Not the in-the-office stuff, of course, but how to spot a great one for a novel. Here are three tips… The Lowdown on Emotional Conflicts During our combined time at Harlequin, there’s one term we might have heard more than any other when we’ve assessed manuscripts, and that is “Emotional Conflict.” Besides searching for those fresh…
Category: Harlequin Editors
Harlequin Editors Give Some Plotting Advice!
Many years ago Harlequin’s UK office–aka Mills & Boon headquarters–ran the fabulous “New Voices” competition. The editors gave a lot of tips, and good advice never goes bad! We’ve repurposed some of it for you… Don’t let the Plot Get In the Way of the Story…. Have you ever wondered why you can’t get your…
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The Dare Blitz Opens Today!
Welcome to our #DAREblitz! From April 9th – 20th, our editors will be sharing information about Harlequin DARE here on the So You Think You Can Write blog, as well as Twitter and Facebook. That includes what we’re looking for in new submissions! Most exciting—you can skip the slush pile and submit your proposal to us…
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Top 10 Reasons Why We Reject a Project
By Patience Bloom Do you live in fear of the rejection letter? Maybe you’ve received a few and spend days trying to decipher the strange editor language. Just between us, we don’t really like writing these letters. In fact, we’d rather be buying new authors and showing off your amazing stories! But to be helpful,…
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Advice from the Archives: Keep It Fresh!
by Johanna Raisanen, Editor So you’ve written a secret-baby story and you’re debating submitting to us. Well, you should! But perhaps you’ve been told that secret-baby stories are so cliché! I recently read an article about “the worst romance-novel clichés,” where the author lists a lot of tropes found in romance and explains why she…
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5 Reasons to Listen to Audiobooks
by Connolly Bottum, Subsidiary Rights and Editorial Assistant for Harlequin Intrigue–and the newest member of the SYTYCW Team Before last year, I never listened to audiobooks. I worried that I would miss important details if something distracted me while I was listening. I feared the narrator would read too slowly – which would irritate me…
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Advice from the Archives: The Unpredictable Route to Happy Ever After
By Flo Nicoll, Senior Editor, Harlequin Presents and Dare In Romance HQ, unpredictability has become \\the\\ buzzword – we’re constantly discussing and promoting ways to ensure our authors are producing the most exciting stories possible. Our long-term emphasis on innovative emotional conflict means this has been on our editorial radar for a while. So, here’s the lowdown……
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My Editor Crush: Taika Waititi
By Kathleen Scheibling, Executive Editor I have a crush on this man. His name is Taika Waititi and he’s from New Zealand. I’ve always wanted to go to New Zealand because it looks beautiful. Taika is also beautiful. He also has qualities I admire in a man – primarily a sense of humour that showcases…
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Happy New Year from SYTYCW!
by Patience Bloom We hope you had marvelous holidays and are ready to write some page-turning love stories this year. Doesn’t the world need a whole lot more HEA? I think so! To rev up your creative engines, let me offer a few good tips to get those ideas sparking and those pens (keyboards) flowing.…
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Five Reasons to Love Holiday Romances
by Grace Thiele I love the holidays. I am, in fact, a festive fiend. When my boss brought in mince pies, halfway through November, I did a Regency-heroine-of-old faint of ecstasy. I force my housemates to decorate, play Mariah Carey (and sing – badly), and have to resist dressing myself in tinsel for four weeks…