From Blurb to Book Love Inspired Contest!!!!

WITH!!!! Love Inspired Senior Editor Emily Rodmell!!! 

As an editor, I’m always in awe of authors who work full time, raise children and still find time to write multiple books a year.  When I’ve asked them how they do it, I’ve gotten answers ranging from getting up before the chickens (and children) to write or staying up late to get words on the page or writing on lunch breaks from work or in the car while kids are at soccer practice. The one thing they all have in common is that they make the commitment to sit down and write, and they stick to it.

Did you know that if you wrote 1,000 words a day, you could have a Love Inspired book (55K words) in less than 2 months? You could build in time for editing, revising and vacations and still complete 4 books a year.

 Your average manuscript page has somewhere between 200-300 words per page depending on font, margins and spacing. So 1,000 words is about 3-5 pages. While a whole manuscript may seem daunting, 3-5 pages is a manageable chunk. If you can write those small chunks every day, they can really add up. If 1K is too much for you, break it down even further. 500 words a day (a measly 1-3 pages) could give you a manuscript in 4 months. With time for editing, you could have 2 books a year, which is the number that a lot of our authors strive for.

To offer you further motivation, Love Inspired just launched a new pitch opportunity yesterday. From Blurb to Book: Pitch, Write and Sell Your Book in 5 months. We’re on the hunt for fresh new voices and are giving you the chance to pitch us your idea. The authors chosen to move on in the pitch contest will get guidance along the way from the Love Inspired editors as they work to complete a proposal and manuscript. Check out our announcement here: 

http://community.harlequin.com/showthread.php/2658-Announcing!!-From-Blurb-to-Book

You’ve got a little less than two weeks to submit a 100 word blurb and your first page of a book targeted to one of the three Love Inspired lines (Love Inspired, Love Inspired Suspense and Love Inspired Historical). All you need is an idea and the drive to write to take that first step. And you’ll find out if your initial entry wowed the editors 10 days after the deadline!

Last year we had a pitch session called The Search for a Killer Voice, and many of the entrants said that having to meet deadlines along the way helped them stay on track and finally finish a book. We hope the same will be true this year. We’ll be offering guidance, feedback and inspiration as you write your books. We’ve posted two blogs in the forums on Harlequin.com already. One on how to write a great blurb and first page and another on what the Love Inspired lines are looking for (cowboys, Amish, law enforcement heroes and more). There are also forums to ask questions of the editors and to support and interact with your fellow writers.

Looking for even more motivation? In the past few years, we’ve offered contracts to more than 20 authors through our pitch sessions. They’re sharing their success stories here: 

http://community.harlequin.com/showthread.php/2661-Success-Stories.  In fact, three of the authors who sold less than a year ago through our pitch The Search For a Killer Voice, will see their books on the shelves next month. If you want to see what we bought last year, check out Fatal Freeze by Michelle Karl, Presumed Guilty by Dana R. Lynn and Royal Rescue by Tammy Johnson. April also marks the debut of Targeted by Becky Avella who sold through the prior year’s Happily Editor After pitch session.

Anyone who has not been published with Love Inspired can enter. New authors and authors published with other houses are welcome.  Agented and unagented alike can enter. You can use a pseudonym as long as your legal name is in the entry for our records. I hope that you all take advantage of this opportunity. If you’ve never tried to write a Love Inspired book before but always wondered if you could, this is your chance. Love Inspired books have a wide distribution. They are sold through our book club, in mass market retailers such as Wal-Mart, in bookstores and in all major ebook retailers. It’s a great way to get your writing in front of a wide audience of avid fans of inspirational fiction. Start writing today, and you could have a contract by the end of the summer. We’re eager to find and nurture new voices for the Love Inspired lines, and so get started on your blurbs and first pages. I’ll be stopping in today to answer any questions you might have, so fire away.

Bio: Emily Rodmell is the editor for Love Inspired Books. She started her career as a newspaper journalist and at Scholastic before coming to Love Inspired 10 years ago. She has acquired more than 30 authors for the Love Inspired lines in that time and is always on the lookout for more. She loves to see unique plots that surprise her and keep her guessing. When she’s not at work, she loves watching procedural TV shows, exploring New York City and doting on her adorable nephew. Find her on social media here: Twitter (@EmilyRodmell), Instagram (@NYC_Editor_Life), Pinterest (Emily Rodmell) and Goodreads (Emily Rodmell). 

Ruthy note!!! First, thank you Emily for being here, for making Seekerville part of this amazing and fun contest launch and for running a contest to benefit authors. This contest rocks, and it's a premise we encourage daily here in Seekerville... because it's so effective! I've always loved how open Love Inspired is to unagented... untried.... unpublished authors. That gift of opportunity is never taken lightly here! In honor of The Love Inspired Team's surprise, we're giving away 14 (FOURTEEN!!!) surprise packages to several lucky commenters.... so head in, grab coffee courtesy of Caribou and a chocolate stuffed croissant... #Speedbo On to your next great opportunity!