The Black Dagger Brotherhood_ An Insider's Guide - J. R. Ward [99]
2. Find other writers. I joined the Romance Writers of America (www.rwanational.org) after I’d finished my first marketable project, and I’ve met all my writer friends through RWA. There are local chapter meetings across the country, e-mail loops you can participate in, contests you can enter your writing in, regional conferences, and a magazine that comes every month with tons of information in it. Additionally, every year there’s a big national convention, which is great for networking with other writers and which offers opportunities for appointments with editors and agents, as well as classes taught by experts. RWA also has on its Web site incredible resources on craft and business—essentially everything that has to do with romance writing. If you want to get published, I strongly recommend joining, but RWA isn’t the only group available. And if you want to get published in another genre, there are other nonprofits that likewise encourage content-specific networking (like mystery or horror or sci-fi).
3. Don’t write to the market, but be strategic. In terms of subgenres (like paranormals or romantic suspense or historicals), if there’s something that’s hot that publishers are buying, it never hurts to put your hat in the ring if what’s being bought is something you’ve legitimately got in you to write. The Brothers and I are an example of this. By the same token, if there’s something that you want to write but isn’t selling very well, if your goal is to get picked up by a publisher, you might consider exploring some of your other ideas and seeing if they’re in a subgenre that’s moving a little bit more. HOWEVER, that all being said, if you write what you’re passionate about, your enthusiasm is going to come through on the page and make for a better reading experience—and things change. What’s hot now may be replaced with something else in another year. Hold on to your rejected manuscripts—you never know when you might resubmit to someone else or in another form in the future.
4. Write your book for you, then see who it fits with. It’s a good idea to know what individual publishers/editors are buying, and it does make sense, once you’re finished with a project, to send it to the right place: For example, you wouldn’t want to get a medieval romance to an editor who’s looking for paranormals (more on how to find out who’s buying what in a little bit). The great thing about having a good agent is that they’ll know on whose desk to place your work. Some editors like to work with dark stuff, others like comedy, and personality matches are always a plus in the editor/author relationship. If you haven’t found an agent yet and are submitting without one, ask other authors whose material is similar to yours who they’re working with (but, again, more on agent/editor searches in a little bit).
5. Category or single title is a personal choice. There are a couple of different avenues to explore when it comes to getting published in romance, and I’m not talking in terms of subgenre. The two big ones for print books are categories versus single titles. Categories, such as Silhouette Special Editions or Harlequin Intrigues, are shorter stories that fit into clear guidelines laid out by the publisher in terms of content and page count. Single titles are the longer, stand-alone books. There are pluses and minuses to doing both: You don’t need an agent to approach category editors, whereas for the most part, if you want to sell a single title, you’re going to need representation. Categories, therefore, can be a really good place to break into (and a TON of supersuccessful authors like Elizabeth Lowell, Suzanne Brockmann, Lisa Gardner, and Jayne Ann Krentz got their start with them). Also, categories can help you find your niche in the marketplace