Category: Editors & Agents

Interview with Five Star Mystery Editor Deni Dietz

Recently, I interviewed Five Star Mystery Associate Editor, Deni Dietz. You can find the interview on my Articles page. My previous interview with agent Laura Bradford can now be found in Archives.

Deni is my first editor interview. Deni was also my editor for WHERE SHE BELONGS, my December 2011 Five Star Expressions release. As I’ve mentioned before, the Expressions line will close with the publication of my novel. However, Deni, who publishes under two names as well as being an editor, has also edited the Five Star Mystery line all along.  She will continue to do so. Some romantic suspense and romantic mysteries will qualify for the Five Star Mystery line. Deni says:

We have no “official” romance-to-mystery/suspense ratio. But as a crime fiction author since 1992, I know my audience. If there’s too much romance, the book won’t fly. If the romance is integral to the plot, the book will have wings as well as legs. Example: I was 50,000 words into a new Mary Ellen Dennis historical romance, The Midnight Bridge, when the Expressions line went belly-up. “Bridge” even has my favorite opening lines: “The solicitor smelled a rat. Twenty minutes later he didn’t smell anything at all.” I call my Mary Ellen Dennis novels “history-mystery-romances,” and Five Star said they’d consider Midnight Bridge for their mystery line. I thought about it, and decided that I, as an acquiring editor, would turn it down. The ratio was askew—more romance than mystery. So I guess what I’m saying is that I’ll know if the ratio works, and every submission comes to me before it’s reviewed for publication.

Deni also shares Five Star Mystery formatting tips in the interview and describes where you can find Five Star/Cengage books. Other delicious tidbits can be found in the interview. So hie thee over to the Articles page and lap it up!

Release Date! And Other News

I have to build a new section for my Books page. You have no idea how much this annoys me. Not! It thrills me. I have to build a Coming section for the sale to Five Star Expressions I mentioned several weeks back. My 2007 Golden Heart finalist manuscript, now titled WHERE SHE BELONGS, will release from Five Star in December 2011! Clap hands, pound drums, dance insanely. It feels so great to have something new to put on my Books page. It’s been a long four years for “me.” For Cindy. BORROWING ALEX released in June 2007, so by the time December 2011 gets here it will have been 4.5 long years without a Cindy release. Yes, Penny has been picking up my slack, but not everyone familiar with my Cindy work knows me as Penny. Penny has had three releases since 2007, so in reality I’ve been busy writing and publishing all along. However, that doesn’t lessen the thrill of A NEW CINDYPK!!! I am très excited! May this be the start of many more CindyPKs to come.

In other news, I am très sad to announce that Penny’s editor is leaving Red Sage. Theresa Stevens has operated the Editorrent website with Alicia Rasley (of the great workshops and how-to pamphlets and books) for a while now. Theresa is leaving Red Sage to begin a new venture with Alicia. Together, they will write and publish writing guides for authors. Theresa was an awesome editor, and I will miss her. But I’m looking forward to more great writing guides from this incredible team. They’ll also begin offering workshops in September. You can read all about the new venture on their blog.

Congratulations, Theresa and Alicia!

Brava Contest – Writing with the Stars

As opposed to dancing.

The Kensington Brava line is holding a new writing contest in conjunction with RT BookReviews. Not sure when the contest opens. Details are in the June issue of RT. Alas, I don’t have an RT subscription. For now, you can find a bit of information on the Brava authors blog. Editor Alicia Condon, formerly of Dorchester Publishing (she replaced Kate Duffy at Kensington – R.I.P., Kate), introduces the contest. The comment thread poses some interesting questions about contest eligibility that, as of this typing, haven’t been answered. Keep checking the thread to see if they are. Or…rush out and buy the June RT as soon as you can.

Brava writing contests have launched several careers, including HelenKay Dimon’s. I entered Brava contests when I was eligible, but never fared well in them. As in I never made it to the finals. I could never get past the first round of judges. That didn’t stop Kate Duffy from calling me to discuss ideas, so I must have been doing something right for Brava. Just not right for the preliminary contest rounds.

You know…I still have a requested partial on Kate’s desk. Or whatever became of Kate’s desk. I wonder what will become of it? It was an electronic submission, so might have gone the way of the do-do bird with Kate’s passing. I really should look into that. I’ll put it on my For After I Finish Revising SPIAPT List.

Juno Books Submission Call

Juno Books editor Paula Guran is looking for submissions. Check out her blog for details. Make sure to read the part that says you can send off a short synopsis and FULL MANUSCRIPT right away. No need to sub a partial first. But also make sure to read their submission guidelines before submitting. No sense sending Paula something she doesn’t need or want. Right? There’s my smart blog readers.

Personalized Rejections–Why Not?

Carina Press editor Angela James blogs about why publishers don’t often send personalized rejections. Well worth a read.

My favorite personalized rejection over the last year? “Your story made it to our ‘perhaps’ pile, but sadly we can’t publish them all.” It made me laugh. The editor also apologized for the length of time it took to receive a reply, which is always nice. (No, it wasn’t Angela James!)

Do you have a favorite personalized rejection line? Paraphrase it for me, baby.