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[YADS] Swoon Reads

tiakall

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http://www.swoonreads.com

Since I'm going through all the Nano sponsors, thought I'd start a thread on these folks too (don't see them in the index.) They're a display site for YA/NA romance (so similar to Wattpad?) which publishes the best-rated novels through Feiwel and Friends, an imprint of MacMillan. Currently 332 available for reading (not counting their 'how to use our site!' book) and 21 actually put into print. They don't require you to pull your work off of other display sites, but don't want it to previously have been for sale. They mention fanfiction.net, which seems an odd choice - not FictionPress, ffnet's original works site?

They have some great covers, though.
 

gingerwoman

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I'm surprised this is the only Bewares Recommendations and Background thread for Swoon with only one post?
 
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gingerwoman

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A 10k advance and paperback + digital publishing doesn't sound so bad? I only don't like the 6 months exclusive during rating.
Yup that's the onion in the ointment. Otherwise it's tempting. Well also I don't really have any friends I'd feel comfortable begging for votes, and hate the idea of that, so I don't know how much that's done, or if you could just put up a quality work, and hoped people would vote on it without being your friends? It's a private site though in that you have to actually sign up and be part of the community to rate.
 

gingerwoman

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It HAS to be YA or NA romance I believe. Otherwise you'd be wasting your time I think. It can be fantasy, sci fi, paranormal, anything really as long as it's still YA, NA romance. That's what I gather.

Actually I take part of that back, they say "love story", I think potentially a weepy type tragic teen love story might also be acceptable, but stories where love is not a main focus, or characters are ALL over the age of 20 probably aren't going to be chosen. All the guidelines say "teens" so I think even with New Adult maybe they'd prefer a heroine who is 18, 19.
 
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gingerwoman

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Is it love story? Maybe if one of the protagonists is twenty or twenty one you could squeak in? I know for New Adult the hero can be older as long as the heroine is in that age bracket under twenty five, although SWOON guidelines repeatedly say teen romance.
 

Becca C.

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Swoon Reads is an imprint of Macmillan, so part of the Big Five. I see their books in book stores all the time, so they're definitely legit.
 

Parametric

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Swoon Reads is an imprint of Macmillan, so part of the Big Five. I see their books in book stores all the time, so they're definitely legit.

Even with Macmillan's involvement, I'm not confident that the YADS model ever really works for authors. I've seen a lot of complaints in B&BC about YADS with similar models - mainly that they're glorified popularity contests and the effort to get ratings is time-consuming, with ultimately no reward unless you're one of the few (or none) chosen.
 

Ravioli

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Is it love story? Maybe if one of the protagonists is twenty or twenty one you could squeak in? I know for New Adult the hero can be older as long as the heroine is in that age bracket under twenty five, although SWOON guidelines repeatedly say teen romance.
No romance. Only one female teen and she only has one interest and that's a f*cked up one. I guess they're not for me *sniff*
 

Ravioli

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I wish. But I don't even know HOW to find the right agent. I'd go for any option, agent or direct-to-publisher as long as either pick is a good one. But I google, I go through names and genres they rep, and I do the same with publishers, but if I were to try and make sense of anything I find, I'd be hogging this forum. I just suck at finding the right people. It's not just my novice-ness to writing/publishing, it's a general difficulty of mine...
 

gingerwoman

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To be honest, I'd think your work may be too deep and mature for them.

Eh I think they might take some depth, as long as it was super teen relevant and included a strong romance.
 

Ravioli

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It isn't and it doesn't unless you wanna make it a cautionary tale for teens to stick to Jesus... *snickers* Oh now I wanna sell it to teens and read their parents' angry reviews and cries for bans :evil
 

JustWonderin

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If anyone is still wondering they aren't sticklers for the 6 months thing. You can request your manuscript be taken down and they will remove it.
 

gingerwoman

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They have erotic romance as well now, but they no longer want any paranormal, nothing about the advance is on the site any more than I can see, and they are closed to ANY unagented submissions until February next year it seems.
 
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romancewriter

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Saw on Twitter that Swoon Reads is asking for YA romance submission before October 31st. I thought it was some kind of contest but when I visited the site there isn't any information about a contest just how to submit. The whole trying to get people to vote for you isn't a fave of mine, but the 10,000 advance sounds pretty sweet. I've noticed in this thread there seems to be some confusion between Swoon Reads and Swoon Romance. Swoon Romance is a completely different publisher and aren't currently accepting unsolicited manuscripts. Swoon Reads is through McMillian. Anyone else considering subbing before the end of Oct? Let me know and I'll check it out :)
 

themindstream

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Bumping this - checked here when a friend told me about the site. The "romance-only" thing seems to be outdated info. From their FAQ:

What genres do you accept? Do you only take romance novels? Nope! Swoon Reads now accepts ALL YA fiction genres. Fantasy, contemporary, historical, paranormal, mystery, horror, romance... All are welcome!
However, please note that we still do not accept non-fiction or short stories (including short story anthologies).
 

hester

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Out of curiosity I signed up last night (didn't submit a manuscript yet--I'm feeling my way around the site, reading bits and pieces of various works). So far it seems interesting--I'll post with updates when I get a little more acclimated!
 

writera

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The fact that it's MacMillian and the $10,000 are positive elements, but the rest of it strikes me as very off-putting, gimmicky, and possibly a bit suspect. You have to upload your entire novel on there. You have to leave it on there for six months. While it's on there, you cannot send it out to anyone else. And after all that, you probably won't even be selected. The whole thing seems a bit gimmicky, doesn't it? It would be much better and much more fair to writers if you could just upload a sample - like the first three chapters or the first 50 pages, and that you were allowed send it elsewhere in the meantime. I suppose if you happen to have a trunk novel or a novel you don't care as much about lying around, it's a good deal. But if you've only got one or two novels you're actively trying to get published, not so much.


I don't know. I just think it's another example of writers being given the short end of the stick. I understand it's a good opportunity and no one is forced to submit to it, but the rules seem pretty unfair. And it would prevent writers from submitting elsewhere. Exclusivity in general is pretty limiting to writers. Would they even be able to hold you to keeping it on the site for six months and not sending it out to anyone else? Suppose you uploaded it, but also submitted it widely and were accepted elsewhere and asked them to take it down from their site. They could hardly refuse, could they?
 
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Sonya Heaney

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^^^^

I've known about Swoon Reads for a while, and the concept has always made me feel icky. Forcing authors to join a popularity contest in order to get a contract is just gross - and very high school. The possibility of a Big Five contract is hard to ignore, but still. It's a publicly-judged slush pile, and it doesn't feel right to me.