Romance Is Not Dead... It's official!

Hey all, had to pop back to announce that the New Voices competition that I told you about after the RNA conference is finally up and running. The website's live at romanceisnotdead.com so all you aspiring writers have to check it out.

Now the prizes are spectacular and easily the best yet for any Harlequin/M&B comp:

A promise of publication for the winning story, plus an ipad and an editor for a year.


Editorial consultations and a Sony ereader for the top three runners up.


And letters of editorial  advice for the remaining six runners up.

Needless to say those prizes make it worth entering anyway for a chance to win. 

But if you're serious about writing for M&B and I know a lot of you guys who read this blog are, I think the best bit is that the entered chapters get posted up on the site and can be commented on by readers and other entrants.

That's the really exciting bit for me. Scary too, yes. But definitely exciting. 

Not everyone's gonna win right. Like most authors I had to write a fair few opening chapters before I'd written one worthy of publication. But the chance to get this kind of feedback doesn't come every day. And feedback - informed feedback from M&B readers and other aspiring authors — is the jewel in the crown here. Yes it's a risk, you'll be putting yourself out there for everyone to see, and that's a massive leap of faith. Heart in throat time several billion times over. And let's be honest, not everyone will like your stuff (not everyone likes my stuff even now... much to my amazement LOL). But if you're serious about publication this is the chance to take that huge first step on the road - and learn something valuable in the process. No one ever got published without taking that step. And whatever happens you'll get a lot more than the standard two-line rejection I got on my first submission... and you won't have to wait eight months for the privilege.

So I say go for it, ladies. Make this contest your contest. A chance to share ideas, get the debate about romance going and show why it is we love this genre.

Oh and if you want to pop by my workshop in Brent I'd love ta see you.

Also, there's gonna be another announcement about the comp next week which I'm particularly excited to be a part of.... So watch that space (and this one).