forever.
And if you’ve already submitted but haven’t included the above info, no worries, you’re grandfathered in–I’ve got you covered!
September 12, 2010
I am having such a blast working on a number of the young adult projects on our Spring 2011 list for the Sourcebooks Fire imprint. But our list for Fall is looking mighty slim. So I’m on the hunt-down–looking to acquire good stuff fairly quickly.
The YA market right now is incredibly competitive, so it’s imperative to have a hook to grab booksellers/media/readers in 2-3 sentences. Having an author with a track record or built-in fan base is also immensely helpful. The book needs a riveting plot with a fresh premise. I want to be completely absorbed in the world–whether it’s summer in the Hamptons, a dystopian future or 1880s London.
Right now only truly objective criterion is the word count: 60,000-90,000. I’m open to just about any setting and genre. The main protagonist should be older teens, and the book should have strong crossover potential to the adult market.
Submissions can be emailed to me at leah.hultenschmidt [at] sourcebooks.com. Please attach the ms and synopsis as separate Word documents and note in the subject line: YA – [Title].
September 2, 2010
135 emails to go
Posted by Leah under Writing & Editing | Tags: Georgette Heyer, Regency |[3] Comments
I got my Sourcebooks email access today–and 135 messages waiting in my inbox. I’ll be working through everything as quickly as possible, but please don’t fret if you’ve written and haven’t heard back. Thank goodness for long weekends, right?
I’m just loving going through all the titles on the list–I want to read everything! For any Regency writers/fans, you might want to check this one this out. Looks like an invaluable resource and it’s just hitting shelves now:
August 30, 2010
Starting at Sourcebooks on Wed.
Posted by Leah under News | Tags: Cheryl Brooks, Dominique Raccah, Kathryne Kennedy, romance, Sourcebooks, Stephanie Rowe, Terry Spear, YA |[23] Comments
It’s official: I’ll be starting at Sourcebooks as Senior Editor in their New York office on Wednesday. And apparently I already have an email address: leah.hultenschmidt [at] sourcebooks.com. I’ve really admired what they’ve been able to do for authors, their covers, their visibility in the marketplace and the vision of Publisher Dominique Raccah. The whole group is incredibly smart, dedicated and forward-thinking. I’m absolutely thrilled to be on board. In fact, I think I say that in the press release.
Speaking of the press release:
Sourcebooks Casablanca launched its first romance fiction list in fall 2007, and is quickly becoming a top 10 publisher in the genre. In less than 3 years, the imprint now publishes 5 to 8 mass market romances per month, and was named Publisher of the Year by the Romance Writers of America New York City chapter, which also designated Deb Werksman, Sourcebooks’ romance editor, as its Editor of the Year.
Sourcebooks Casablanca has exceeded all expectations in the romance category, successfully launching the careers of debut authors such as Terry Spear (Heart of the Wolf, 2008 PW Book of the Year), Cheryl Brooks (Hero: The Cat Start Chronicles, BN Top of the New Year Pick), RITA Finalist Laurie Brown (What Would Jane Austen Do?), and Holt Medallion winner Robin Kaye (Breakfast in Bed), among others.
Sourcebooks Casablanca is also known for providing an exciting and career-building publishing home for such bestselling authors as Kathryne Kennedy, Stephanie Rowe, Lisa Renee Jones, Linda Wisdom and Leigh Michaels, as well as publishing new books by New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors such as Laura Kinsale, Elaine Coffman, Catherine Mann, Kristine Grayson and Patricia Rice.
Sourcebooks Casablanca is now building on this success with the addition of Leah Hultenschmidt as Senior Editor. Leah will acquire romance and YA projects for Sourcebooks’ Casablanca and Fire imprints, and she is the newest addition to the Sourcebooks New York office.
“I’m thrilled to be coming on board at Sourcebooks, whose innovation and commitment to authors is well known throughout the industry,” said Hultenschmidt.
Leah was most recently Editorial Director at Dorchester Publishing, one of the leading independent publishing houses for mass market fiction, where she served over ten years. She specialized in acquiring and editing romance fiction, westerns, and other mass market originals, and also has experience managing content for the Dorchester website. Leah has worked with New York Times bestselling authors Angie Fox and Jennifer Ashley and USA Today bestselling authors Joy Nash and Robin Popp, as well as many others. She developed the award-winning Classic Film Collection within the Western line to bring back into print novels that were the basis for such famous films as The Searches, Destry Rides Again, and The Outlaw Josey Wales.
Her first day with Sourcebooks is Wednesday, September 1.
August 28, 2010
For a week “off,” it’s sure been amazingly busy. Thank you again to everyone who’s emailed or left comments.
One of the first things I had to deal with was a complete change of domain name for the site–which you may note is now RomanticReading. In a bit of the world’s worst timing, the RomanticReads domain name expired Friday the 20th. I can’t even begin to describe how mad I was that there was no notification and that someone else snatched it up and now just had a really dumb-looking placeholder page. I couldn’t find any recourse to get it back. But I was able to transfer the entire blog to the new site, so technically nothing was lost. Except maybe a piece of my sanity. Please do update your bookmarks and RSS feeds.
But the biggest news–and much, much better news–is that I will be starting a new job on Wednesday. I don’t want to steal their thunder by saying where until the official press release goes out early next week. But I will still be acquiring romance and I’ll get a chance to work on YA too, which I’m super excited about. To me, it feels like a natural fit. I’m really biting my tongue here, so I better go before I completely spill the beans.
Enjoy the weekend!
August 20, 2010
Thank you to everyone who’s been in touch after hearing Don & I were let go from Dorchester yesterday evening. It certainly came as a shock, but we’re so grateful for all the support. Though I don’t know what lies ahead for the company, I certainly wish everyone there well. The house gave me and so many authors a wonderful start in the industry.
As RomanticReads is my own blog, I’ll continue to post when there’s news. Probably even more frequently than the last few months with so many changes and time crunches. 
For those looking to get in touch, the contact form on the About page will get me the message.
July 9, 2010
Q&A at Romance Univ
Posted by Leah under Submissions, Trends | Tags: Angie Fox, Erin Kellison |1 Comment
Angie Fox and Erin Kellison collaborated for a fantastic post on paranormal romance over at Romance University today. Find out what they think trends will be and what pitfalls to avoid on the road to publication.
I’ll also be taking questions in the comment section throughout the day, so please do stop by.
June 18, 2010
$5 off for everyone; new MUDBUG quiz
Posted by Leah under free stuff, General interest | Tags: coupon, Erin Kellison, Jana DeLeon, quiz |1 Comment
We’ve been in love with Erin Kellison’s SHADOW BOUND for well over a year now, and we’re so excited to finally be able to share it with you that we’re offering $5.00 off purchases on the Dorchester website to everyone who reads the prologue and answers a simple question about it. Get more details here.
And for a chance to win 50% off your next order, take the hilarious quiz to see if you could survive in Mudbug, Louisiana.
