Back to the celebrating

Thank you all for your supportive comments on the last couple of posts. I was frankly appalled by the venom of some of those posts. Just a couple of other comments - and that is that if a contest is open to 'aspiring' authors - well I have no trouble at all seeing other authors 'aspire' to being published in Presents/Modern Romance. And Harlequin have declared it to be their best selling line that's darn well something to aspire to.

If I entered a contest for a Single Title publication, I'd be 'aspiring' to that all right.

And as for coming up again previously published authors . .. er well what do you think is going to happen if you do get published? Then you're up against published, multi-published - stratospherically- published authors all the time. And that's up against them in the SALES ratings not just a contest.

I should know. My first book was up against luminaries like Catherine George, Betty Neels, Penny Jordan, Carole Mortimer, Elizabeth Oldfield.

And later books would be up against huge sellers like the late great Charlotte Lamb (Hi Jane -the Jane Holland who has commented is Charlotte Lamb's daughter.)

So if you want to be a professional published author you'd better accept that coming up against the 'Grand Dames' (still wondering if I count as one of those!) is parr for the course.

That Contest Part 2

Having just taken another look over at I Heart Presents - and I really wish I hadn't - I'm just going to make one final comment.


And that is that, no matter what happened with the official rules and the actual winning entry - that is between the editors and the entrant. No matter how disappointed, angry, frustrated and confused you are there is a professional way to deal with it - and there is a petty, ill-tempered , mean spirited - quite frankly - childish way of doing just that.



A professional would be aware of the fact that the editors are human and mistakes can be made. The editorial offices are closed and no decision can be made until later this morning. I have no doubt that there will be an official announcement later. Until I am aware of all the facts that is all I'll say.



That is where the decisions and the proper assessment of the situation rests.



For anyone else - to resort to personal cat fights, and the sort of mean spirited spite on a public forum that I have seen in some of the posts does nothing to justify your cause, it simply lowers the writer to the level of truly unpleasant and totally unprofessional. I'm glad to see that one poster at least has realised this and come back to say so.



A while ago I wrote a post pointing out how unjustified the Crime Writers' Association were in their long-running and tired joke about the fact that crime writers were lovely people - it was the Romantic Novelists who would stab you in the back. Sadly, reading some of the posts on I hearts would give them plenty more material to keep that tired old chestnut roasting well into 2010.

To be honest, the venom in some of those posts would make me want to back well away from working with/ helping 'wannabe' authors in the future. Which, considering the post I put up at Romance Bandits on Saturday about how and why I do that would be a real disappointment.

PS On a personal note to 'Jenny' who commented so much - I quote:

The odds were grim to begin with. HM&B didn’t contract new writers for quite some years, it’s only in recent years that they’ve opened the doors again. It doesn’t take a mathematical genius to work out why. Their stable of authors will need to be replenished – The Grand Dames of romance are winding down, some of the newbie writers may not be around for long as some, let’s face it, aspire to greater heights and view this particular genre as a stepping stone or a temporary diversion

Sorry - no- get your facts right. The doors have always, always been open to anyone who could achieve the standard of story-telling required. And I have no idea if you consider me one of the 'Grand Dames' (heaven forfend!) but winding down . . . no . I may have been published for 25 years but I ain't finished yet. - I already have two new books scheduled for next year, a new one 'on the keyboard' so to speak. And a 'special project' commissioned for after that. I don't see any of my writing contemporaries 'winding down' either. It's the writers who have made the Presents Line such a wonderful publishing success and so the line that 544 - and more who didn't enter the contest people would aspire to be published in.

You apologised to the 'Sisterhood', for not congratulating the winners, but in that paragraph you managed to dismiss the established authors, the newcomers to the genre - the genre itself in your comment about 'aspiring to greater heights' - If you really want help and advice - feedback and clarification you'd do well not to alienate those who might offer it to you as you struggle to start off your own career.

Tred Softly on My Dreams

I’m going to pause just for a moment or two before I continue with the posts I had planned for the 25th anniversary because I think I need to comment a little on something else that has cropped up.

Those of you who are trying to become published writers will know that the big writing for Presents Contest that has been running over on I heart Presents has come to an end and the winners – four of them, two winners and two runners up – have been announced. If you’ve been over there as I’m sure many of you have, then you’ll have noticed the furore that has broken out because two of the winners – the two writing chapters aimed at Modern Romance – have been published before.

No, I’m not going to discuss the legalities and the rules and regulations involved in that decision here. For one thing I haven’t had time to really check out the rules and for another I think it’s rude and unprofessional to comment – and even ruder to shout and scream on any blog – before the editors have had a chance to check things through and make their comments on this. That is an official decision. But all I will say is that in a huge publishing firm with offices in London, New York and Toronto, with thousands of individual authors it’s all too easy for names not to be recognised so until there is an official statement throwing accusations and shouting the odds is not the way to go.

But there is one point I want to take issue with. And that’s the idea that as published authors – whether with one, four, or as in my case 57 titles behind you - the job of writing a book, getting it past an editor and achieving that wonderful feeling of acceptance and scheduling actually gets any easier or less stressful. Or that published authors don’t recall just how it felt to want that success so desperately and the sheer nail-biting anxiety we went through to get there.

Because we do. Some authors grow confidence. Some of us just grow a slightly tougher skin. Some of us know that we’ve done this before, we’ll probably manage to do it again. But there’s the emphasis on that ‘probably’. I know I find the moment of sending off a novel every bit as terrifying now as I did way back in 1984 when I was new to this. I’ve already mentioned how I’ve stumbled along the way - and there’s more to come because, believe me, it wasn’t ‘get one book bought and you’re home and dry- no problems after that’. I’ll talk about that more when I come to my second title Game of Hazard. One thing I will say here is that as I’ve always pointed out, one a book is on the shop shelves, it isn’t dripping in the blood sweat and tears that went into getting it there. And many books take that blood sweat and tears. The first thing an author has to learn is how to take editing – criticism, revisions, rewrites . . . We can all write easily for ourselves, turning that into a publishable book is another matter. I know I’ve been there – and believe me every drop of blood and sweat, every tear is remembered as if it was yesterday. It’s just like giving birth – you forget the pain afterwards. Until you have to go through it all again.

And because an author has learned to take editing in one particular line of fiction it doesn’t necessarily mean that she is now a polished and proficient successful author in any and every other line. Any advice help and criticism can be a great help but what works for, say a sci-fi story wouldn’t work for Modern/Presents. I regularly critique for the RNA’s New Writers’ Scheme but I always always remember that I am not an editor. An editor’s decision is final. An editor’s decision is the one that matters when judging if a book is to be published or not. One person on the I Heart Blog says she paid for a critique of her story – I’m sorry, but that doesn’t guarantee that it was actually what the editors were looking for. Even if the critiquer had knowledge of the line.

Putting aside the whos whats wherefores and whys of the reasons the winners named were chosen, the fact will remain that they wrote the best entries, in the opinion of the editors who read all the other entries. No matter how good any other individual thought their submission was, it is that judgement that matters. And as to the comments that the contest was for aspiring authors – well, all those winners were aspiring Presents authors. Everyone who entered the contest was an aspiring author – else why would they enter it? The fact that someone has never been published before and has been trying for who knows how long doesn’t give them a moral right to be published, nor will it make their entry a better submission. For this particular contest at this particular time, against these other particular entrants.

I have never ever in my writing life won a single contest. Not one. I’ve had a couple of mentions on a short-list, but that’s it. And that doesn’t mean that my writing isn’t worth a damn or that I should just give up right now because other people are winning them and they are multi-published/have won many contests before/ know another editor in another office/.work with another editor in another company . . . .

When I work with ‘New’ authors. Unpublished authors, ‘wannabe’ or ‘gonnabe’ authors in my courses, workshops, critiquing for the RNA etc I am always always aware of the fact that I am dealing in two things:

1. I am dealing with someone’s dreams. Writing is like that. Our books are part of opurselves., We put a lot of ourselves into them – we ‘bleed’ a little on to the page. They are our ‘babies’ and we send them out into the hard cruel world of publishing and hope they will be taken up and nurtured. A rejection doesn’t feel like a rejection for the story, it feels like a rejection of us. It’s personal.

2. The need to be professional. Because there is no point at all in doing a critique if I’m not going to tell the truth. I don’t want to hurt, I don’t want to destroy someone’s dreams – but as a professional I do need to put on my critic’s hat and say what’s not working, where things are going wrong. And I’ll also say where things are going right. Because that is the only way that I feel I can help.

There were 544 entries to the Presents writing contest. Each and every one of them was submitted by an individual. Nothing came through an agent or from another editor. How many other publishers will l give that sort of opportunity? And each and every one of those submissions was read and considered by the editorial team.

So – speaking purely from the writing point of view – the winners were the best, the ones the editors saw most potential in. And the other considerations don’t affect that.

And the prize is to work with an editor for a year. That does not guarantee publication, it does not guarantee a future writing career. Some of the past winners have succeeded in writing a publishable novel – other haven’t (yet). I met Lynn Raye Harris in San Francisco at RWA when she had won the first such contest. She was struggling with revisions or revisions and worrying that this meant she was a failure. It didn’t. It meant that she had come hard up against the realities of a writing career – it isn’t just ‘churning out’ story after story but it’s writing and rewriting and revising and polishing until the damn thing works. And very few books spring fully-formed and perfect from the keyboard. I know, I can count the number of mine that have on very few fingers.

In a field of over 500 entries, even with 4 winners and runners-up, there was going to be a huge number of disappointed entrants. But if those entrants are going to convince themselves that they were badly done to, that the winners won because of some thing other than the fact that they wrote great entries, they are fooling themselves. Those winners won becuase what they wrote put them at the top of the pile..

But that doesn’t mean that the huge majority who didn’t win are the opposite of winners – losers. That’s not how this works. Four submissions were chosen because of the potential they held. There will be others, tens, dozens – hundreds maybe who came close but not close enough. Some will get great feedback, some, like some of the NWS writers I’ve commented on, will be disappointed and feel down. But none of this means that as writers you’re dead. That you can never ever try again. That your manuscript – or the next one – or the one after that – can’t ever achieve publication.

It simply means that this one was not the best in a very, very big field. And thinking that someone belongs to a ‘sisterhood’, isn’t pleased ‘enough’ to have won, hasn’t struggled enough to earn their winning place , or has some special entrée into the world you so want to enter is putting on blinkers so that you can’t see the real road ahead of you. Which is to look at what the winners wrote and see why they won. To look at the comments on your own work and see how it applies to that, what you can learn from it. To dust yourself off, pick yourself up and start all over again.

I started out in this writing life as someone who longed, hoped, dreamed, struggled, tried, failed, tried again. I was told by every sensible adult, parents, teachers etc that I would never succeed as a writer and I should stop dreaming of it. Did that stop me? No. And nor did the missteps, the rejections, the disappointments on the way. I still remember how that hurt so I’m not for one moment thinking that what I’m saying is easy. But If there’s one thing I have learned in the 25 years and more I’ve been trying for publication/writing for publication, it’s that I can never ever guarantee that any advice I give will, actually result in you being published.

But there’s one thing I can guarantee that will STOP you from being published. And that is that if you give in, give up – and convince yourself that it was all those other forces, reasons and excuses why you never succeeded.

In my life as a writer I have met so many wonderful ‘wannabes’ - whose determination and courage turned them first into ‘gonnabes’ and then into published authors whose wonderful books line my shelves alongside mine.
As they say – a successful writer is one who picks themselves up one more time than they are knocked back. I know those knock backs hurt – I’ve been there, and wear the scars with pride. They are part of the learning process. Without them I wouldn’t be where I am.

But learning from the knock backs is the only way to grow.

Good luck to all you wannabe/gonnabes out there – I really hope you achieve your dreams. Maybe not with the fanfare and trumpets that winning this particular contest might bring. But as the latest newly signed Presents/Modern Romance author Maisey Yates knows - that success is just as sweet no matter which way it comes.

Go for it! And if you do achieve success, I hope you’ll come back and tell me about it.

Blogging about

I'll be back with more on the 25th anniversary - and the first winner of 'My First Kate Walker' just as soon as I can. I have visitors again this weekend so I'm busy busy busy

But I'm blogging - and celebrating over on Romance Bandits today talking about why I love helping 'New Authors' who are aiming for publication

So why not come over and chat there? There's a copy of the 12 Point Guide to win too.

25 years - before 1984 - the journey

I’m often asked about my ‘journey to publication’. People who are now trying to write for Harlequin Mills and Boon and are getting rejections or requests for revisions and then not quite making it, often want to know if an established, successful author ever went through the same traumas and struggles, if I stumbled on my way to acceptance and if so how I finally made it.


Well, the answer is of course yes. Yes I did stumble, yes I did experience rejection before I finally made it. My first attempt at writing a romance was a a book I titled Double Love. It was all about a heroine who was torn between the hero and his almost identical cousin and it was – I freely admit it – pretty dreadful.

The biggest mistake I made was that I hadn’t read any of the recently published Mills & Boon books – and anyone who’s read any of my advice about writing romance knows just how big a mistake I consider that to be! I had read the books written by Marguerite Lees - a friend of my mother when I was growing up and the recent discovery of Anne Mather's Witchstone reminded me how much I'd enjoyed those books. But I read that as a reprint, almost ten years after it had originally been published in 1974, so I wasn't exactly up to date. I really shouldn't have been at all surprised when Double Love came back with just a rejection slip – no comments, nothing. And I know now that it didn’t deserve any.
I still keep that manuscript to remind me of the mistakes I made back then.


My second attempt – which I think I titled Garrett of Stoneroyd - was better. It had to be because it earned me a letter from a Senior Editor no less. And there were comments and advice in that letter. Here again, I was much like so many others – they liked my story but it lacked ‘emotional velocity’ (aka emotional punch) and failed to reach the emotional climax they were looking for. But this letter did contain three very important words. The editor suggested certain authors I might like to read and said ‘please try again’.

So I did.

I went away and I read lots of Mills & Boon stories – particularly the authors suggested in the letter. (Carole Mortimer and Penny Jordan, two authors I’m now amazed and honoured to call friends.) And this time I read the books that were currently being published, not the older ones I could find in charity shops etc. I read lots and lots and lots of them. And I tried to think of a plot that would have that vital ‘emotional velocity.’ In order to do that I knew that I would have to stop imagining my mother – or indeed on of my sisters - reading over my shoulder as I wrote. I would have to let go, go deep into the world of my imagination and just write.


And then I had a dose of flu and a raging temperature. And while I was trying to sleep and finding it impossible I had an idea and that idea became The Chalk Line . . .

Celebrating . . .

This post should actually have been written last week but somehow last week got away with me. There was a last week - right? Or maybe I blinked and I missed it. Travelling, visitors, more visitors, Christmas shopping - which involved more travelling . . . And today we're setting off again for an overnight stay and Airedale Writers' Group Christmas party . . . and then back home for more visitors. So I have a suspicion that this week is going to get away with me too if I'm not careful.

So - Celebrating.

Of course, so many of you are celebrating right now. Whether it's Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa - or whatever the holiday season is here. But I have a very special reason for celebrating this time. And the logo on this post - together with the banner that lovely Heather of We Write Romance has made for my web site - will tell you just what I'm talking about.

This month I'm celebrating 25 years of being a published writer. It was in December 1984 that my very first book ever was published. That was The Chalk Line and when I first held that book in my hands, I had no idea that it would mark the start of such a long and wonderful career as a writer. All I could think of was how wonderful it was to have achieved my long-held ambition to have a book I had written published. I never imagined that 25 years later I would still be writing, have 56 titles published or accepted and awaiting publication and be the author of two guides on how to write romantic fiction as well.

So because this is such a special anniversary for me I'll obviously be celebrating and I'd love to have you all share in the celebrations with me. One of the ways I'll be doing this is by running a couple of contests – well, contests and polls really – and there will be - suitably enough - 25 prizes to give away.

I'm asking my readers to help me celebrate my silver anniversary by letting me know what the very first ever Kate Walker title you read was- if you can, give me a little information about where and when you found it - and I'll be publishing some of those stories on my blog. And then I'd love to know which are your Top 5 Favourite Kate Walker stories of all time. Everyone who enters will have their name put into the prize draw with a chance of winning one of the prize

Here are the details that are now up on my Contest page

I want to mark this special anniversary and celebrate 25 years as a published author, and when I celebrate, I love to share with my readers. So here’s how I’d like you to join in and maybe win yourself a prize by doing so. I have 25 prizes in all to give away – one to mark each year that I have been published.

So here’s how to enter – there are two ways to win.

1. FIRST BOOOKS
Can you remember the first Kate Walker novel you ever read? Were you right there at the beginning with The Chalk Line? Or have you discovered my books much more recently?
Tell me about your first time – the first Kate Walker you read. What book was it and what was happening in your life when you found it? Did you pick it up in a shop, find it in the library – or perhaps a friend or member of your family suggested you try it?

Let me know about the first book you read and I will publish the most interesting ones on my blog. I will also give a prize to anyone whose story I publish. You can win a signed copy of one of the backlist books I have a available, together with another small gift to celebrate Christmas and this special anniversary.

Send your First Book stories to me – see the email below – with FIRST BOOK in the subject line. Closing date for all FIRST BOOK stories is December 31st 2009. But I’ll be posting some of the titles and stories before then.

2. TOP 5 TITLES
Which of my books are your very favourite novels? When I was celebrating 20 years published, I ran a poll for readers to nominate their top five favourite Kate Walker books. I collected up all the votes and the result was like this:

1. A Sicilian Husband

2. The Italian's Forced Bride

3. The Sicilian's Wife

4. Sicilian Husband, Blackmailed Bride

5. The Antonakos Marriage

6. The Spaniard's Inconvenient Wife

7. Wife For A Day

8. Desert Affair

9. 12 Month Mistress

10. The Hostage Bride

Of course, since then I’ve had quite a lot more books published – and you might find you’d prefer some of those. Or you could have changed your mind about which book you like best. So why don’t you join in this new vote, help me discover which of my books is now the No 1 favourite – and again put yourself in the running for one of my special 25th anniversary prizes.
What you have to do:

List your top five Kate Walker books in order 1 – 5
Send your list to me with TOP 5 BOOKS in the subject line on the email.
And I’ll do the rest.

Again, the closing date for this poll is December 31st and I’ll start off my special celebration year by publishing the results in January so that everyone will know which book was voted top.

And as the votes come in, I’ll get Sid to pick a couple of winners every week so that some of you will win a prize of a signed book and an extra little gift for helping me out with my poll.

Over the coming weeks I'll be taking a look back at those 25 years and the books that were published during them - and I'm hoping to have some of my writer friends and other friends in the romance world come along and blog about their favourites too - so let's celebrate!

PS I'm late with this too - but if you check out the link to the Harlequin Site in the sidebar, you'll find lots of very special deals for the 12 Days of Christmas

And over on the Mills and Boon Site, there's a very special Advent Calendar Contest with a prize on offer every day. Just answer a simple question and you're in with a chance to win.

Finally - if you wanted to pick up a copy of my Bedded By The Greek Billionaire, perhaps to put in someone's stocking - or even your own - then this best-selling title of mine is on sale here at a special offer of 40% off - that's $2.85 instead of $4.75 - that's a real bargain.

Tote Bags Today

That was one hectic weekend - lots of lovely visitors, including one gorgeous but very active and noisy 3 year old (the cats are still recovering!) A wonderful time was had by all - now I have to catch up on sleep, washing - and blogging.





But with today being the first Sunday in December, I'm bloggin over on Tote Bags 'N' Blogs - so that's where you'll find me today