Harlequin Under Fire For New Self-Publishing and Critique Services

Harlequin first announced a new ebooks division called Carina Press, and now they've started a self-publishing arm and a critque service that leaves a bit of a bad taste considering all the aspiring authors court them. Read about it and their revoked RWA status at Agent Kristen Nelson's blog.

Harlequin Romance Writing Contest 2009

Jennifer AILee of the Las Vegas Writing Examiner has info on a romance writing contest for Harlequin. Submit your first chapter (5000 words or less) and a two-page synposis aimed at the Harlequin Presents or Modern Heat lines for a chance to win.

Deadline: November 2, 2009
Entry fee: None
First Prize: A Mills and Boon editor for a year
Two Runners-up: Critique of chapter and editorial consultation

As always, check the fine print before entering.

Ebook Readers and The Evolution of Ebooks

Check out the great video over at AbsoluteWrite that's a panel discussion on ebooks from O'Reilly 2009 Tools of Change for Publishing featuring Harlequin ebook rep Malle Vallik, Samhain editor Angela James, Booksquare's Kassia Krozser and Smart Bitch Sarah Wendell.

It discusses ebook devices, ebook consumers (ladies, that's us), and what they want from an ebook in the future. They whip out more ebook electronics than a 21st century O.K. Corral, so if you've kicked around buying an ebook reader, this is a nice way to get opinions from some avid readers on which ones work best.

Free Book Alert! Harlequin Giving Away 16 Romance Ebooks

To celebrate their 60th anniversary, Harlequin is giving away 16 electronic romance novels.

You can download them in all kinds of formats, including as pdf files, so you don't need an ereader to participate. Once you download them, read them on your laptop or computer.

Harlequin Starts Imprint for Young Adult Fiction

Tez Miller's blog reports Harlequin is starting a new imprint for teens and looking for manuscripts. They accept unagented submissions, so looks like a wide open new market.

Romance category sales are up 83%, and fantasy books are doing well, so they're a frigging publishing spotlight in an otherwise inky economic cave.

Harlequin Mills and Boon's Feel The Heat Writing Contest

Staring at the Sun by LaserGuided Creative Commons

Author Cindy Proctor-King has a notice on her blog about Harlequin Mills and Boon's Feel The Heat Writing Competition.

The rules say authors should submit their first chapter, up to 5,000 words and a synopsis. The novel is targeted for the Modern Heat line with it's upbeat voice, hip audience (18-35), and alpha-male heroes.

The winner gets an editor for a year, and two runners-up will get critiques of their first chapter and an editorial phone consultation. No entry fee.

Want to Write for Harlequin's Nocturne Bites?

Harlequin's new Paranormal Romance Blog has a post from editor Ann Leslie Tuttle, on the Nocturne Bites series, describing specifically what she's looking for in one of these 10,000 - 15,000 word dark paranormal stories.

She indicates she's getting lots of submissions, but many are too light ala Mary Janice Davidson. (Love her, though. I just finished Dead and Loving It and I did - love it, I mean).

So check out her blog post for the inside scoop.

Harlequin and Audible.com Team Up To Offer Romance Novels

Harlequin is really getting out front in the new technologies. In addition to getting on board with ebooks by launching eHarlequin, they've now joined Audible.com in offering a subscription for two Harlequin audio books per month for $9.95.

You can download these to an MP3 player and listen to books wherever, whenever. Audible.com is even offer a nice quality MP3 player for just $29.99 for those who sign up for Harlequin's subscription. If you already have one, you're golden.

My hubby had a subscription to Audible when he was logging a lot of hours in the car for work, and he loved it. It's great for long commutes, too. I do still prefer to read actual pages in a book, but this isn't a bad alternative. Though I'm still lusting after the Sony ebook reader.

Technology marches on.

Speaking of Epublishing: Harlequin Starts New Ebook Line

Harlequins's profits are up and their first foray into standard romantic ebooks has been doing so well, they are starting a new line called Spice Briefs.

Spice Briefs will feature erotic stories between 5,000 and 15,000 words. You can get them for 99 cents until August 15, but after that they'll be $2.99. Harlequin also plan to start releasing an ebook version of every book they're hard publishing.

Book Catcher has more info on what they are looking for in the Spicy shorts, straight from Spice Brief's editor Susan Swinwood. Harlequin also has an exclusively ebook line. It looks like an opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a new market. Romance author Sunny lists contact info for Susan Swinwood and other editors seeking submissions on her website.