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…

Guest Post by J.K. Coi

What makes a monster? Is it scaly green skin, yellow eyes, and a forked tongue (or does that just make a lizard?)

Can a heartbroken, mutilated prima ballerina become a monster? Because the heroine of FAR FROM BROKEN, my holiday release from Carina Press sure believes that this is what she’s become.

After suffering a violent attack which left her at death’s door, Callie was saved only by the mechanical implants that replaced her legs, her hand, and an eye. She can’t bear to look at herself now, more iron and gears than flesh and blood, and she’ll definitely never dance again. She’s gone from graceful and pretty and talented, to a clumsy, ungainly shell of a person who feels nothing but anger and pain. Who believes herself of no use to anyone.

She hasn’t cried though. Even when Jasper shows up and starts fighting to pull her out of the dark, safe place she’s been hiding.

Jasper himself believes he’s a monster, because only a monster would lie to his wife and put her in danger the way he did. And perhaps it took a monster to insist on doing whatever was necessary to save her life…even if that meant dangerous surgery and artificial limbs. And only a monster would return to her after all she’d been through and ask her to take him back.

Two monsters who refuse to cry, but it will take a lot of tears before either of them can find out whether even monsters deserve a happily ever after.

Soldier. Spymaster. Husband.

Colonel Jasper Carlisle was defined by his work until he met his wife. When the prima ballerina swept into his life with her affection, bright laughter and graceful movements, he knew that she was the reason for his existence, and that their love would be forever.

But their world is shattered when Callie is kidnapped and brutally tortured by the foes Jasper has been hunting. Mechanical parts have replaced her legs, her hand, her eye…and possibly her heart. Though she survived, her anger at Jasper consumes her, while Jasper’s guilt drives him from the woman he loves. He longs for the chance to show her their love can withstand anything…including her new clockwork parts.

As the holiday season approaches, Jasper realizes he must fight not just for his wife’s love and forgiveness…but also her life, as his enemy once again attempts to tear them apart.

Far From Broken is available separately or in the anthology entitled “A Clockwork Christmas”

If so, Carina Press is interested in your work. Check out this submission call. It made me a little giddy.

Carina Press’s acquisitions team and editors have begged me to find more historical fiction and romance, so I’m putting out the call. If you have a completed historical manuscript, 15,000 words and up, Carina Press would love to see it. We’re looking for both historical romance and historical fiction (with or without the romance subplot) of any steam level (including none, none at all). Historical Victorian, Regency, Western, turn of the century or whatever other time period you’ve chosen to write in, we’re interested in publishing some amazing historical work. Our submissions guidelines can be found at www.carinapress.com/submission-guidelines and we’re working through submissions very quickly, due to the large number of us reading them, so you won’t be waiting until summer (or next year) for an answer!