Just to Note...

pdr

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that Harlequin Historical Romance are looking for good Viking, medieval, Australian western, Far Eastern, Egyptian that fits the Harlequin Historical guidelines, and that the RWNZ Clendon award - AKA “Finish The Damn Book!!” for a completed Romance Manuscript - is due to close soon.

Check out the Clendon award at:http://www.romancewriters.co.nz/competitions.php

Those like cooee, in our end of the world, might find the Clendon really helpful, but it is open to internatinoal writers.

Is this the New Year boost you need, cooee?
 

angeliz2k

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Thank you, pdr.

I'm not into the romance end of things, but houses like Harlequin and Mills & Boon are very sophisticated operations, and their people really know how to target and market the books. It could really be worth it for someone to give it a go.
 

AZ_Dawn

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pdr

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Yuk!

I am not a romance writer so have not been following this. Thank you, AZ_Dawn, for the notification.

I stand by the Clendon though. The fact that four readers read and comment on each manuscript is a great bonus.
 

cooeedownunder

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that Harlequin Historical Romance are looking for good Viking, medieval, Australian western, Far Eastern, Egyptian that fits the Harlequin Historical guidelines, and that the RWNZ Clendon award - AKA “Finish The Damn Book!!” for a completed Romance Manuscript - is due to close soon.

Check out the Clendon award at:http://www.romancewriters.co.nz/competitions.php

Those like cooee, in our end of the world, might find the Clendon really helpful, but it is open to internatinoal writers.

Is this the New Year boost you need, cooee?

Ooool, thanks for the link - I went and had a look at the Clendon guidelines and as with Harlequin guidelines my WIP as a whole the way it is written doesn't fit into their romance categories - (I do recall though mentioning on some of the threads on AW that I was considering rewriting it to fit more closely with the romance markets and to tell you the truth, although I haven't decided what to do, I sometimes think it would make my life easier - not because writing for the romance markets is easier but because it would give me good excuse to drop the many complications I have given myself with my subplots).

The way it is currently written, the romance does not drive the story - any part of it really, at least not in an obvious or in a clearly defined manner to the reader nor the MC. I think there is a strong romantic undercurrent from the second chapter, which is repeated briefly a few chapters later, that some romance readers recognise but become completely frustrated because they are denied clarification by deniying who they think is the hero space - until near the end (which has been most of my SYW posts because they were my favourite sections and the the majority of the first scenes written for this WIP).

By what I have been able to determine by hardcore romance beta readers is that I have to pull my main man in there every chapter or second chapter or they will lose interest in reading the story. This tells me I have a lot to decide, and how true I want to stay to the story I wanted to tell.

Although I think of it as a love story, to submit to Harlequin Historical I would have to chop a lot of words and change my plot - which might not be a bad thing LOL and completely change the entire focus of the story at least up till a certain section, and I could be cheeky though and rewrite parts of the book just for fun and enter the Australian and English sections as standalone books in the Clendon - not sure about it though because of time - unfortunately school holidays here until the begining of February so I won't have much time to play with it. :(

ETA: I greatly appreciate the link pdr because it made me realise another year could go by very quickly (add it to the last 2 decades for a similar story I have written) and I wish I had completed my rewrites of this WIP already so I could get to the stage where I can decide wether to rewrite it for the romance markets - (something I never intended to write for although I thought I was writing a romance - I never considered the stories I have spent writing for years set in the 1800s as historical until about three years ago LOL).

I currently have a gap in years that I can't decide wether to fill in or not. (trying to write a query or synpsis tells me I must - but I can be stubborn LOL) At the very least though you have given me a goal of completing my first rewrites by the end of February - and I gather because I can be indecisive that I will need to go through it again.

I noticed a few later competions on the NZ site and there are also some on the AU site of RW - one being, a first kiss, and now that I have changed the man who she kisses and introduced a face slap in it, before the next kiss, it might work :D

BTW as for the Harlequin up the creek thread I have been following it here and elsewhere - and no (or should that be, yes? I personally don't feel it's a good idea and will just blur the lines to those who submit to them.

I realise I just ranted but you have one girl here who wishes she had thought about markets before she accidentially wrote the first scenes of the book set in one country, which reads like a romance, then was inspired to write a different story that I'm not sure what to do with LOL
 
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pdr

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Argh!

Poor cooee! perhaps it's best just to make your choice and stick to it like a bit of bidibidi.

Either simplify and write for the romance market.

Or determine what it is you want to say if it is not a romance and write true to that, bearing in mind that there might not be a market unless you make it aggressively Oz and sub as Oz historical. There is a market in OZ and NZ for 'local' historicals. Are there any well known incidents you could throw into the plot?
 

cooeedownunder

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The side plot that drives much of my Australian story is based around actual events that took place in Campbelltown. As for them being well known, they were basically brushed aside by historians and I have only come across perhaps a line or two about the events in other works of fiction with the area only mentioned in general terms.

About fifteen years ago (yep that long) I sent off my one and only fiction query letter for an older WIP titled Spark of Vengeance covering earlier events to an Australian agent, got a request for the entire story within hours, but almost as quickly got a sorry, can't do - looking at that WIP now, which I started when I was eighteen, I clearly see why it was rejected - passion for a subject and a story doesn't necessarily equate to brilliant writing. LOL

By the time I started writing this WIP about fifteen months ago, with the Australian section set where the last one ends, a lot of things had changed – are still changing in Australia in relation to the acceptance of some of the subject matter in both stories.

I do feel that if I rewrite this WIP for the romance markets – especially the Australian section, I have more chance of getting it read, but I can’t shake wanting to tell the original story within this story - if that makes sense. I will continue to edit it as I intended and try submitting it as currently written, and if as I suspect I continue to belt my head against a brick wall, I will split them into two different stories, which will be extremely easy to do.

After just reading what I just wrote in this post, I see I like challenges LOL
 

firedrake

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Cooee, my tuppence, for what it's worth.

Don't change the story just to 'fit a market'. Tell the story you want to tell and let an agent decide where it fits.
 

pdr

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You have...

a marvellous selling point with that piece of ignored history! I'd go for it but then I can't write romance!
 

cooeedownunder

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You know, I need one of those headdesk icons. I'm sure I'm a glutton for punishment - I have my heart telling me one thing, and my head telling me my passion for a subject, unless I write romances or erotica, will do me no good. :D
 

L.C. Blackwell

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Cooee, I don't think I would change an awesome story just to make it sell in romance markets. Much better to write a great book that taps into universal themes and feelings that people can relate to; and then it won't--absolutely will not--matter how obscure the history is. If you touch one of humanity's common nerves, the book will succeed.

The problem with local history is too often not with the market, but with the author's vision. Writers who can't find what makes their work more than a local story are the writers who end up dismissed for lack of general interest. So paint a vivid world that speaks to us on some deeper level. We'll keep reading.
 
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cooeedownunder

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In an attempt to work out where my story might fit as far as genres go, I was having a bit of a browse at some sites in regards to romances and I come across a few that mention romantic elements as apposed to romances involving a man and woman and their romance as the central plot.

The Australian RW site says;

Romantic Elements: Novels of any length, tone, or style, set in any place or time, in which a romance plays a significant part in the story, though it is not necessarily the central plot. Other themes or elements take the plot beyond the traditional romance boundaries.