Put Your Heart in a Book Conference 2005
Author: Janice Lynn
Original Publication Date in Love Notes: November 2005

Earlier this month I had the privilege of going to the New Jersey Put Your Heart In A Book conference in, you guessed it, New Jersey. I’ve gone a couple of times in the past and have always been pleased with the quality turnout of editors, agents, and organization of the conference in general. This year was no exception.

After several airport delays I finally arrived at the Newark airport and met up with another writing friend. On Friday night, the Golden Leaf awards were held. The decorations and ceremony rocked. Later that night I went to dinner with a couple of The Knight Agency pals and we discussed our fabulous agents.

On Friday evening, Tanya Michaels gave an informative workshop on the work that goes on after the sale. Unfortunately I was still at the airport during the time, but the notes in the conference pack were helpful and gave an overview of things to do like publicity shots, published author groups to consider, getting reviews of your book, and websites, etc. I heard great things about this workshop and hate that I missed it.

On Saturday morning, an excellent class on adding steam to your love scenes was given by Patrice Michelle, who writes for Ellora’s Cave. Patrice gave some neat tips on getting inspired
prior to writing your love scenes. Some of those tips included taking a bath, read a good book, watch a sexy movie, and delve into other women’s fantasies.

The best workshop I attended while in New Jersey was a two-hour one given by Sherrilyn Kenyon. Titled, Thinking Outside The Box: Promotion That Works, this workshop really tapped into ways authors could make themselves stand out from the crowd. Find a niche that’s not taken and make it yours. Sherrilyn recommended never excerpting the first chapter of your book. Why? Because if a potential reader picks it up and browses the opening she might think she’s already read the story and you’ve lost a sale. Another great tip was picking up book cover flats, finding out who the editor is and writing down her name on it. By reading the back cover flat and the information on it, you’ll learn what the editor saw as selling points in this particular book. Plus, you can easily store the cover flats in files sorted by editor names or a particular type of book. Sherrilyn recommended looking at your budget realistically and playing upon your strengths. I wish I could cover all the great information Sherrilyn gave. Take my advice, if you ever get the opportunity to take this class, just do it!

I try to never miss an editor panel at a conference because many times they’ll specifically say what they are looking for and sometimes you can pick up on market trends, etc.. Below, I’ve included the key notes I made in regards to the editors/houses represented at the conference.

Rose Hillard said NAL is actively seeking Signet/Eclipse stories with strong, exciting hooks. They prefer agented submissions and do not accept electronic submissions.

Raelene Gorlinsky from Ellora’s Cave said they do e-submissions only, and if they receive paper submissions, they are not considered. Actually, she said they are trashed as their guidelines are very specific and anyone who paper submits apparently hasn’t taken the time to check those guidelines. They are actively seeking for Ellora’s Cave and for Cerridwen Press.

Melanie Murray of Warner says they are actively seeking dark, sexy paranormals and romantic suspense and Latina submissions for their Salona line that will launch in 2006. For the Salona line, they are currently taking unagented submissions, but with all other lines they only accept agented submissions. They do not accept e-submissions.

HQN is looking for “everything”. They recommend querying first. They recently bought BET, but it was too early for the editors in attendance to be able to comment on this as they literally didn’t know anything beyond that BET had been bought. They do not accept e-submissions.

TOR, Natalia Aponte (specifically for Natalia, as this is not true for other TOR editors) prefers electronic submissions and is looking for medical thrillers in particular. She states she is searching for women in the Middle East stories. Unagented submissions are okay. Send a query and first 50 pages. A side note: I heard rumor that this editor changed jobs soon after the conference. I strongly advise checking prior to submitting to her at TOR.

St. Martin’s Press’s Monique Patterson advised querying first. She likes to see a sample of writing (no more than a few pages) included with a query and St. Martin’s Press does not accept electronic submissions.

The Saturday night book signing was a huge success with the usual long lines at authors like Sherrilyn Kenyon & Christine Feehan’s tables. For me, it was a particularly sweet one as it was the last one I’ll go to without having a book of my own to sign.

On Sunday afternoon, a luncheon for authors to meet booksellers was held and I was told twenty-two booksellers attended. What a great opportunity for authors to network and exchange business cards with local booksellers. How fun! I particularly enjoyed this event and hope to see more luncheons of the like offered at conferences.

Overall, the conference was a great success and well worth all the airport woes. Plus, I ended up with a free round trip to be used within the next year…uhm, wonder if I can go ahead and book for next year’s conference?

***

Janice Lynn’s debut novel, JANE MILLIONAIRE, won Romantic Times’ American Title contest and will be released Nov. 29, 2005. To find out more about Janice and her writing, visit www.janicelynn.net or http://janicelynn.myblogsite.com

Love Notes, the official monthly newsletter of Music City Romance Writers, is provided to paying members free of charge. If you are an MCRW member and would like to submit an article to Love Notes, visit the main newsletter page for more information. If you would like to reprint one of these articles in your RWA chapter newsletter, please give proper credit to both the author and the original source. For any other uses, please contact the president.