These days, with the publishing industry in flux, it’s hard to know what to expect with traditional publishing. I recently announced my sale of a 1920s erotic romance collection to Berkley Books, set to release in January 2013. For new writers or those who aren’t familiar with what it’s like to work with one of the Big Six traditional publishers, I thought I’d share the process from (nearly) start to finish.

The first part was having my agent, the lovely Jennifer Schober of Spencerhill Associates, submit my proposal for me. The next part was a modest bidding war when more than one NY editor was enticed by my work. Then there was the contract negotiations and a brief call with my editor, Cindy Hwang, about the direction that the collection should take. (I submitted two of the three intertwined stories in the collection, leaving the last one up in the air.)

As it’s April, some of you may be surprised to learn that a publication date of January/February 2013 is very quick in terms of a traditional publishing schedule. It is almost a rush job. So perhaps I ought not have been surprised when, last week, when I was in Chicago for the Romantic Times Bookseller’s Convention, I received an email from my editor requesting that I look over the back cover copy that had been drafted for my book and get it back to her ASAP.

The problem? I hadn’t even started writing the last story of the collection and although I had some vague notion how it ought to go, the idea had been squirming around in my writer brain and taking different shapes. I had two competing versions that were still warring for ascendancy and whatever I put on the back of the book would lock me in.

I had two choices: I could either write such a vague summary of the story that it would fit almost anything or I could write my way out of the problem. I chose the latter. Writing like a fiend, I quickly began to draft both stories at the same time until one emerged as the clear winner. But then what? Berkley’s copywriters had taken the original wording of my proposal–in which I always include a brief summary of the written stories–but I still had to write one for the last story of the collection.

The steps I use in this are as follows:

1. Identify a punchy description of your characters. My heroine in the last story is a plucky social reformer, and that would have been a good identifier for her. However, as the other two heroines in the book are both from different social classes, I chose a working class shop-girl. This contrasted nicely with the little punchy description I had for the hero, her boss, the wealthy heir to the Aster family fortune.
2. Summarize the inciting incident. This is really the premise of your story–the event that’s going to lead to the dominant conflict. In the case of this book, the inciting incident is when the hero confronts our plucky working class shop girl with her diary of fantasies. It’s come into his possession under circumstances that should surely lead to her dismissal…but her handsome boss has other ideas about what to do with her.
3. Wind it up with what’s at stake. In this story, my heroine isn’t sure that her self-respect is compatible with the kind of depraved fantasies she’s living out with her boss. She’s very aware of how her relationship compromises her, that they’re from different social worlds and any lasting relationship is doomed, not to mention the fact that she feels preyed upon. But when she discovers that she has all the power, will it change her idea about the relationship?

The first iteration for the cover copy looked something like this:

It vibrated with incendiary Jazz. It teemed with sexual abandon. The Twenties were roaring and the women—young, open, rebellious, and willing—set the pace and pushed the limits with every man they met…

Love Me or Leave Me

Society girl Nora Richardson’s passionate nature has always been a challenge to her ever-patient husband. Now he wants out of the marriage, and Nora has only one night to win him back. The catch? He wants to punish her for her bad behavior. Nora is offended by her husband’s increasingly depraved demands, but as the night unfolds, she discovers her own true nature and that the line between pain and pleasure is very thin indeed.

When I’m Bad, I’m Better

If Clara Cartwright, sultry siren of the silent screen and darling of the scandal sheets, knows anything, it’s men. And she’s known plenty. But none of them push her boundaries like WWI Flying Ace Leo Vanderberg. When he lures her into a ménage with a stranger in a darkened cinema, she feels like a virgin again. This time, though, she stands to lose more than her innocence. Clara may just lose her jaded heart in the bargain.

Let’s Misbehave

Working class shop-girl Sophie O’Brien has more important things on her mind than pleasures of the flesh. But when her boss, the wealthy heir to the Aster family fortune, confronts her with her diary of secret sex fantasies, she could die of shame. To her surprise, he doesn’t fire her; instead, he dares her to live out her boldest fantasies and Sophie is utterly seduced. She aches to obey the man, but struggles against being drawn deeper under his control. Is her lover a wicked predator with designs to ruin her, or does Sophie have all the power?

However, the more I looked at this I realized that my red hot and risqué stories from the Roaring Twenties all had a through line. These stories are all intertwined with characters re-appearing in each and I wanted the whole thing to flow more smoothly. And so what we end up with is this:

They vibrated with incendiary Jazz. They teemed with sexual abandon. The Twenties were roaring and the women—young, open, rebellious, and willing—set the pace and pushed the limits with every man they met…

In the aftermath of a wild, liquor-soaked party, three women from very different social classes are about to live out their forbidden desires.

Society girl, Nora Richardson’s passionate nature has always been a challenge to her ever-patient husband. Now he wants out of the marriage and she has just this one night to win him back. The catch? He wants to punish her for her bad behavior. Nora is offended by her husband’s increasingly depraved demands, but as the night unfolds, she discovers her own true nature and that the line between pain and pleasure is very thin indeed.

Meanwhile, Clara Cartwright, sultry siren of the silent screen, is introduced to a mysterious WWI Flying Ace. If Clara, darling of the scandal sheets, knows anything, it’s men. And she’s known plenty. But none of them push her boundaries like the aviator, who lures her into a ménage with a stranger in a darkened cinema… then steals her jaded heart.

Working class girl Sophie O’Brien has more important things on her mind than pleasures of the flesh. But when her playboy boss, the wealthy heir to the Aster family fortune, confronts her with her diary of secret sex fantasies, she could die of shame. To her surprise, he doesn’t fire her; instead, he dares her to re-enact her boldest fantasies and Sophie is utterly seduced.

One party serves as a catalyst of sexual awakening. And in an age when anything goes, three women discover that anything is possible…

It’s a brave new world out there and there are more resources and opportunities for romance writers than ever before. Here are five great sites you may not have known about, but which could help launch your career:

• Romance Divas. This website is command central for many romance writers. Founded and frequented by many published authors, Romance Divas offers free workshops, a very active forum, and a chat room in which writing challenges are the order of the day. (I confess that without this chat room and the writers there who egged me on, I might not have finished my last novel for HQN’s Silhouette Nocturne line.) While a popular hangout for published authors, it’s also a very welcoming place for the aspiring author and readers too. Just this month, several Romance Divas (including yours truly) offered up a virtual anthology of free stories in honor of Valentine’s Day.
• Dear Author This review site can be funny enough to make you spit-take, but it also strives to be fair to the romance community. Thoughtful discussions on the future of the industry take place regularly here and the cross-section of opinions from readers and authors alike is valuable for the professional writer.
• eHarlequin.com. It may seem a little dodgy for me to recommend my own publisher’s website, but in spite of the recent self-publishing debacle, eHarlequin remains one of the most active romance communities on the net. Readers not only buy books there and subscribe to category lines, but they also hang out and chat with authors. I’ve had more than a few readers tell me that they’ve picked up my books simply because I participate in the forums.What’s more, there are many resources for the aspiring writer–including virtual pitch sessions with editors.
• Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. Sometimes the snark factor at “The Bitchery” can be a little much, but the site is a wonderful hodgepodge of all things Romance, great and small. Sometimes it’s a quest to expose plagiarism, other times it’s a quest to find the title of a book that a reader once read but can’t remember. What’s more? Nora Roberts shows up in the comments section all the time, as if she were a mere mortal.
• Romance Wiki. I didn’t even know this site existed until a fan wrote to me to ask me for a list of every Silhouette Nocturne ever written. I had no idea, but Romance Wiki came to the rescue. The resource page alone is worth its weight in gold.
• Romance in the Backseat. I had the pleasure of meeting Terry Kate at RWA Nationals last year. She was the first friendly face I saw, and she carries her enthusiasm to her website where she offers interviews and promotional opportunities for authors. She even sponsors virtual writing conventions!

Okay, so that’s really six great sites for romance writers, not five. But instead of contemplating my abysmal math skills, get online and make the most of the opportunities available!

Are you an aspiring paranormal romance author? Harlequin’s Silhouette Nocturne line is one of the best markets out there for innovative speculative fiction and here are the top five tips I’ve learned writing for HQN:

1. Nocturne Heroes Don’t Cry

Editor Tara Gavin once shared with me that she rejects many books for Nocturne because the heroes are too soft. Nocturne readers are looking for an unrepentantly alpha hero. Now, as a writer, I know that showing a hero’s heroism is tricky when he’s not the type to show the chinks in his armor, but there are ways to delve into his emotions without letting him get weepy. By way of example, in my Nocturne Bite WILD, TETHERED, BOUND, my hero is a wounded soldier and a gambler. He doesn’t know how to say romantic things, so he explains to the heroine how much he loves her by using casino metaphors instead.

2. Exposition Should be Tightly Woven Throughout

In category fiction, you don’t have a lot of room to both build your world and tell your story, especially when it comes to the novella length Nocturne Bites. Don’t think you’ll save space by dropping a big info dump at the start of your story–you’ll only slow down the pace. Better to draw your world-building through the story with expert exposition, making use of every opportunity to let the mystery of your paranormal world unfold.

3. Settings Should be Atmospheric

It’s always been my belief that a reader wants to be swept away, someplace interesting and exotic, even if that place is simply the wooded lot behind her own house. A writer should exploit the lushness of the setting, conveying the sights, sounds, scents, textures and even the tastes. In my first Nocturne Bite, MIDNIGHT MEDUSA, the Greek god of fury kidnaps the heroine and takes her on a whirlwind journey across the world. My editor seemed to appreciate the small but telling details I included about Asia and Scandinavia, and I have noticed a definite Nocturne trend towards stories that are set in exotic or unusual locations.

4. Avoid Episodic Structure

As an author of much shorter stories, my first instinct is to let the reader infer anything that doesn’t need to be stated outright. As I was told by one of the Nocturne editors, however, readers of romance novellas prefer more grounding. Ideally, each scene should give cues to where and when it is occurring sooner, rather than later.

5. Don’t be Afraid to Color Outside the Lines

There’s been a transgressive element in everything that I’ve written for Nocturne. In MIDNIGHT MEDUSA, I made the unconventional choice to tell a story about love and war crimes; that story ended up being my first sale to Nocturne. In WILD, TETHERED, BOUND, I felt compelled by the divided nature of my hero to write a foursome, and my editor didn’t bat an eyelash. In fact, she asked me for an additional sex scene. In my forthcoming novel about an arms dealer and the knife-wielding nymph of the underworld who is intent upon killing him, I proposed a story about profound identity betrayal, and it was met with an enthusiastic offer. So if your story is good and it speaks to you, don’t hold back. Let your freak flag fly. It might just land you a contract.