Happily-Editor-After with the Love Inspired Editors

Hi!  Elizabeth Mazer here.  I’m delighted to be at Petticoats and Pistols to let folks know about a fun new editor pitching opportunity! Shana Smith, Emily Rodmell and I—three editors for Love Inspired—are looking to fall in love with some new romances  for the Christian inspirational market. “Happily Editor After” is our planned online pitch session, designed to give writers a chance to make us fall in love with new, intriguing stories for the three Love Inspired lines: Love Inspired (contemporary inspirational romance); Love Inspired Suspense (contemporary inspirational romantic suspense); and of course, Love Inspired Historical (historical inspirational romance).

Details, guidelines, and instructions on how to sign up are all available at http://community.harlequin.com/showthread.php/1042-Happily-Editor-After (don’t just check it out, share the link with your friends!) so I’m not going to repeat that info here. Instead, I want to tell you just why we’re so excited about this pitch session, and why it’s such a terrific opportunity for new writers.

Every time an author pitches to me, I know she’s hoping that I’m going to tell her that her story

is exactly what I’m looking for. Here’s the chance to make that happen! With this pitch session, you don’t just sign up for a slot, you sign up for a specifically-selected editor. Think of it like online dating. Emily, Shana and I have posted our profiles—information on our backgrounds, our tastes, what we love, what aggravates us, and what we’re dying to see

in a story. Based on the profiles, you can pick the editor that you think is the perfect match for your manuscript—or you can see if our profiles trigger you with an idea for a new project that you could target directly to one of us! If you love to write the same things that one of us loves to read, then the editor/author match could truly be happily editor after for you and your story.

Not sure you’re ready to do an online pitch? That’s fine, too. Check out our profiles anyway! If you get a sense for our preferences and personalities now, then maybe it’ll help you decide who to query with a story idea down the road. But if you are interested in participating, please sign up as soon as you can, before all the slots are taken.

Got questions about Happily Editor After? Want to know more about Love Inspired? Looking for advice on which editor to pick? (Pick me, pick me! Come on, don’t I sound fun?) Ask away! I’ll be checking in throughout the day to respond to comments. Thanks to the lovely Renee for letting me share this opportunity. I hope to see lots of you in the chat room in May!

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24 thoughts on “Happily-Editor-After with the Love Inspired Editors”

  1. Oh gals, I love that you’re doing this! YOWZA!!!! What fun this will be…. And you’ve got folks getting all excited which will warm things up in these cold months. Hey, I want the world to know how wonderful it is to work for a publisher who is willing to grow new authors… involve themselves in fun contests…. reach out to newbies…. look at unagented work…. and work in a strong and professional manner at all stages of the game. And TWENTY BOOKS/MONTH is nothing to sneeze at, authors!!!! Jump in! Test the waters! But, umm…. don’t take my job, okay???? 🙂

    Hey, I’m leaving you guys fresh carrot cake for a little snack. Cream cheese frosting. A lovely Monday breakfast!

  2. Another fun opportunity from the wonderful editors at Love Inspired.

    Elizabeth, you gals are so very creative!!! The pic is adorable. The Speed Dating Pitch Session is an open invitation to join the LI family of authors. Fingers crossed for everyone who takes part.

    I’m adding pecan coffee cake to the snack table. Along with hot coffee and an assortment of specialty creamers. Perfect for a cold winter morn. Enjoy!

  3. Hi Elizabeth! Welcome to Petticoats & Pistols! I have to say, “Happily Editor After” is the best contest name ever. Here’s hoping you round up a slew of new authors who love the Old West complete with outlaws, preachers and every hero in between. LIH is a wonderful place to be, especially for new authors. Big hugs and well wishes to everyone at LIH. I agree with Debby Giusti — the picture is adorable!

  4. Good morning, Elizabeth!!! Welcome to the Junction!!! I can’t wait to see who joins the LI team through “Happily Editor After.” I’m especially hoping for more western romance books. What can I say, can’t get enough of cowboys, lawmen, outlaws, rebel preachers, maybe a blacksmith or two.

  5. Hi, Elizabeth. Welcome to Petticoats and Pistols. I just want to let everybody know how proud and lucky I am to have you as my very own editor!

    Everybody, this lady is the best! I can’t say enough good things about working with her.

    The contest sounds like a fabulous idea. You should get some wonderful new submissions. Good luck and wishing a great week to all of you.

  6. Oh this sounds like fun….It is my dream to become an author with Harlequin. So maybe this is my chance. Will definitely check it out…

    Melinda

  7. Hi Elizabeth! Welcome to the Junction where fun and laughter is the norm. I’m thrilled to have you and the girls visit. And what an opportunity!! OMG! This is exciting. I read LIH all the time and would love to have a chance to write for you. I’ll definitely check this out. Enjoy your chat with us. By the way, I’m snagging a piece of carrot cake and a cup of coffee. I haven’t had breakfast yet.

  8. Ruthy says, “A blacksmith…. Oh who wouldn’t love a “smithy”??????

    Whereas I was thinking we never have enough sheriffs… small town police…. NYS troopers!!! 🙂

    And who doesn’t fall head over heels in love with a military hero? Or a down-to-earth farmer like in Sarah, Plain and Tall.

    SIGH OF GREAT PROPORTIONS!

  9. Hi everyone,

    I just wanted to echo Elizabeth’s setiments. We’re excited about this pitch session. More than a hundred people have signed up so far, and we’re each eagerly looking for great new author voices. Small tip: The biggest opportunity is writing for our Love Inspired Suspense line. But we still have slots in LI and LIH also. So make sure to sign up before the spots are all taken.

    Emily Rodmell
    Editor
    Love Inspired

  10. Hi everyone! Thanks for the enthusiastic welcome! A special thanks for the lovely Love Inspired ladies (Ruth, Debby, Vicki, Renee, and Missy) for being such terrific ambassadors for our program–and of course, an extra-special thanks to Elizabeth for the very nice things she said about me. 🙂 Melinda and Linda, thanks for the interest! Love Inspired is very committed to bringing in fresh, new voices on all of our lines, so even if this opportunity isn’t the right fit for you, please keep us in mind for your submissions! Now, on to that carrot cake…

  11. Hi Elizabeth, All of you at Love Inspired are wonderful to offer so many opportunities for unpublished writers. This has to be the most fun, cleverest opportunity yet! Hope you fall in love many times. 🙂 Go for it, writers!

    Janet

  12. Hi ladies, welcome to the Junction! This sounds like an absolutely AWESOME opportunity for new writers to get their foot in the door at Love Inspired. I’ve written for both the LI and LIH lines and worked with a number of the editors there, including Elizabeth and Emily, and I can say from experience how great a place it is for a writer to land. I can’t wait to see who joins the team through this speical program!!

  13. Hi Elizabeth,
    I signed up and am so very excited. My question is, how many words should the pitch be? Will the synopsis be submitted along with the pitch or only if more is requested? Thanks! Christy

  14. Thanks for the kind words, Janet, Winnie, and Tina!

    Christy: I’m so glad to hear you’ve signed up! Your pitch should be no more than 100 words. No need to send along your synopsis–just have that ready, along with however much you’ve written of the manuscript, in case it’s requested.

    Talynn: We’re excited, too. 🙂 Yes, definitely sign up now–the slots are going fast!

    -Elizabeth

  15. I love it that the Love Inspired family is out looking for authors, I love that the line is growing and the enthusiam along with it. Thanks for being on Petticoats and Pistols today.

  16. Thanks, Elizabeth. In those 100 words what do the editors really want? I’m sure GMC, but how important is age or the ending? I just want to make sure I make the most of my pitch ;O)

  17. What a great idea. I won’t be pitching any story ideas your way, but I hope you get lots of good ones. That will be good for you and Love Inspired, good for aspiring authors, and good for us the readers. We love to have new talent come our way with great new stories.

  18. Hi Christy,

    What we’re really looking for is a quick layout of the plot that highlights the “hooks”–the elements of your story that will make it appealing to readers (like Western! Or single mom, or sheriff hero). For example, you might say:

    In this Western romantic suspense story targeting LIS, bounty hunter Jay Turner is used to jobs going sideways. But even he’s surprised when he tracks down fugitive-turned-horse-trainer Laura Powell to tiny Red Springs, Colorado, and is met with gunfire—aimed not from her, but at her. Someone wants her dead before she can be taken into custody, and Jay means to find out who. With a past filled with fear and betrayal, how can Laura trust the handsome bounty hunter? Yet with her life on the line…how can she not?

    See how this gets across the major hooks–Western setting, bounty hunter hero (which, by the way, I’d love to see), heroine in danger, small town, secrets from the past? (And FYI, we’d be very excited to get more Western suspense stories in our LIS line-up.) It also conveys a thumbnail sketch of what’s driving the plot, and a bit of the characters’ GMCs all in 90 words. Does that help give you an idea of what we’re looking for? We don’t really need info about the ending of the story, and character details–such as age–can probably wait as well, unless they directly tie in to the plot.

    And by the way, I made this story up for this example. If anyone who likes it, feel free to write it! I’d love to see what someone could do with it. 🙂

    -Elizabeth

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