Thursday Thoughts

Am I done talking about the Colorado Gold Conference? Absolutely not! It's time to cover the editors now and since I missed the editor panel on Saturday morning, I'm borrowing the lovely Cindi Myers' report from her Market News newsletter.

This year's editor guests were Ben LeRoy from Bleak House Books, Daniela Rapp from St. Martin's Press, Denise Little from Teckno Books/Five Star and Faith Black from Avalon Books.

Benjamin LeRoy founded Bleak House Books in 1995. The Madison, Wisconsin-based company publishes approximately 20 titles a year, focusing on crime fiction and dark literary fiction. These are character-driven stories featuring flawed protagonists. Several Bleak House titles have been nominated for Edgar awards. The company will consider unagented submissions, though they want to see a query only at first. Detailed submission guidelines -- be sure to follow them -- are available here. Also, check out the blog and some of their upcoming titles to get a feel for what they're looking for.

Daniela Rapp is an Editor at St. Martin's Press, where she acquires thrillers, mysteries, literary fiction and upmarket women's fiction, as well as narrative non-fiction. St. Martin's press accepts only agented submissions.

Faith Black is an Associate Editor at Avalon Books. Avalon publishes romance, mystery and westerns, in hardcover, primarily for the library market. Avalon stories contain no graphic violence, no swearing and no sex -- "good stories and wholesome entertainment." The books are short -- 40,000 to 60,000 words. Avalon accepts unagented material. See their submission guidelines here. They also have an FAQ page with a lot of useful information.

Denise Little, Executive Editor at Tekno Books has worked in almost every aspect of the publishing industry. She was the national book buyer for Barnes and Noble before she joined Kensington Publishing in 1993, where she oversaw her own romance imprint, Denise Little Presents. She has been executive editor at Tekno Books since 1997. Tekno is a book packager. A packager acquires and oversees projects which are then sold to various publishers. Tekno acquires titles for Five Star Books. Like Avalon, Five Star publishes hardcover titles, primarily for the library market. Five Star Expressions is the company's romance and women's fiction line. They're looking for 75,000 to 100,000 word manuscripts in any sub-genre of romance, including contemporary, historical, inspirational, sweet romance, romantic comedy, romantic suspense, time travel, fantasy and paranormal and gothic romance. They will also consider chick lit. They also publish women's fiction. . Five Star also publishes mystery of 75,000 to 100,000 words. They are interested in cozies, private detectives, hard-boiled mystery, suspense, techno-thrillers and historical mystery. They pay a $1000 advance against royalties. They accept unagented submissions, but not simultaneous submissions. They accept email submissions only. For guidelines and more information, email Rosalind Greenberg at tekno@new.rr.com