My publisher: Mischief/Harper Collins UK—clearly, the publisher with the most exquisite taste and just enough courage and daring. Right?
- Their not-so-arms-length US associates: Avon Red
- Their once-key-competition-but-now-we-own-them: Harlequin—pitch Carina Press or Cosmo Red-Hot Reads
JUST FOR FUN: Harlequin’s Erotic Fiction Flow-Chart
Their actual competition:
- Black Lace (imprint of Virgin Books, Ebury/Random House UK)
- Hodder & Stoughton (Hachette UK): hodder.co.uk
- Berkley/Jove (sub of Penguin/Random House–need an agent)
Indies I chose to pitch (a couple of them I dallied with):
Indies I never got around to pitching, but thought about:
- Ellora’s Cave
- The Writer’s Coffee Shop (yes, because of the 50 Shades connection, why not)
- Samhain Publishing
A great resource of places to pitch: Get Started in Writing Erotic Fiction by Judith Watts and Mirren Baxter (Hodder & Stoughton, 2013).
Disclaimer: I haven’t read the book. I skipped straight to the list of publishers in the appendix. Because… well, that’s a point of debate for another place: can you teach someone to write well? You can teach a formula, certainly. But all the best writing subverts formula and reader expectations. Turns convention on its head. Can you teach that, learn that, or does that just happen?
MORE: Google “top erotica publishers” “publishers who accept unagented submissions” “erotica publishers [your country]” “independent publishers [your country or your genre].” And keep on Googling.
HOW TELL ME GOT PUBLISHED: Gets told, in serialization, every Wednesday, starting January 8, 2014, on m jane colette and every Thursday on WattPad.
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