Author! Author!
Steve Myers
Wednesday August 3, 2013
Welcome to my the first blog entry in my Author! Author! blog. This is going to be a great place for me to pay tribute Authors, Publishers and their books. Some will be about those I’ve met and have become friends with and others that I have long admired. This will also be about my journey towards becoming a published author myself.
The first author I plan to celebrate is myself. Well, celebrate the journey I’m on to become a published author.
TERMINOLOGY
As a member of the ACFW American Christian Fiction Writers organization they use the term of a not yet published writer in a more positive spin word of ‘Pre-Published.’ I find it a kinder, gentler, and more positive word.
In my life I’ve been a professional copywriter for over 38-years in Broadcast Radio, TV, Corporate Communications, Industrial Production and for Non-Profit organizations. Hard to estimate but I’d say over 50,000 Radio Commercials, Promos and Public Service Announcements written in :10, :30 and :60 second varieties either for live-copy or recorded production. I’ve been a columnist in the University of Texas at El Paso ‘Prospector’ Newspaper in the early 1990s too. I’ve been an academic writer in my BA, Masters and for a variety of scholarship papers in the 1990s as well.
Publishing, however is different. At the moment I am a pre-published writer for what I hope will be a long career ahead of me with Harlequin Love Inspired books in either Contemporary and/or Historical Romance novels.
TARGET PUBLISHER: HARLEQUIN LOVE INSPIRED
When Margaret Daley first suggested I write for Harlequin I shook my head in disbelief. After all, my limited knowledge of Harlequin were steamy stereotypical ‘romance’ novels with a shirtless Fabio on the cover and someone like Scarlet O’Hara in his arms. Thankfully, the Harlequin Love Inspired Christian Division is nothing like that stereotype at all.
HARLEQUIN GUIDELINES
The Writing Guidelines for the Love Inspired division can be found in their entirety at the following link: http://www.harlequin.com/articlepage.html?articleId=559&chapter=0
For a brief summary I will condense the page to the following paragraph:
“Love Inspired is – Touched by an Angel or Seventh Heaven or Gilmore Girls or Hallmark movies, for their solid stories and characters, sense of family and community, with tender romance and a level of faith at its core. Relatable heroines in everyday life finding love in the arms of a strong, honorable man. Love Inspired heroes should be strong and smart, with a core of tenderness, and the heroines should be their equals.”
In the Contemporary Novels these are some parameters and goals: “Contemporary inspirational romances that feature Christian characters facing the many challenges of life and love in today’s world.”
In Historical Novels these are some of the parameters and goals: “Powerful, engaging stories of romance, adventure and faith set in times past, with rich historical details and complex stories.” (see: http://www.harlequin.com/articlepage.html?articleId=1186&chapter=0)
The Love Inspired line also offers a Mystery/Suspense Category. Although I do not presently write in this area there’s no reason why I might not in the future. (See their guidelines at: http://www.harlequin.com/articlepage.html?articleId=919&chapter=0)
WHERE CAN HARLEQUIN LOVE INSPIRED BOOKS BE PURCHASED?
I was and am amazed how accessible these books are both in stores, online and in subscription form from the publisher. They can be purchased directly from:
Harlequin’s web site, Kindle, Mardel, Barnes and Noble, Christian Bookseller Direct and of all places on most book stand areas of Wal-Mart and Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market’s. The price is also discounted off the cover price at Wal Mart Stores. A large volume of readers are the subscribers at Harlequin’s book club.
THE TWO GENRES I’VE CONSIDERED WRITING:
HISTORICAL & CONTEMPORARY
Below are a few samples of the Love Inspired Historical covers
And Love Inspired Contemporary cover
HOW I CAME TO HARLEQUIN
Margaret Daley first introduced me to the publisher and the Love Inspired division in the spring of 2012. She and several other published writers had been gracious with their time and thoughts to unanswered questions I had about the publishing industry as well as writers life. Through the ACFW e-loops I came to exchange letters with Margaret, Stephanie Grace Whitson, Gail Gaymer Martin, Colleen Coble and Arlene James. Little did I know Harlequin would become an integral part of my entry into publishing in several key areas.
In the spring of 2012 Margaret Daley announced a promotion with Harlequin LOVE INSPIRED in the SPEED DATE WITH EDITOR Emily Rodmell. I was one of 100 writers who got a chance to participate in an online forum getting five-minutes to convince Emily I had a viable book synopsis and proposal. Its funny looking back on it… a few days before the even my then 81-year-0ld mother had fallen and broke her hip. The day she was transferred from the surgical hospital in Fort Worth to a rehab hospital in Arlington was my time to pitch H LI on my proposal. From Wifi in Health South and their lobby I did just that. Completely at ease prior to it and chatting with other fellow pre-published writers in the main forum the wind went out of me when my name was called and I went into the private chat room. A 52-year-old man who has been on Radio to thousands, TV to a larger audience, on stage in Melodrama, College and Community Theater, and introducing bands, circuses, even the Ice Capades in arenas and nightclubs was trembling in my fingers to work right and cut/paste my synopsis.
There were one of four responses I believe Emily could give. One was something like she had to have it or signed on the spot. The second was she could not wait to read more and the third was something like ‘it didn’t grab me but follow up to convince me of its value.” The forth response was ‘thank you for playing,’ in an outright rejection.
How did I score? I scored a 3. It didn’t grab her but she was willing to read more. And after a quick five minutes the speed date was over. After a collective ‘whew’ I then started to weigh the issues of the audition and the process. I eventually had two questions that challenged me:
TWO CRITICAL QUESTIONS:
#1. “What did the Editor want MORE from me?”
and
2. “Even though I don’t have to have an agent to sign with H/LI I should have one before going any further?”
Both questions challenged me for days.
The first question was easier to answer than the second. What Emily wanted was roughly a five to seven page synopsis I could have easily written. But question number two and my lack of having a preference genre for the line became a third challenging issue.
ANSWERS
In the end I was grateful for the experience but passed on the entry into Harlequin until
1. I had an agent
2. I had a defined preference genre
3. We (my Agent and I) had a charted career plan instead of the opportunity to perhaps become a one book wonder. I wanted to be in publishing for the long haul and realized I needed to know more about the industry than the immediate change to write for what is an exceptional publisher though at the time with my abilities not yet professional and still a bit amateur.
Waiting was the smarter move. The Speed Date was a preview I potentially had a future in publishing and with a specific publisher. But I still needed to get my i’s dotted and t’s crossed before I proceeded forward.
WHAT BOOK DID I PITCH?
I originally pitched a Contemporary Story called Silent Night or Love’s Pure Light. It was an expanded 55k novel based on a screenplay I had written in 2005. What happened to it? I lost a lot of time in June-July-August caring for my now 82-yaer-old mother who was in a rehab hospital and then back at home while I continued to work my day/night job (moonlighting with Costco). Preparing for the 2012 ACFW DFW Conference also put that book on hold.
By August there seemed there was so much to so and so little time to get everything done they way I wanted. One of the things I needed to have ready was called a ONE SHEET. Buying some inexpensive software for my Mac that smoked Adobe In-Design hands down was Swift Publisher 3. With the investment and suggestion from the ACFW loops I created one for four different book ideas and this one (below) is what I used for SILENT NIGHT.
