A Message from the Harlequin Mills & Boon ® Historical Team about how to submit and what they look for…
- Linda Fildew, Senior Editor
- Suzanne Clarke, Editor
- Mimi Berchie, Editorial Assistant
The Historical team are passionate about historical romances and want to see the same passion and excitement from historical submissions!
We publish a variety of periods each month, with Westerns and Regencies still the most popular with our readers. Other periods (Medievals and Romans for example) can be a harder sell and we currently have a strong author base fulfilling this publication slot each month. If you are writing a different period, it has to be exceptional, so do your research and let your unique voice shine!
We are looking for new writers who can give a fresh spin on popular historical themes, such as governesses, Cinderella/poor relations and debutantes in Regencies and outlaw and drifter heroes in Westerns.
We also welcome sexier editorial in any period and are planning an exciting new venture into eBook sexy historical short stories. We can fill you in a little more on this when we blog on site on 30th June. We have, of course, always had a variety of sensuality in our series ranging from sweet to super sexy, but what is of utmost importance is that the sensuality is appropriate for the characters and storyline. In our romances, we want the sex to be part of a developing loving relationship and not to be crude or gratuitous in any way. We still want these sexier Historicals to have compelling characters, an authentic sense of period and strong emotional conflicts – hot sex isn’t a substitute for any of these elements!
The Historical Team will be available on The Good, The Bad and the Unread blog site on Monday, 30th June – from 1pm – 5 pm UK time. We look forward to answering your questions. We have a lot of exciting books and projects coming up over the next few months and would love to let you know about them.
SUBMITTING TO MILLS & BOON:
- Submissions should be typed in double-spacing on single-sided paper.
- Please submit the first three chapters of your novel: we judge as much by writing style and ability to generate characters as by execution of plot.
- We’d also like to see a 1-2 page synopsis of your complete story. This should give a clear overview of the conflict, setting and the characters.
- Please send your hard copy submission to:
The Editorial Department
Harlequin Mills & Boon Ltd
Eton House
18-24 Paradise Road
Richmond, Surrey TW9 1SR
United KingdomTelephone: (44) + (0)20 8 288 2800
NOTE: we do not currently accept queries or submissions by e-mail from authors who don’t already have a relationship with us.General Guidelines, including further information on how to prepare submissions, are available from here, or here.
