On Writing Romance (39 page)

Not all publishers offer tip sheets. If a publisher does offer guidelines, you can download them from the publisher's Web site, or send a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) to the address given in published books.

Joining a professional organization, such as the Romance Writers of America, will give you access to up-to-date marketing news: notification of new category launches, shifts in what a particular category is looking to buy, and changes in editorial staff.

The best way to learn who is publishing specific kinds of romance novels is to read the books that are being published today. Check out the bookshelves, note the publishers, then look at the publishers' Web sites for guidelines and tip sheets, word counts, what to submit, and any recent changes in what the editors are seeking.

As you read a publisher's current titles, look at length, tone, setting, level of sensuality, number of subplots, types of issues faced by the characters, etc. Look, too, for the newer authors. Established authors who have developed a core readership are sometimes allowed more latitude, but the first book by a new author is a good clue to what the publisher is most likely to buy from another new author — you.

Sending your manuscript to a publisher whose books are very different from yours is a waste of time and postage. More importantly, it clearly indicates that you haven't bothered to do your homework and are uninformed about the romance genre.

Broadcasting your submissions — sending query letters to all the lines — is just as useless. Each line is unique; while any particular idea or manuscript might be tweaked in such a way that it would fit more than just one line, it cannot possibly fit ten or fifteen different lines.

There are two main ways to bring your work to the attention of a publisher: sending in a submission package, which we'll discuss in greater detail later in the chapter, and meeting face-to-face with an editor and pitching your book in person. Even if you meet with an editor in person, you will almost always submit your manuscript by mail. However, a personal meeting with an editor can speed the acceptance process.

One of the main draws of good writers' conferences is the editors who attend. You can get first-hand information about what an editor is seeking and in which direction a publisher is moving by attending an editor's workshops or panels.

Even when attending conferences, getting face time with an editor is not easy. Sometimes an editor will offer group appointments, in which several writers can ask more specific and in-depth questions than can be answered during a panel.

You can get valuable information and guidance from a group session, even though you won't be able to discuss your individual work.

At many conferences, editors also offer individual appointments, ten- or fifteen-minute segments where you can make a pitch, presenting your story in brief. If the editor is intrigued, she might ask you to send a synopsis or sample chapters to her after the conference.

Even if she's not interested in seeing more, she can often tell you exactly how you've missed the mark — valuable information that is difficult to get any other way.

Many authors are intimidated by meeting an editor during one of these fif-teen-minute appointments. Partly because these appointments are so brief, and partly because they're so valuable, writers tend to treat them as once-in-a-lifetime, do-or-die moments — like walking into the arena with a man-eating tiger.

Contrary to popular opinion, however, editors are not man-eating tigers wearing power suits. They do not take pleasure in squashing wannabes. Their job is to find good, salable books, and they're pleased when they succeed. When you make a pitch to an editor, she's just as hopeful as you are that your book will be the one she can't wait to read.

Fifteen minutes can feel like a lifetime. It can also go by in a flash. The better prepared you are, the more useful your time will be. If you think of your pitch appointment in the same way you would think of a job interview, you won't go far wrong, but there are some specific ways to make the most of your appointment:

• Give the editor your business card.
  

• Don't waste time telling the editor how nervous you are.
  

• Have your materials ready so you don't have to fumble for your notes.
  

• Write down on a 3 × 5 card the main points you want to make. Even if you know your story by heart, the moment you walk into that room you'll be lucky if you can recall your heroine's name.
  

• Start with the heart of your pitch, one sentence that tells the editor what the story's hook is. What elements are going to make readers want to buy it? What's going to be on the back cover to attract the readers' attention? (An example of a great one-sentence pitch:
  Their perfect divorce was falling apart!
  )
  

• Follow up with specifics. What makes your book different from every other romance? What makes it right for this line and this editor?
  

• Listen carefully and take quick notes if you wish, but don't try to write down every word. A good way to make the comments stick in your mind is to paraphrase them back to the editor: “So you'd be more interested in my story if I …” This technique also helps to ensure that you heard the editor's real message, not just your interpretation of it.
  

• Be prepared with a fallback proposal. If, after your first sentence, the editor says, “We aren't looking for that kind of story just now,” what are you going to do with your remaining fourteen minutes?
  

• Have a finished manuscript ready to mail as soon as you get home. If the editor wants to see it (or a synopsis or samples), you don't want her to forget you or the story, or move on to another line or publisher, before you get the thing finished.
  

• Don't present a manuscript at a conference, even if the editor is wildly enthusiastic and you're carrying the whole thing in your briefcase. She has luggage, and she isn't going to want to add loads of paper to it.
  

Remember that, no matter how it feels at the moment, the pitch is not a life-or-death moment. Don't be so nervous that you shoot yourself in the foot.

Even if you've made a successful personal pitch and the editor wants to see more about your story, she probably won't ask you to send your entire manuscript. Instead, she'll ask for a submission package, which is likely to be either a query letter or a proposal (a combination of cover letter, synopsis, and often a portion of the book). Listen closely to what the editor asks you to send, and follow instructions.

If you're submitting cold, without an invitation from an editor, you'll need to check the publisher's Web site, tip sheets, and/or market listings to see what its editors want to look at. Most often, editors expect just a query letter at first; if the editor is interested in the story, she'll request more material.

Here are the basic sales tools you should have at hand, and the things you'll most likely be requested to send.

The query is a one- or two-page letter that summarizes your manuscript and indicates any particular strengths that make the author especially qualified to write this book. A query letter is roughly equivalent to a mini-synopsis and cover letter, but it is constructed in one piece rather than two. A good query letter will:

• State your story's hook.
  

• Summarize in one or two sentences the manuscript's strong points.
  

• State the number of words in the full manuscript.
  

• Be based on a
  completed
  manuscript.
  

• State the line it is intended to fit into, and why you feel the book belongs there.
  

• Give the flavor of the book (funny? dark? tender?).
  

• Tell the editor important things about the characters.
  

• List your qualifications for writing this particular story (for example, it's a historical set in Tudor times and you have a degree in English history).
  

• Briefly list your publication credits, if appropriate (any publication for which you were paid, even if it wasn't romance or fiction, is an indication of professionalism).
  

• Reflect your personality.
  

On the other hand, a good query letter will not:

• List self-published or subsidy-published works as publication credits.
  

• List the titles of your other, unpublished manuscripts.
  

• Say, “My mother thinks this is the best book ever!”
  

• Include a pen name.
  

• Go into detail about your education or experience unless this is pertinent to the book's subject.
  

Basic formatting guidelines apply here, so your letter should be single-spaced in a plain twelve-point font on plain, letter-size paper, or on a simple letterhead. Do not handwrite your query letter or use odd-colored ink, graphics, gaudy stationery, or unusual type styles. Be sure to include your full name, address, phone number, and e-mail address.

To see a sample query letter based on my contemporary romance
Ties That Blind,
turn to Appendix A.

A cover letter is a one-page letter that accompanies a synopsis, sample chapters, or manuscript. (It is not necessary to include a cover letter with a query letter.)The cover letter is especially important if you're submitting to an editor who has requested to see your work, but a good cover letter can help ensure that any submission gets to the right person. It should include information similar to the basic information included in a query letter. It will:

• Remind the editor if and when she met you, or if she requested the submission based on a query letter.
  

• State the number of words in the full manuscript.
  

• Be based on a
  completed
  manuscript.
  

• State the line it is intended to fit into and why you feel the book belongs there.
  

• Give the flavor of the book (funny? dark? tender?).
  

• Give a short (no more than two-line) description of the work.
  

• Give a brief summary of your qualifications and publishing credentials, if any.
  

A good cover letter will not:

• Include details of the story line, plot, or characters (the synopsis will do that).
  

• Go into detail about how you came to write the book.
  

• Be written (or appear to be written) by anyone except you, the manuscript's author.
  

To see a sample cover letter for
Ties That Blind
, turn to Appendix B.

A synopsis is a summary of the entire story, including the major plot events, character motivations, conflict, development of the romantic relationship, and ending. The length of a synopsis depends on the publisher and type of book, but a synopsis can range from two double-spaced pages for a short category to twenty-five pages for historical, paranormal, or single-title books.

Synopsis writing, says a Harlequin editor, “is the toughest kind of writing there is. Nobody likes it — and nobody's particularly good at it — but it is the way books are sold.” Few editors can buy manuscripts entirely on their own; most take the synopses of their proposed purchases to a weekly sales or acquisition meeting, where the summaries are passed around and discussed before the decision to acquire is made.

Salable synopses are:

• Clear.
  The information is straightforward and presented in a logical manner that does not force the reader to pause to figure out what you meant.
  

• Concise.
  It doesn't fill space with details, information unnecessary to the understanding of the main plot, dialogue, or introspection.
  

• Complete.
  It includes all the information necessary to understand the characters and the conflict, and it shows how the conflict is resolved and how the ending comes about.
  

An effective synopsis will address these six specific points:

• Hook.
  What's going to appear on the back cover of the book? What element in your story is going to grab the readers and make them say, “This is so different, so unusual, so intriguing that I have to read this book”?
  

• Heroine.
  What makes her interesting? Physical description is usually a waste of space, as is most of the character's history. The editor is more interested in what kind of person the character is now and — only if it's crucial to the story — how she got that way.
  

• Hero.
  Why is he in opposition to the heroine? What does he want, or why does he not want the heroine to succeed?
  

• Conflict.
  What is the main character's difficulty at or near the start of the story? What is the problem that will keep the characters apart, force them to work together, and change their entire future?
  

• Story.
  How is the conflict shown to the readers? How does it intensify? How does each event affect the main characters? What twists and turns in the plot will keep the readers fascinated and unable to put the book down? Sketch the beginning, middle, and end of the story in skeletal form, while still being as specific as possible.
  

• Resolution.
  How is the conflict resolved? How does the ending come about? What makes the ending satisfying for the readers?
  

Though these six parts of the story should be addressed in order to create an effective synopsis, there is no other formula or required structure for a synopsis. So long as you include the important points, you may use your creativity to best summarize the story.

A good synopsis will:

• Be double-spaced, to allow editing in the margins and between lines.
  

• Be written in present tense, to create a sense of immediacy.
  

• Be more like a book review than a book report.
  

• Capture the tone of the book (i.e., the synopsis for a humorous book should have a lighthearted approach).
  

• Be based on a
  completed
  manuscript.
  

• Be written so its parts are roughly in proportion to the book (don't spend the first half of the synopsis on the first chapter or two of the book).
  

• Tell the story in a logical way, not necessarily in the same order the information is presented in the book.
  

• Briefly describe important characteristics of the hero and heroine.
  

• Show the main action sequences, to allow the editor to judge whether the story is logical and believable and whether the plot is realistic and well organized.
  

• Show how the conflict is resolved.
  

• Tell the ending and show how it is brought about.