The Great Love Inspired Author Search

The Love Inspired editors are thrilled to announce our newest pitch opportunity, The Great Love Inspired Author Search. Love Inspired and Love Inspired Suspense are on the hunt for some fabulous new authors, and we want you! If you think you’ve got the chops to wow us with your inspirational contemporary romance or romantic suspense ideas, we encourage you to pitch it to us!

For this pitch opportunity, the Love Inspired editors are once again on the lookout for fresh talent. We invite you to show us that you’re the total package in these two stages:

1. Idea and Voice—Hook us with your great idea and intriguing voice by submitting a 1-3 page synopsis and your first chapter to one of the Love Inspired lines. Authors who wow us will move on to Round 2.

2. Full Package—Convince us you’re the real deal by submitting your full manuscript (word count of 55,000). The sky’s the limit for these authors. A contract could be within your reach if you bring it all together into a manuscript that we think our readers will love.

Here’s our timeline:

ROUND ONE

March 15, 2019: Submit the synopsis and first chapter of your inspirational romance or romantic suspense manuscript through our The Great Love Inspired Author Search page at Submittable.com, here, starting today.

By April 30, 2019: The editors will review the entries and provide feedback, letting you know whether you’ll move on to the next round and be invited to submit your full manuscript.

ROUND TWO

By August 1, 2019: All full manuscripts must be in house.

By October 1, 2019: Editors will review the submissions, and decisions will be made to contract, send a revision letter or reject each of the stories. All authors who submit full manuscripts by the August 1 deadline will receive notification of our decision within this time frame.

What you get:

  • A quick response! Skip the slush pile and hear back from Harlequin within two months after the submission period ends.
  • Editorial feedback for every Love Inspired appropriate story received.
  • The possibility of having your novel published in the Love Inspired or Love Inspired Suspense line!  

Helpful Tips:

  • Please do not submit manuscripts that have already been rejected or are currently under consideration with any Harlequin line.
  • This contest is for authors who have never been published with Harlequin and don’t already have full manuscripts under review by a Harlequin editor.
  • As we ask for the first chapter only, your manuscript does NOT have to be complete when you submit to us in the first round. If we request a full manuscript, however, it should be submitted by August 1 in order to receive feedback within the outlined deadline.

Check out the hashtag #LoveInspiredAuthorSearch on Twitter, as well as following @TinaCJames, @MelissaEndlich, @EmilyRodmell, @ShanaAsaro and @DinaJDavis. We’ll be sharing tips, insider know-how, our wishlists and more throughout The Great Love Inspired Author Search.

Sound exciting? If you think you could rock this pitch, get ready to show us your stuff. Be sure to follow the guidelines for Love Inspired and Love Inspired Suspense. Only one entry per author, please. Deadlines are tight, so keep writing while you’re waiting to hear back. And if your book is complete now, don’t forget to tell us in your cover letter. You never know. We might want to pounce on your book right away. Ready, set, GO!

Best wishes,

The Love Inspired Editors