Seekerville Celebrates Love Inspired's LIS Expansion with Guest Blogger and Editor Extraordinaire Emily Rodmell!

Debby Giusti here!

Have you heard the news? Love Inspired Books has expanded their Love Inspired Suspense line to SIX books each month. While many publishing houses have been forced to cut back, Love Inspired continues to grow because of the hard work and dedication of outstanding editors who know their readers and select stories that are sure to please.

To celebrate the LIS expansion and Love Inspired’s continued success, we’ve invited Love Inspired Editor Emily Rodmell to guest blog with us today. Always generous with her time, Emily has graciously agreed to answer your questions, many of which were submitted to Seekerville some weeks ago. Emily enjoys finding new authors so be sure to share your congratulations as well as pose any additional questions you have about Love Inspired Books.

Now help me welcome Emily Rodmell to Seekerville…

Good morning, Seekerville. It’s always a pleasure to visit with all of you. I’m especially excited to be here to talk about Love Inspired Suspense’s expansion to 6 books a month, starting this month.

Love Inspired Suspense was just getting ready to launch when I started at Harlequin as an editorial assistant many years ago, so it’s been great to see the line grow and be successful over the years. We’re thrilled that we can now offer readers more heartpounding stories of danger and romance each month.

It’s also been great for me as an editor to be able to find new voices for the line. I love the acquisitions part of the job, and giving a writer their first LIS contract is always special. So far 13 new authors have joined the LIS line up for the expansion. I think they’re all amazing, and I hope you’ll add them to your list of authors to watch. They’ve had books focusing on a wide variety of topics such as spies, pirates, snipers, Witness Protection and more.

Keep an eye out for titles by Lisa Phillips, Sarah Varland, Marion Faith Laird, Mary Alford, Elisabeth Rees, Annslee Urban, Rachel Dylan, Virginia Vaughn, Vickie McDonough, Jane M. Choate, Heather Woodhaven & Sarah K. Parker (the sister of longtime LIS author Shirlee McCoy).

Love Inspired uses creative ways
to find new authors. 

 We also are running a pitch called The Search for a Killer Voice in which authors have a chance to pitch their ideas to us and get guidance along the way as they write their stories. So we hope to add more new authors to the list above soon. We’re in the third round of the event and nearing the fourth. I hear a number of the authors participating are from Seekerville. J Congrats on putting yourself out there and making it this far.

If you missed out on this opportunity, don’t despair. We still accept submission any time through our regular channels. If you have a great idea for an LIS book, we’d love to take a look.

I brought a few of the May Love Inspired Suspense books as giveaways. Since we’re so excited about our newer authors, I wanted to highlight a few of the books that I personally love. I’ve brought 2 copies each of Double Agent by Lisa Phillips (Rogue spy heroine, Delta Force hero), Treasure Point Secrets by Sarah Varland (Pirates!) and Grave Danger by Katy Lee (Forensic anthropologist heroine. As a fan of the TV show Bones, I was so excited when she sent me this book).

I hope that you’ll check out these books and all of the upcoming Love Inspired Suspense books on shelves. Now on to some of your questions that Debby Giusti was kind enough to forward.  

Questions:

What process does a manuscript undergo from submission to contract?

Manuscripts are submitted a number of different ways. Some through our online submissions system. Others directly to editors from agents or from conference requests. If a manuscript is unsolicited and submitted through the online system, it goes to the assistant for the line. However, authors can also choose to address their submission to a particular editor. In that case, the assistant would forward the submission to the editor. If a manuscript is requested or sent by an agent, it usually goes directly to the editor. Senior and Executive Editors have assistants, so unsolicited manuscripts usually go to their assistant.

In any case, the rest is pretty simple. The editor reads the manuscript and decides whether to reject, send revision notes or submit it for contract. If we’re submitting it for contract, we write a memo to the head of the line, she reads it and decides whether to give us the ok to contract. In some cases (multi-book contracts, first contracts), there are other layers of approval as well.

If we send revisions notes, it is an open invitation for the author to revise and resubmit. And we’re not just being nice. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sent revision notes and never heard another word from the author. If we say we want to see it again, we really do. So take advantage.

Emily's hard at work in her NYC office editing submissions,
looking for new authors and sharing LI news on Twitter.

How stringently do you abide by your submission requirements, such as word count, # of POVs, amount of time the H/H are together, how soon they have to meet, etc.?

Well, all of the ones you listed are ones we’re pretty firm on. In order for us to publish a story, it needs to be within our word count (55-60K for LI & LIS, 70-75K for LIH). If someone submits a book that’s slightly over or under it wouldn’t be a deal breaker, but it would have to be brought into the range in order to publish it.

And we do only want to see the hero and heroine point of view. Though there could be a rare case where we would consider a third POV, there would have to be a really good reason for it. And there rarely is a good enough reason.

As for the amount of time the hero and heroine are together or how soon they have to meet, there isn’t an exact guideline. But we generally want them to meet as soon as possible and be together on the pages as much as possible. These are fairly short books that often span only a few days and the characters are often running for their lives during much of that. It’s hard for the romance to be believable if the characters don’t spend enough time together.

With the international problems facing American military, would LIS consider a series where the American protagonists are based overseas, dealing with terrorist threats in cities like London or Sydney?

Love Inspired Suspense books focus on danger that directly affects the hero and heroine. Terrorism plots usually involve trying to stop mass casualties. So terrorism isn’t something we’re looking for. And we generally prefer that our books be set in North America, but we do on occasion publish books set overseas as long as the protagonists are North American.

LOL with Emily!

 Do you have any favorite settings, and if so will you share with us what they are and why they are special to you?

Our readers tend to gravitate towards small towns. So that’s where most of our books are set. I’m a city girl, so I love when authors can manage to get that small town feel in a larger city. I enjoyed working with the authors who wrote the Texas Ranger Justice continuity series because I was able to set it in San Antonio, Texas, a city I’ve been to many times. But because it focused on this tight unit of officers, it still had that community feel that our readers love. We’re trying it again this year by setting our continuity (Capitol K-9 Unit) in Washington, D.C. My sister lives in D.C., so I’ve spent a lot of time there and love seeing a place that’s dear to my heart come alive on the page. Beyond that, I’m a Florida girl at heart (lived there more than 20 years) so I love seeing Florida settings.

Suspense involves danger and encounters with evil. Are there any situations that you prefer not to see in an LI?

Our books contain a lot of dangerous and bad situations. We’re fine with murder and mayhem ensuing in the books as long as it is not gory or gratuitous. We do try to avoid things like child and animal abuse as it would upset readers.

And as mentioned above, we want the danger to directly affect the hero and heroine, so we avoid things like terrorism or mass casualty situations. It should be the heroine running for her life rather than running to stop someone from a nuclear attack.

Emily visits with many of the Seekers at ACFW.

Are there any specific story lines LIS is looking for at this time?

We’re open to a wide variety of story lines in LIS. I’d love to see more spies. We’d also welcome Amish. And I’m always a fan of creative plotlines that introduce a new type of story in a way that fits our guidelines.

What types of story lines are the most popular with readers?

Our readers love the tried and true stories of brave heroes (often law enforcement officers) and strong heroines. Small town and Western settings are a big draw.

Missy, Janet and Debby chat with Emily at her first ACFW Conference.

 What three things should new authors targeting LIS know before submitting their work?

1.      Love Inspired Suspense books should be equal parts romance and suspense and each should be present from start to finish. One shouldn’t take a back seat to the other.

2.      Suspense and mystery are two different things, and LIS falls in the suspense category. The characters should be running for their lives rather than trying to solve who’s been vandalizing signs in town.

3.      We’re actively looking for new authors, so if you’re looking for a great opportunity to showcase your work, LIS would love to see it.

When you receive a submission, what makes the biggest impression on you?

I can tell when an author has done their homework and read the line and knows what LIS is all about. That shows me that the author is serious about wanting a career with the line. Also, I’m a former newspaper copy editor, so while a typo wouldn’t ruin someone’s chances of publishing, I do take notice when someone turns in a clean manuscript and cover letter.

Follow Emily on Twitter. Here she's announcing the
contract she offered Keli Gwyn. SQUEAL!

What is the first thing you, as an editor, consider when you review submitted manuscripts?

My number one priority is to consider whether or not it would be something that our readers would enjoy reading.

Please explain the editing process a manuscript goes through from contract to publication.

Often times with a new author (and sometimes with current authors) a manuscript or proposal will go through revisions before contract. But once we contract, the acquiring editor may have some notes to pass on to the author from herself and the senior or executive editor. The author revises and turns the manuscript back to her editor. This goes through as many rounds as necessary until the editor feels it is ready to move on to the line edit stage.

At the line edit stage, the editor or a freelance editor will go through the manuscript and edit line by line. At this stage, we’ll ask the author questions, ask her to fix things or adjust awkward sentence structure. Then it goes on to the copy editor who edits for grammar, spelling, repetitiveness, structure and flow. The author gets to make changes in response and then it goes to the proofreader for a final read. The proofreader is looking for typos or mistakes and is the final reader. If he or she comes across any issues, the author is given the opportunity to address them.

Thanks again for having me, Seekerville. I’m happy to answer any further questions in the comments.

Emily, thanks for answering so many questions and for providing such great information about Love Inspired Books and your submission process. We’re cheering on the Villagers who are involved in the Killer Voices Search and encouraging all our writers to consider submitting to Love Inspired. Working for you and with you has been one of the greatest joys of my life. I hope many of the folks who visit Seekerville today will realize the outstanding opportunities available to those who write for Love Inspired.

Emily has graciously donated 6 books today, and Love Inspired Seeker authors have added additional giveaways. We’ll have a total of ten winners, each receiving two books. Leave a comment to be entered in the drawings, and stop back this weekend to see the list of winners.

In honor of Emily’s Florida roots, we’re serving Fresh Squeezed Florida Orange Juice and Cut Florida Grapefruit, along with cooked-to-order eggs, ham, sausage, bacon, assorted biscuits, fresh baked bread, and shrimp and grits for breakfast. The coffee’s hot. Pour a cup and enjoy the buffet as we chat with Emily.