Kiss pitch contest!

It's time for the celebrations of my 10 year anniversary in the publishing industry to begin!

Flo Nicoll, my fab editor from Mills & Boon UK is taking pitches here starting now.

Flo will choose 3 lucky winners and critique their Kiss partials within 1 week!

That's a super-fast turnaround from an extremely busy editor at a major publishing house.

Before posting your pitch, you may want to check out the imprint Guidelines below:

KISS is sharply contemporary, glossy and chic, attracting readers who enjoy a short hit of romantic excitement with a thoroughly modern twist! Smart and stylish, sweet or sexy, these stories offer fun, flirty reads featuring smart, sassy heroines, equally matched by 21st century alpha heroes!

KISS Key Elements

• Contemporary romance series with a range of sensuality – we're looking for authors who can convey that young urban feel with sparkling characters and simmering tension - either with or without the hot sex!
• This series is all about the 21st century alpha male hero!
• Vibrant, sexy, spirited, fun – but still offering a strong emotional pay off and happy ever after.
• 50,000 words.

Featured in KISS:

Sparky, spirited heroines in control of their own destinies and with friends to help them through – these ladies are more than a match for their men.

Flirty, cheeky, alpha heroes, who expect their partners to be their equals - these guys are absolutely irresistible!

KISS is: all around you! Just look out for edgy, modern-day characters, sometimes struggling, sometimes knocked sideways by love, but finding their happy endings with plenty of laughter and attitude along the way…

• TV: Brothers and Sisters, Ugly Betty, New Girl for their fab, witty dialogue
• Films: What to Expect When You're Expecting, Bridesmaids, 500 Days of Summer, 27 Dresses, No Strings Attached, The Holiday, Friends With Kids, Crazy Stupid Love.
• Authors: if you enjoy authors such as Kristin Higgins, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Tasmina Perry, Jennifer Cruisie or Meg Cabot you'll love KISS!

To enter the contest, leave the following in the comments of this post. Entries will be accepted from now until midnight EST on May 14th.

Title
1-3 line pitch
Email address

-Entries preferred for a completed manuscript but partials accepted.
-Contest open to unpublished & published writers.

Winners will be announced by end of this week- keep an eye out on the blog here and on my Twitter & Facebook accounts for the announcement.

You can post up to two different pitches, but each pitch must be written in a separate comment.

*Editor reserves the right to not choose winners, based on quality and quantity of submissions.

So what are you waiting for?
Let the pitching games begin!

New contract!

I'm thrilled to announce I've signed a contract with ENTANGLED PUBLISHING'S Brazen series.

These books are sassy and sexy and oh-so-readable.

My first, tentatively titled SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY, will be released in October this year, with the 2nd book in the series out in Feb 2014.

Sleeping with the Enemy is one of those rare magical books that flew from my fingers in 15 days. Revisions are about to land any day now and I can't wait to tighten and polish this story.

And I can't wait for you all to read it!

Another indie success story

The publishing world is buzzing with news of another indie success story.

Jennifer Armentrout (YA author with Spencer Hill Press, Entangled Publishing, Disney Hyperion and Harlequin Teen-who has blurbed my paranormal YA SCION OF THE SUN ) also writes contemporary romances for Entangled as J. Lynn.

She recently indie published her first New Adult title, WAIT FOR YOU...that hit the NYT and USA Today bestsellers lists within days and stayed at #1 in the kindle store for a while.

Fast forward a few weeks...and Harper Collins Avon has snapped up print rights to this book and the 2 sequels for a high 6 figure sum.
Very exciting!

Read the full story here.

Congrats Jennifer!

(I stayed up very late last night to finish Wait for You! Review to come in Weekend Book Club here next weekend.)

Mega news from Entangled Publishing

In case you haven't heard, ENTANGLED PUBLISHING is taking the literary world by storm.

They've announced several partnerships.

The first, with David Entertainment in Hollywood, enabling first look at all EP books (linked to 20th Century Fox!) Read about it in Variety Magazine.

(I could really see myself on the red carpet for the movie premiere of BUSTED IN BOLLYWOOD or NOT THE MARRYING KIND...)

The next? They've teamed up with MacMillan for global distribution of their books and St. Martin's Press for print distribution of some digital titles.
Read about it in World EIN News.

I'm so glad to be writing for this innovative publisher!

Publishing news: Harlequin's new series KISS

The cat's out of the bag...so now I can blab the news about Harlequin's news series KISS.

Launching in the USA in Feb 2013, all the books I write for Harlequin (previously released as Harlequin Romance & Presents Extra) will be released under this new series.

So the same fun, flirty reads from some of your favourite authors including Liz Fielding, Jessica Hart, Heidi Rice, Natalie Anderson, Aimee Carson, Amy Andrews, Ally Blake et al. will be part of KISS.

These books will continue to be sold in the UK under the revamped RIVA series, cover reveals soon!

I've seen the covers and...they're not what you expect!
Can't wait to share with you all.

True grit as a writer

Great post today at Bob Mayer's blog, discussing the heirarchy of goals in writing.

Having a strategic goal is crucial and Bob has some absolute gems that will resonate.

Go check it out here

(I'm still rapt I got to hear Bob speak at the RWAus conference last year in Melbourne. He really inspired me to become a hybrid author willing to take chances in this ever-evolving publishing industry. He's brilliant! If you ever get a chance to hear him speak, grab the opportunity, you won't regret it.)

Want to write for Harlequin Romance?

Want to write for Harlequin Romance?

Here's your chance.

The Mills and Boon UK team are fast-tracking submissions!

"...we’ll be launching a fast track submission period! Anyone who sends us their first chapter and synopsis between 14th March and 23rd April will hear back from us less than ONE MONTH after the closing date, before the 18th May.


"The email address to send your submission to is romancefasttrack@hqnuk.co.uk.

"Please attach your first chapter and short synopsis to the email as well as a short query letter, letting us know how much of the manuscript is complete. Please note, we’ll be looking at only one submission per person."
 
So there you have it.
What are you waiting for?

Digital Book World Conference

The Digital Book World conference is happening right now in NYC and the information coming from it is fantastic!

If you're on Twitter, follow #dbw and #dbw12

And BOB MAYER is providing great wrap-ups and excellent insights as always on his blog.

Romancing the Naked Hero

We interrupt WEEKEND BOOK CLUB transmission this week to bring you naked men instead.

Yes, that's right.

Today I'm thrilled to be part of the the new ROMANCING THE NAKED HERO blog.

As the tagline says, 'A Goddess's Work is Never Done...' and that's what we're going to bring you daily...naked men.

Okay, maybe not naked men all the time, but we're going to strip down heroes, discover what makes them tick, along with a lot of other fab blog goodness.

You can check out the regular bloggers (including moi!) in the sidebar.
If you're a writer, you can also find loads of great archetype information in the header.

So come along and help us in the arduous job of Romancing the Naked Hero.

The best bit?  As a special launch prize, we're giving away a kindle!

Come visit!

Branding

Timely post by Nathan Bransford on branding today.

He says there's no such thing as branding on the internet, only you, and I have to agree.

Because I've always wanted to write mainstream fiction alongside my Harlequin romances, I deliberately chose a generalised tagline "Flirty Fiction with Flair."

With the upcoming release of BUSTED IN BOLLYWOOD, I've been toying with the idea of a separate blog, until I realised something.
I have a loyal following here. I look forward to interacting with those people daily.
I don't want to branch off somewhere else where I may miss out on those interactions.

Then there's Facebook & Twitter & Goodreads, where I chat daily too.
And I'm totally with Nathan. What you see on those media sites is ME. I chat life, books, kids, footy, food, Bollywood, publishing stuff.
I'm the brand.
Not a tagline, not what I write.
Me.

So that's what you're going to get.
Sure, there'll be loads of new Bollywood goodness here (stay tuned for some exciting reveals!) but what you see is what you get.

Nathan Bransford's post is reiterating this. Worth reading.

Don't forget the BACK TO THE BOOKS giveaway is running for another few days!
Check out my 3 book giveaway HERE.

My first ebook short story release!

I'm thrilled to announce my romantic suspense special ops short story, TAG TEAM, is now available on Amazon & Smashwords.

Here's a snippet:

The woman had balls.
Big, brass cojones according to rumour circulating the ADF, though the technical terms in Coralee Keaton’s Australian Defence Force file read “brave, brilliant, resourceful.”
Garcia Diaz—Fox to anyone who wanted to walk out of his office without a permanent limp—had witnessed her demonstrate those admirable qualities first hand.
Now she was back.
To muscle in on his operation.
Again.
“Son of a bitch,” he muttered, squeezing his eyes shut, pressing the pads of his thumbs into them, wishing he could obliterate the memory of this woman and what he knew about her.
It didn’t work.
Her file was embedded in his brain: Coralee Keaton—Lee if you didn’t want a Remington 870 shotgun aimed at your head—thirty-four, joined the 4th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (Commando) after six years Army service, and became part of the embedded Tactical Assault Group (TAG) after 9/11.
An integral part of TAG if her results were anything to go by. This, on top of her leadership in 4 RAR (Special Forces Commandos).
Was there anything the ball-breaking wonder woman couldn’t do?
A brief pounding on the door had his eyes snapping open in time to see her stride into his office, her expression a study in polite professionalism, her eyes eerily blank, as if she didn’t know him.
Intimately.
“You cut your hair,” he said, throwing his pen on the stack of monotonous paperwork in front of him, pissed at her intrusion yet glad for the distraction.
Coralee Keaton might be a pain in the ass to work with but her taut body, long legs and impressive D cup more than compensated for the grief.
“You cut your surveillance on the Ebola job.”
She slammed her palms on his desk, loomed over him. “It nearly botched the whole operation.”
“But it didn’t.”
Leaning back in his chair, he locked hands behind his head, thrust his chin up, his smug smile guaranteed to grate.
She reared back, her blue eyes frigid as the Yarra River on a winter’s day as she stared him down.
“You better not make the same mistake on the ricin job.”
He’d had enough of this crap. Balling his hands into fists, he stood so fast his chair slammed into the filing cabinet behind him.
“I don’t make mistakes, Coralee.”
He deliberately used her full first name, hoping to get a rise.
It worked.
“Then what the hell am I doing here?”
“Wasting tax payers’ money?”
Stalking around the desk, he stopped a foot in front of her, invading her personal space, daring her to make an issue of it.
With a toss of her glorious shoulder-length black bob, she met his taunting gaze head on.
“I’m the best there is.”
Jabbing his chest for good measure, she smirked. “And don’t you forget it.”
Like he ever could.
He’d tried to forget, dammit, tried with every rebellious cell in his body, but the memory of the last time they’d hooked up on a job was burned into his brain.

Want to read the rest?
Grab it here for only 0.99 cents!
Or here at Smashwords.

And don't forget my 3 book giveaway in the post below!

Changing landscape in publishing

As an interesting follow on from the Joe Konrath blog post yesterday, here's one from my favourite publishing guru, Bob Mayer.

I love his clarity and bluntness.

Well worth reading about the changing landscape of publishing.

Power in publishing

I love hearing the daily developments in publishing at the moment and here's another one.

Joe Konrath and Blake Crouch discussing who has the power in publishing.

Fascinating reading.

How long is a piece of string?

Last day to win 7 books!

Be in it to win it!

Details here

In publishing news, anyone who's ever been on submission with a manuscript knows how draining/frustrating/exciting it can be.

Here's a fab post by Nathan Bransford on why the process takes so long!

Exciting reading experience

Entangled Publishing (who are releasing my Bollywood book in December!) have just announced an exciting partnership with Kobo.

Read all about it here.

Which will make you more money?

Self publishing or traditional publishing? Nathan Bransford does a great breakdown of the figures here.

Would you turn down half a million?

Today I woke to the news that author Barry Eisler has turned down a $500 000 contract with St. Martin's Press to self publish.

Wow. Simply wow.

Read about it here, in his chat with Joe Konrath.