My Recent Comments

Good to see you here on the eHarlequin community. It's a very busy place.

I'll be at RWA in San Francisco so I hope I'll see you there.

Kate

My heart ached for you when I reasd your story. I am so sorry for your loss. But I hope that the renewed closeness you now have with your family will help to ease the sorrow and help you all thought this time.

You are in my thoughts

Kate

Hi Jodie

This is a question that I feel I want to answer on both sides - but from experience, I know that authors can write for different lines - I've done it myself. Look back at my publishing history and you'll see some of my earlier books were published in Harlequin Romance, not  Harlequin Presents.   That's because I started being published in the UK in the days before the lines were split, so I just wrote a 'Mills & Boon Romance' and editorial decided what line it went into.

But it's possibly not the best idea for someone starting out. You need to make your name in publishing and you need to build up a readership - and to so that they need to know where they can find your books and what sort of books you're writing so that can stick with you if they like you. I know that starting out with books in 2 different lines meant that I split my audience.

Sometimes the difference between lines can seems so minute, and sometimes it can seem that all you have to do is just write a 'Presents plot' instead of a 'Romance plot' and that will make your book fit the line you're aiming for. And that just isn't true. It's tone and intensity - and voice that make a book fit a line.

 I've worked with so many unpublished authors, and the hardest thing is deciding just which line they belong in - not which line they want to write for,  or the line they love reading the most, or even the line they are most 'qualified' to write (just because you work as a nurse doesn't mean you're naturally best writing Medicals, for example.) You need to look at how you write naturally - the way you want to write without any restrictions and without any guidelines in mind.

Do you want to write gentle, emotional stories, or heated, passionate, intense ones? Do you find it easy and enjoyable to write sensually charged stories or would you find it embarrassing and difficult to  go 'beyond the bedroom door'? Do you prefer a more realistic,  'guy next door' hero or a fantasy, difficult, intense male lead? 

 I know that when I was told that the lines were being split and I needed to choose to write for one or the other, I chose M&B Modern/Presents for two reasons - one was that I  was happier dealing in difficult conflicts, deep and intense and passionate - and that was because - two - my characters always got so deeply serious and   intense about everything.

 So I'm going to agree that yes you can write for different lines - but it's not necessarily the best bet at the beginning.  And I'm going to agree with Donna  (well, I have to - bcause I was the one who said that! .) that you need  to look for a line where  you can see yourself writing not just this one book that you hope to get published but book after book after book - without getting bored or stale. Because you love the sort of stories the line tells.

And I'm going to agree with Sam when she says:

focus on a line you feel you want to write for -- a line you really click with, and make that your main plan, because yes, once you sell, they will want more from you and you should be able to deliver.

And she's right too that   you don't cut off other opportunities or stop yourself from writing other stuff, either.

Explore writing, enjoy it. And you'll discover what you were meant to write.We all need time and effort to find our natural voice. If we're not careful, then we can end up just copying the style of a line rather than writing from our hearts  - and that always shows. The only way to find what comes naturally to you as a writer is to write. Write the story you most want to tell.  The one that makes your heart sing as you're writing it.

I originally thought I wanted to write for children - then I thought I wanted to write Historical novels - then I found romance  and loved it - but it was only when  I focused on Presents that I knew I'd come home.

Good luck in finding your own writing 'home'.

Kate

>>But we all can't like every book or we would be a bit boring.  Just because the plot doesn't appeal doesn't mean the writing is poor -

I'd hate to think that anyone only wrote a nice review of one of my books because I might be reading it. What would be the point? It's like getting a friend to review yor books on Amazon - you might have a string of five stars, but It wouldn't mean anything.  Like I said, I'm well aware of the fact that you can't please everyone - and as you say, it would be so boring if we all liked the same thing.

 And I totally agree with you that a book can be one of most wonderfully written novels, but if the story doesn;t appeal, then it just doesn't. I spent enough of my life studying literature to know that some books that others thought were brilliant, beautifully written, deep and meaningful, to me were just a bore.  And books I've loved and DH or my best friends have hated.

 Kate

I don't know of a Harlequin list, but if you know an author's name from a book that you've liked, you can check out Fantastic Fiction.com and find everything she's written.

Unlike Fictiondb, it doesn't cost anything, but it isn't as comprehensive as that. But I use it a lot for authors I want to find more titles from.

 Kate

I thought you'd find your name here

  It's such a bonus to have the authors around the forums, occasionally giving extra insight into the books. 

I'm glad you feel that way - it's an intriguing thing the way that someone can read a book in  totally different way from the way I wrote it. Sometimes I read a review of a book and wonder  if it's really the one I wrote - or one I've read.

It's a fun bonus all around: not only does this challenge aim to help a charity, it's opened up communication/discussion of Harlequin books. 

I totally agree. One of the things that annoys me when people put down romance and the writers and the readers of it is that they claim that people read romance totally uncritically - the posts here prove otherwise - and they prove that romance readers read lots of other books too.

Heh..  about the author perspective...  As a whole I think it's been a pretty positive flow of discussion about books.  I hope that the occasional negative feedback isn't too demoralizing for the authors!  Really we all have such diverse reading tastes...  not everyone will enjoy every book.  I've ripped apart three books though (out of the 300 I've reviewed), so I know I'm guilty of demoralization myself,

It has been pretty positive - but, as I'v e often said on other forums (Presents Paradise particularly) we all have 'hot buttons' of things we don't particularly like - fair enough. So some books we don't. But we need to keep a balance too and remember that our hot buttons are just that - personal ones -  doesn't mean the book might not work for someone else.

 I think every author understands that you can please all of the people all of the time.  But anything that looks like a personal campaign really hurts.

Kate

>>Kate, it's completely acceptable to me!  I even like the idea of Kate's Research Book One and so on, LOL....whatever works to keep that counter turning! 

 Right - Kate's Research Book One and Two, it is!    Now all I have to do is write the book . . .

It would be wonderful if we could hit your target  in August . . .

 Kate

Kate, I'm so glad you have this viewpoint about the reviews!  I've often wondered how the authors feel while reading them.  Sometimes, as the reader, it's daunting to leave less-than-favorable reviews for fear of upsetting the author

 Believe me, when you've been treated to regular abusive emails from one 'reader' who sends me a message every time a new book comes out,  the reviews on here are mild. (I never know quite why this woman even troubles to read my stuff when it so clearly isn't her sort of thing )

And let me add one point further to what you said, I think that when people read several books by the same author there is always going to be one or two that they don't like as well, and one or two that they think are fantastic.  People's taste vary so much.  It's amazing how one book can be reviewed in so many different ways!

I totally agree - and sometimes it can just be the mood you're in when you read a book and not the book at all. We all have personal likes and dislikes, and if  a book doesn't work for someone, then it doesn't . . .

My ms was requested and is being reviewed by SSE's Mr. Griemsman right now, and hopefully I'll be soon joining Harlequins wonderful roster of authors. 

Congratulations on the request - that's great news. If you get more good news on that I hope you'll come back and tell me.

 Kate

>> Or wait untiol October or November  and hope we've forgotten about them by then

 The trouble is that if I did that then I would probably forget about them too. If I don't post them soon,  I'll have written the book and started on another (well - I can hope . ..)

 Kate