Writing for Harlequin Mills & Boon

Anglea

Some incentive this month - join in this annual write a book in a month contest -

http://www.nanowrimo.org/

bunnyfuller

Just a quick q for you industrious people...

I don't feel ready for the short novel yet, but would be really interested how you managed to get short stories published....

Any advice very welcome

Nic

Anglea

bunnyfuller wrote: »

Just a quick q for you industrious people...

I don't feel ready for the short novel yet, but would be really interested how you managed to get short stories published....

Any advice very welcome

Nic

[FONT=&quot]bunnyfuller, hi

Once you decide on where you want your story to appear, read as many copies possible of that publication to get a good feel for the readership (via the letters page, stories and features, adverts) and the writing style.

Find out if they receive unsolicited manuscripts. If yes, then find out the name of the editor, then write to them sending a covering letter with brief details about you and your story to accompany your manuscript. Send yourself a copy of your story in a sealed envelope first, for copyright.


[/FONT]

Anglea

Sorry for the small print in my last post, my computer crashed while I wrote it, so saved it on my documents, this is how it's come out, and it won't edit for some reason.

leopard85

I've just spent the morning reading through this thread and you've given me the courage and motivation to actually give this a go. It's something I've always wanted to do, and the short stories I've written have been well received, but I've never had the confidence in myself to actually try and get something published. Thanks for the advice and inspiration! I'm going to keep it quiet to my friends and family initially and just start writing and experimenting to see what happens.

Caz - I read your first chapter too, very exciting! How is it progressing? Good luck!

Anglea

Hi Leopard, what kind of stories do you enjoy writing?

Anglea

How are you all getting on?

I wonder if any of you are working on a Christmas themed book?

Sarah_Harvey

I would love to publish a novel, but have never attempted a full book or anything and I doubt I will be good at it. However, I am good at putting together things like the characters, their personalities, likes dislikes etc. The research bit I am good at only because I used to roleplay on forums at one point.

raeble

You don't know until you try Sarah, and try and try again. The first draft is always rubbish - unless you're Nora Roberts! The second draft too really. I used to worry about my writing being bad but then I realised it was because I was expecting it to be perfect first or second time. I heard about one published author who rewrote parts of their book 30 times. Jeffrey Archer said he writes sixteen drafts before he ever shows it to his Editor.

A great website for writers is Absolute Write - http://absolutewrite.com/forums/index.php they have a bunch of forums for all stages of writing. Once you get 50 posts you can get your work critiqued in the share your work forums (these are private and password protect). There are a lot of published authors, editors and agents who spend time on the forum so it isn't just aspiring authors giving advice. When you get around to thinking about submitting you can research publishers/agents etc in the Bewares & Background checks section. After reading that forum a while you can start to see what to look out for.

Georgiegirl2012

Hello - interesting thread

I'v always wanted to write a book/short story, but it will probably be a while until I get round to it. I won a book a couple of weeks ago called "Writers' & Artists' yearbook guide to Getting Published" by Harry Bingham.

There seems to lots of useful information in there.

I will watch and learn.

Good luck everybody
xxx