Looking For Some Other Romance Writers

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tarra74

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hello, I know I don't post here much, but plan to more often once things settle down here (in just the last few months alone the roofers cut my phone line leaving internetless for over two weeks, and then I got deathly sick from some meds my doctor gave me, and now my mom is in the hospital and it isn't looking too good).

My sister and I are looking for a way to keep busy and keep our minds off things. My sister has always wanted to write and basically knows nothing about the business. We came up with a plan to write romance novelas together and sell them as personalized e-books online, but thought it would be more fun if we put together a team of romance writers and did them like a soap opera, writing one or two episodes a month, which is the reason for this post.

Are there any romance writers who would like to be on our team? All money made will be split between all writers involved with their bio on the website and credit in the e-books. If you are interested, please send an email to me at [email protected] and let me know. I will be putting together a yahoo group for the team so we can start creating a story line and the characters.
 

JanDarby

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You might want to look into joining RWA, which may also have some local chapters in your area. It's a great place to learn about the romance industry and to meet other writers.

For more information, go to rwanational.org

JD
 

sunandshadow

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It's very difficult to get multiple writers to agree on what they want to write about or how to divide up the work. Plus, authors who know how to write a romance novel and are motivated to write are probably already busy with their own project, so the volunteers you get are likely to be those who have ideas but don't want to sit down and write, and those who are clueless beginners.
 

tarra74

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These would not be volunteers. They would be paid. Like I said, all money made would be split between all authors involved. These will be e-books that are like soap operas. Soap operas are written by a team of writers.
 

tarra74

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JD, I used to belong to RWA, but I let my membership go when they started stripping away the rights of erotica writers after they invited them to join and collected membership dues.

I have three manuscripts with three different publishers right now and I am just waiting for a response.

As for my sister, the only thing she has written is poetry. She needs to learn what goes into planning a book and creating characters. She also needs to get her confidence up. She feels she needs practice first before she writes her first manuscript and approaches agents and publishers with it.

At the same time we were talking writing together, which was just for fun at the time, we were also looking for a way to make a little extra money on the side. We decided to combine the two and this is what we came up with.
 

sunandshadow

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tarra74 said:
These would not be volunteers. They would be paid. Like I said, all money made would be split between all authors involved. These will be e-books that are like soap operas. Soap operas are written by a team of writers.
They're volunteers until some money actually materializes - if you don't sell a book they don't get paid. If you do sell a book, a fifth or sixth of the proceeds aren't going to end up being much money.

I don't watch soap operas, but aren't they known for having terrible stories? The same as video cames, which also usually have their stories written by a committee?

Well, I don't mean to be a wet blanket, I wish you luck. I would only be interested in participating if you were going to write a science fiction/fantasy/historical romance, preferably a gay male romance. Hmm, a historical soap opera might be kind of cool actually... like that mini-series of Pride and Prejudice a few years ago, the one with Colin Firth, or that Tenth Kingdom series. *contemplates the possibilities*

Have you considered making it a shared universe project? Each person or team writes their own book and gets any proceeds from it, but all the books share the same setting and the main characters in one are secondary characters in the other?
 

tarra74

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I like your idea and I was on the phone with my sister when I read this and we both like it. We feel this would work better to make it a universal project.

And if you wanted to participate in this and have some wanted to add some science fiction elements to the books you write, that would be fine too. I just recently finished writing an erotica not long ago that had science fiction/fantasy elements in it. I wouldn't even mind if the books you wrote featured a gay male couple. I am a very open minded person when it comes to those things.
 

sunandshadow

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Glad you liked the idea. :) But, um, in a shared-world project, the whole point is that all the books are set in the same world, so wouldn't all the books have to have the same science fiction elements, or lack thereof? The idea is that all the books should be more or less the same genre and style so that any reader who loves one will buy more and be happy with them too.

When the yahoo group is made you should ask everyone to post lists of what they do and don't want to write about, so you can try to find some common ground everyone will be happy with. the automatic polling feature of yahoogroups is nice for taking surveys about who prefers which time period, which culture, which genre, swett or steamy, etc.
 

Cathy C

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Probably your best bet to start this project would be for you and your sister to sit down and write up a "bible" for the universe. You'll need to create rules for the world, a common "goal" to achieve (whether that goal is to save the universe or just save each other) and a few initial characters to start the game. You might take a look at the "2176" series Dorchester put out over the past couple of years. This series was the brainchild of Susan Grant, who pitched the concept of having a "world vision" and asking different authors to take characters and tell their stories. She wrote the two "anchor books", the beginning and end, starting the The Legend of Banzai Mcguire. It centered around five women who were in the military and were frozen in time, being brought back to life in the year 2176 to once again battle for American independence. It was so successful that Dorchester did a similar thing with the "Crimson City" series.

So, your idea isn't new, but can be VERY well received, if carefully done. Good luck! :)
 

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Well I am interested either way. I think both have potential and would be interested in how you proceed from this point. Please feel free to include me in the yahoo group me email is [email protected]

I hoe to hear from you and your sister soon! oh, and for the record I think it's a great idea to share with your sister, it'd be something I could see my sister and me doing together, though she has no desire to write :)

-sherry

PS: Sorry to hear your mom is sick. Best health to her.​
 

tarra74

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Kharisma said:
Well I am interested either way. I think both have potential and would be interested in how you proceed from this point. Please feel free to include me in the yahoo group me email is [email protected]

Hi Sherry, I sent you an invite to join the writing team. We should be getting started shortly. I am just waiting for my sister who is working on a way to get here from Utah to see my mom, but she did say she wants to get things started while she is here before she goes back to Utah. She is supposed to catch a train at midnight tonight, but that all depends if she can get the money. My aunt is going to try to help her is she can.
 
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