American vs. Superromance: What's The Difference?

Hello Kathleen. So glad you took time from your busy schedule to talk with us. My first question would be:

You stated in your interview: "American Romances are definitely set on the sunny side of the street!". Do you have any problems with the H/h ending up in a serious / possibly life threatening situation such as an accident or natural disaster or being trapped?

Thanks so much.

Our characters can definitely find themselves in disasterous or even life threatening situations. As a matter of fact, we're publishing a book in September about two people who survive a plane crash--and have to walk out of the west Texas desert, back to civilization. How's that for disasterous?

Bad things can certainly happen to our characters--as long as everything works out in the end!

Thank you so much for doing this thread.  It took me a while to find the interview as when I clicked ont he link above, it took me to a page of choices.  Anyway, I wnated to say thank you.  I read all three of the home and hearth lines.  I love the Harlequin American books and Michele Dunaway is a favorite.

Do you anticipate the number of American books released each month to increase? Thank you so much for doing this, and I can't wait to read all of the questions and answers.

Hi Terri - American is referring to the Harlequin American brand of books and Superromance is referring to the Super Romance brand of books.  The three different lines, Harlequin American, Harlequin SuperRomance and Silhouette Special Edition bookd are all varried in length, covers, etc., but they are all home and hearth type of books.

As an avid reader, like you, I enjoy reading romances.  As an aspiring author, I have received R's from both American and SuperRomance.  I love the home and hearth type of book and have a hart time trying to figue out which line my voice fits.

The lovely editors are doing this thread to explain the differences between the lines so that we can submit our ms's to the correct line and get a feel for exactly what they want for the lines.

Hope this helps! 

I'm new to posting here so I'm learning as I go. I think I let that last post go too quickly...

No, I don't look at author's web sites when I am considering their work for publication. No time for that! Sometimes I check in on the sites of the authors I already work with--maybe Friday afternoon when I'm getting sluggish and feel like surfing a bit. It's interesting to see who is doing what kinds of promotions for their books.

 We don't anticipate the number of American Romances we publish in a month to change. We're very happy at 4 books / month!

As you can tell, I'm excited about the possibility of becoming a Harlequin author, more specifically writing for HAR. So please don't mind my questions, but this is such a terrific opportunity I couldn't pass it up.

Could you please tell us what specific information you are interested in seeing in a query?

In queries, I want to see the conflict of the story right away. That is, what is it keeping the hero and heroine apart? These are romances, and we know they're going to end up together...but there should be some mystery as to how that's going to happen! If someone is afraid to get serious in a relationship because they've been burned before--this is not strong conflict. If a woman is wary of getting into a relationship because she's not sure her young child will adjust to the situation--that's an example of a realistic conflict.

 For ARs, I also look at the appeal of the setting, the secondary characters (that's the family and community) and always, always, the quality of the writing in general.

For those of us with sub's already sub'd and those preparing to sub, could you please tell us approx. what the current response times are for: query? partial? full?

Are you planning to do another eharlequin editor pitch in the near future? Or perhaps conducting a HAR contest?

Last but not least.  If a story is rejected but accompanied by a detailed letter, can you make the changes and resub? Or does the letter have to specifically invite you to resub your story?

LOL, girl, next time I write an interview sheet, I'm coming to you! 

Holding breath to see if Kathleen can answer them all. :)

Dee 

I had to go to town and pick up baby's momma and missed the Q&A! Hope she can still answer these Jennifer. Some are the same one's I wanted to ask. Especially the time frame/sequence of events question for subs.

My other question: If a ms is rejected by one genre but with good pointers to improve it, can it be fixed up and sub'ed to another genre? (ex: r'd by SSE, fixed and sub'ed to HAR) Or is this another no-no?

Thanks for being here, Kathleen, even if many of us weren't able to join you. Jennifer did a bang up job covering a lot of the 'gray' areas for us with her questions.

Oh, I hope she comes back as well.  I read the interview and found it really interesting. 

I write for Romance, which I was surprised wasn't listed as a "home and hearth" line.  I guess I can understand that, though I'm not sure then where Romance would fit. 

I'd be interested in hearing more about Supers as well.  They are two lines I enjoy reading a lot.

Cheers,

Donna

Good morning! The end of my Monday kind of fell apart--the meetings took over. So I'll take this opportunity to finish up some of those questions from yesterday.

Here is more info on the process of a slush submission to the office. As soon as we receive a partial or a full manuscript, it is logged by our staff, then sent to a freelance reader, who does "coverage." This means he reads the submission and gives us a 2-3 page report. This is a standard practice for many publishing companies who receive large volumes of material--we simply could not read all of it without some sort of assistance.

At this point, materials are given back to the senior editor, who divides up the work between the other editors.

I confess we are woefully behind in responding to our slush. We try to aim for a 3 month turnaround, but sometimes the work can really get away from you. I'm spending the next few days attacking that pile, out of sheer guilt for keeping people waiting so long...

Hi,

When we initially submit do you require a query letter and synopsis OR a query letter, partial and synopsis?  Everywhere seems to be different... and it would be great to know what is standard for Super Romance too :)

Thanks,

Kendra

This thread has been a font of information!!  Clarification is always good!

Thanks to Kathleen for sharing the information!

Kathleen,

In regards to your comments about submission, if someone did just send a query and synopsis do you automatically request a partial like Mill and Boons does?

The reason I'm asking is because I just sent in a query a few weeks ago.     Should I be polishing my first three chapters?

Thanks

Sandy

Hey Kathleen, when the last AR editor's pitch ended, Rae advised everyone who didn't get picked to submit through normal channels.

Was she just being nice, or is there a chance for those works that didn't pass muster the first time?

It was my understanding that a two page ds synopsis was to accompany a query and that up to ten pages ds synopsis was to accompany the partial/full submissions. Has that changed now that you are skipping over the query stage and accepting unsolicited partials?

Wow! I just read Wanda Ottewell's interview, and it's VERY informative!! As someone who's polishing a ms in hopes of getting it to Supers, I really appreciate the detail and examples Wanda gave. 

Are we taking questions? If so, how stringent is the word count for Supers?  Will you look at a ms that's over WC? For example, is a 70K ms acceptable?  Or is it on a case by case basis?  

Also, what do you want to see for a general, unagented submission? I see Americans aren't asking for queries any more.  What do you want to see for Supers? Synopsis and first three chapters? Or are you still requesting queries first?

Thanks much!!

Just popping in to read Wanda's interview and to say welcome!

 As to questions... Hmmm..... I'll be back. <G>

 Okay, read the interview (GREAT!) and loved it. Wanda, you actually answered my question in the interview regarding POVs and whether Supers were moving toward more h/h only POVs. I've found my books to be a mix and wondered about it. My other question is about cover art. Supers have altered their cover art several times over the last couple years. Are there any more changes in the way the covers will be depicted in the near future? Are there any stats to indicate which covers sell better than others? (ie landscapes on the front versus couples, couples embracing versus sitting separately etc?)

Kay 

Thank you Wanda for this opportunity to ask questions and to help define what Super's need.

I was chosen to pitch to you and ultimately was rejected on a requested partial.  I deleted the old ms, and using your suggestions, I have written a new ms.  The names and town are the same but everything written is different, taking the premise in the manner you suggested, and I believe some others are also. So in general, if someone submits a ms with the same character names, but a different ms, do you want us to explain the circumstance regarding the new ms? I know many people will rewrite ms's based on comments from editors.  Do you think that is a good idea, or would you like for people to submit something new?

Thank you so much for taking the time from your busy schedule to answer our questions.

Just dropped by to say hello!  Great interview.   I especially liked "the grand gesture" and the fact that the reader should walk away with the feeling that love makes us strong enough to confront anything that stands in our way.   Thanks!

Jeannie

Thanks for a great interview...both you and Kathleen offered such great details on each of your lines and what you're looking for!

A couple of questions...

Are there any plans to expand the SuperRomance line --- perhaps to eight releases a month? (One can only hope!)

I am assuming you are based in the Harlequin office in  Canada ---- if an editor at the NYC office has a manuscript that they feel is better suited to SuperRomance (as in a Special Edition submission that has a 'super' voice/bigger story) do they foward the manuscript to you? What if the author, during the subsequent writing that she had continued with since the original submission, now feels the story is better suited for SuperRomance should she contact the editor? 

Thanks for your time!

I appreciate the answer, and I look forward to reading the rest of your replies to the great questions everyone else asked!  

**jodie sits back, takes a sip of hot chocolate, and waits**