November is National Novel Writing Month (“NaNoWriMo”), the world’s largest writing event. It is not for the faint of heart: participants pledge to write 50,000 words in a month, starting from scratch and reaching “The End” by November 30. Last year, more than 250,000 unique participants proved they were up to the challenge; and this year might even bring more happy endings. If you look at NaNoWriMo’s online forums, it’s plain to see that one of the largest, most passionate segments of the NaNoWriMo writing community is comprised of aspiring romance writers. It is for this audience that Avon Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, dedicates “NaRoWriMo,” “National Romance Writing Month.” Here’s the news that may make hearts start pounding during the month of November, Avon editors will make themselves available to the author community via online forums at www.nanowrimo.org, and by sponsoring “NaRoWriMo,” the publisher hopes to acquire original works of romantic fiction, to be released in 2013 by Avon Impulse.
“NaRoWriMo” romance fiction submissions should be submitted by December 10, 2012 to Avon Romance’s online submission portal (www.avonimpulse.com), and tagged “NaRoWriMo.” All novel and novella-length submissions (50,000 words and above) will be reviewed, and will be considered for publication through Avon Impulse, the publisher’s digital-first arm.
“The energy around National Novel Writing Month is infectious and exciting,” says Shawn Nicholls, Senior Director of Marketing for Avon Books. “We understand a huge percentage of the writers participating are aspiring romance authors, and we want to help incentivize them to finish their projects this November.”
Lucia Macro, Vice President and Exectutive Editor of Avon Books and Avon Impulse agrees, saying, “Avon Impulse is actively looking for fresh and exciting talent, and so many great ideas for books are nurtured through NaNoWriMo — Avon’s NaRoWriMo initiative encourages writers to submit those ideas to us for possible publication. We are looking to acquire many great manuscripts this November. Our digital-first publishing program has grown to an aggressive two-book-a-week publishing schedule, so we have plenty of opportunity to foster talented romance writers and launch careers!”
Macro, who editorially directs Avon Impulse, recently posted this “wishlist” for content at the Romance Divas website (www.romancedivas.com):
Send me your bachelors, your ranchers, your billionaires. My background is in contemporary romance—I miss the 21st Century! And while I’ll always love a good duke, I sometimes feel I’ve been hanging around with the Ton for too long. Seriously—send us sexy contemporary romance with some really good-looking heroes. (And no, they don’t all have to be bachelors, ranchers or billionaires!)
I love drama! Everyone’s always telling me that Avon books have to be ‘funny.’ This is so not true! There’s a reason I’ve been watching all those Lifetime TV movies all these years—I clearly need more drama in my world. (But your book doesn’t have to be like a LTM, I promise!)
Bring Sexy Back. Please. Enough said. I think you know what to do.
Stop overthinking. I mean it. Stop it right now. You’re the romance readers. You know what you like. I’m not here measuring indentations, or taking point off for point of view, or counting every word. Make it end happily and make sure ‘no animals are harmed’.
More new writers please. I like working with new writers. I wish I could do it more often. But this is the chance to do that—for both of us.
“NaRoWriMo” is an open call to new writers: Avon is actively acquiring for Avon Impulse. “Set your goals high this November,” Macro says. “Aim to publish.”
For more information on how to submit a completed “NaRoWriMo” manuscript this November, visit www.AvonImpulse.com.
About HarperCollins Publishers
HarperCollins, one of the largest English-language publishers in the world, is a subsidiary of News Corporation (NASDAQ: NWS, NWSA; ASX: NWS, NWSLV). Headquartered in New York, HarperCollins has publishing groups around the world including the HarperCollins General Books Group, HarperCollins Children’s Books Group, Zondervan, HarperCollins UK, HarperCollins Canada, HarperCollins Australia/New Zealand and HarperCollins India. HarperCollins is a broad-based publisher with strengths in literary and commercial fiction, business books, children’s books, cookbooks, mystery, romance, reference, religious and spiritual books. With nearly 200 years of history HarperCollins has published some of the world’s foremost authors and has won numerous awards including the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, the Newbery Medal and the Caldecott. Consistently at the forefront of innovation and technological advancement HarperCollins is the first publisher to digitize its content and create a global digital warehouse to protect the rights of its authors, meet consumer demand and generate additional business opportunities. You can visit HarperCollins Publishers on the Internet at http://www.harpercollins.com.
Sounds like a great opportunity if you are in that market. A great move on Avon’s part!
OMG! I’ve got to get crackin’. 🙂 Thanks Bev for sharing this awesome opportunity.
Sounds great!!!!
I think this is a good side-project to NaNoWriMo. Very excited to see the results in December.
Good luck to all the participants!
Avon and HarperCollins support writing. Each and every month there’s always something going on from Avon Impulse calls to Voyager unagented submissions. I never run out of posts to spread the news. Now with Avon’s support of NaNoWriMo for the month of November, they are one of the publishers I direct writers toward. If only Avon Impulse had a widget to share these tidings. Might be something to consider for those of us who love to blog up Avon and HarperCollins. My goal for November is to write a chapter a day each day for Nano and I’m nearly done with my secret baby novella due on November 15. C’mon writers, let’s get cracking.