The Harlequin Romance Blitz: A Round Up!

It’s been a week since we responded to the last Harlequin Romance Blitz submission and we’re still buzzing from the incredible response we received to our submissions call.

The final count was a whopping 563 submissions!  This is an unprecedented amount for this type of submissions call and a new record for our blitzes.

So, we wanted to say thank you to everyone who entered and for all your excitement and engagement surrounding the blitz and the events we held to promote it.  It’s a privilege to have such an enthusiastic and talented writing community to call upon when we’re looking for new voices for Harlequin Romance.

Requests to see more material were made to over 100 submissions and so we are looking forwarding to reading more of those and welcoming some new authors to the Harlequin Romance family.

We hope all authors found the feedback they received useful and if you didn’t get a request for further chapters then please don’t despair.  Applying learnings from feedback, as well as perseverance, is key to becoming a published author.  So do try again, we take submissions all year round at https://harlequin.submittable.com/submit/ where you can also find our detailed submission guidelines.

There a few general tips we wanted to share that you might find useful for your next submission or even the next blitz:

  • Start with a Bang! When you have just one chapter to grab the editor’s attention make sure they’re gripped from the start so they want to keep reading. It is crucial that your hero and heroine meet in these first few pages so we can get a feel for their chemistry and that back story and exposition are kept in check. Secondary characters too, should be kept to a minimum so you have room to focus on your hero and heroine.
  • Focus your synopsis: When an editor is only seeing a small portion of your story, the synopsis is the road map that tells them where the story is going. It’s crucial to outline the characters’ emotional journeys, as well as the hooks and twists in store!
  • Target your submission: To give your story the best chance at publication it’s important that it ends up in the right editor’s hand. So, make sure you’re reading the guidelines as carefully as possible and that your story fulfils the series promise and contains all the elements required by the line you’re submitting to.

Thanks again to all the authors who entered, we have loved the opportunity to see your work.  Thanks also to our fabulous editors and their heroic efforts in reading and responding to every single entry.  2018 is going to be an exciting year for Harlequin Romance!