Dear Friends,
I want to tell you about an exciting new market that you may not have heard
about.
Black Velvet Seductions is a brand new publisher specializing in erotic
romance. We seek romances that may not quite "fit" other lines. They will be
too erotic for contemporary lines like Silhouette Desire and Silhouette
Intimate Moments. They may lack the graphic language and quick advancement
to intimacy that many of the erotic romance publishers require.
What we are looking for first and foremost is a marriage of the romance
genre (think Harlequin, Silhouette, MIRA) with a much higher degree of
eroticism. In other words, we want all of the emotional impact, all of the
angst, all of the character development, and all of the conflict you would
find in any traditional romance novel. Then we want it to contain a very
high degree of sexuality and eroticism. We especially seek books that
explore the eroticism of offbeat sexual practices. Show us the eroticism of
spanking, of bondage, of dominance and submission, or of voyeurism.
Stories may include any of the tried and true contrivances that have worked
in romance novels for years. For example, you can use secret baby, forced
marriage, marriage of convenience, revenge, etc. as elements of your story.
You do not have to use the old stand-bys but they are acceptable to us if
you want to use them.
Many erotic romance publishers want sex in the first few pages and want it
to occur frequently thereafter. We do not require that. We do not want to
sacrifice the romance's story line for increased eroticism. Your specific
story and the make-up of your characters should decide the placement and
frequency of love scenes, not our guidelines. What we want is for authors to
take the time to develop their characters, their plot, their conflicts, and
the sexual tension that exists between their characters. Then when it is
time for their characters to make love we want them to deliver something
beyond the realm of what traditional romance publishers have allowed. We do
not particularly want stories in which the hero and heroine rush into bed,
unless this is part of the conflict, plot, or is important in the
development of the story.
We like stories in which the character's sexuality is a part of his or her
total make-up, rather than being something that is tacked on as an
afterthought. We like to see characters with well-developed back stories and
well-rounded lives. We prefer characters that have careers, children,
families, hobbies and religious beliefs as opposed to one-dimensional
characters, which start the story in the bedroom and end the story in the
same bedroom without ever having gotten out of the bedroom.
Although we will be publishing a very few exemplary examples of paranormal
romance, vampire romance, science fiction romance, and fantasy romance the
majority of our books will be contemporary, contemporary romantic suspense,
and historical romance. All of our books will feature a high degree of
sexuality.
Length is open and should be determined by the author and the story the
author is telling. We will publish everything from short to very long.
Shorts however need to deliver in the short format everything that is
expected in a longer format in terms of plot, character, eroticism, and
emotional impact.
We are acquiring books in two distinct areas. We are looking for traditional
boy meets girl romances where the hero and heroine meet, fall in love and
have a happy ending.
We are also looking for stories in which the hero and heroine are already in
a committed relationship that has suffered difficulties. In these stories
the focus of the story should be on the rebuilding of the relationship and
reaching a happy ending. This could be as simple as a couple realizing that
they have drifted apart during the years their children were growing up and
defining a new relationship in middle age. It could be as complex as a
relationship suffering because of one party's unfaithfulness and the
difficulties of establishing trust after this type of betrayal. It could be
one party in the relationship deciding that he or she needs something sexual
that hasn't been present in the relationship previously. These books will
likely be more reality based, and more problem focused than more traditional
romance. We are particularly looking for emotional impact in these stories.
Although we are actively acquiring books in all erotic romance categories,
contemporary, romantic suspense, and historical we are especially interested
in acquiring books in the following sub-categories:
Capture/Bondage/BDSM - We are especially looking for books that go beyond
the norm in this genre. We want real, well-rounded characters who are not
JUST into BDSM but who have lives outside the BDSM world as well. The idea
that people who are into BDSM wear black leather and spiked collars all the
time is false. People who are into BDSM have children, families, lives,
careers, churches, hobbies, etc. They look like the rest of us. They have
lives like the rest of us and their sexuality is just one part of their
lives. We would like to see BDSM stories in which this reality is explored.
Dominance/Submission/Power Exchange - Dominance and submission is sometimes
confused with BDSM as there is some overlap in activity. In
dominance/submission/power exchange the aspect of one party having power
over the other either consistently or intermittently would have a strong
emphasis in the story. In other words, the sharing of power within the
relationship, and how this is accomplished and negotiated within the
relationship, would be a strong element of the story.
Weight-positive heroes and heroines - We are particularly interested in
acquiring stories with rounded and or curvy heroines who find love with
wonderful erotic men who love their rounder, curvier figures. All stories
with overweight heroines should portray women of size as erotic and sexy and
sexually adventurous. Even if the heroine loses weight within the story it
should be clear that she is sexy to the hero at any size. We are also open
to heroes who are sexy and sexually adventurous with a bit of extra weight.
There are very few sexual taboos in our lines. We tend to give our authors
the widest latitude. If it is safe, sane, and consensual we will allow our
authors latitude to show us the eroticism. However, we will not consider
manuscripts with any of the following:
NO bestiality.
NO necrophilia.
NO pedophilia.
We believe that sexuality in many forms is beautiful, healthy, and
enjoyable. We want stories that portray the message that sex is fun, loving,
and healthy. We want nothing that portrays sex or sexual adventurousness as
dirty or perverted.
To give you an idea of what we like I've included a list of stories that we
would have loved to publish had they come across our desks first:
Secret Submission by Diana Hunter-published by Ellora's Cave
Wanted: Kept Woman by J.W. McKenna-published by Ellora's Cave
Cowboy Captive by Lora Leigh-published by Ellora's Cave
Phobia by Nikki Soarde-published by Ellora's Cave
Promises Linger & Promises Keep by Sarah McCarty-published by Ellora's Cave
Her Wildest Dreams by Shiloh Walker-published by Ellora's Cave
Virtual Reality & Snow Angel by Joey Hill-published by Ellora's Cave
Besieging is Lady by Sarah Winn-published by Whiskey Creek Press
What We Offer Authors
At Black Velvet we believe that a publishing company and its authors have a
symbiotic relationship and that it is important to value and nurture the
relationship We believe in treating our authors with respect, dignity, and
fairness.
We strive to have the most talented authors and to pay them the top
royalties they deserve. We pay a higher percentage in royalties than any
other publishing house. With many e-publishers authors work to produce their
story, turn it over to the publisher who agrees to publish it. The publisher
keeps 60 to 65% of the cover price, giving the author only 35-40% of the
cover price in royalties. The publisher then saddles the author with the
majority of the marketing for the book. At Black Velvet Seductions we don't
think this is a fair split of the proceeds or of the workload. We pay 50% of
the cover price in royalties on all books sold from our website. For books
sold via other venues we pay 50% of the profit (not 50% of the cover price).
In addition, we handle many of the marketing tasks for our authors. We are
constantly pursuing new markets and building new marketing relationships
both over the web and in brick and mortar establishments. We submit books
for review, we announce new releases to our list of customers and potential
customers who have opted to receive this information, we work with industry
partners to secure promotional opportunities for our authors and we talk up
our author's books at every opportunity. We also offer marketing support to
our authors via newsletters, yahoo groups, and so on.
Many companies only offer e-books and eventually paperback books, which have
a small profit margin for publishers and a small royalty rate for authors.
At Black Velvet Seductions we are moving in new directions. All books will
be offered first as e-books and as e-books on CD. This allows our authors to
have something to autograph and sell when they have signing opportunities or
when they participate in workshops or conduct classes. For books that
attain good sales figures we will release audio CD versions. These audio CD
books will be marketed through brick and mortar locations as well as on our
website and on other Internet sites. There are greater profit margins with
both e-book CD's and audio CD's than with paper books, allowing us to pay
authors larger royalties on these e-book CD's and audio books than they
would receive on paper based books. Like e-books, audio books sold from our
site will earn royalties of 50% of the cover price. Audio books sold from
other sites will earn royalties of 50% of the profit (not the cover price).
Authors don't need an agent to publish with us. All our authors are offered
the same contract. Submissions are not considered more or less quickly based
on whether an author has an agent. The ONLY thing that concerns us at Black
Velvet Seductions is the story the writer has presented and our judgment as
to whether that story fits into the realms of what we publish. If the story
is a contemporary or historical romance or a romantic suspense and it excels
in plot, character, emotional impact and eroticism we will be interested.
Our only criterion is the story you submit.
If you have a story or a story idea that you think would fit our line(s), we
accept queries, partials, and complete manuscripts. Materials e-mailed to us
MUST be in .doc file format (Word), rich text format (.rtf) or text format
(.txt). We are not picky about what font an author uses. We suggest Times
New Roman, Courier, and Arial, as they are common across most platforms.
Queries, partials, and complete manuscripts may be sent to us at:
submissions@blackvelvetseductions.com
Manuscripts may be mailed by postal mail. The address to send manuscripts to
is:
Attention: Laurie Sanders, Editor
Black Velvet Seductions
1350-C West Southport Road
Box 249
Indianapolis, IN 46217
I hope to work with you on a project very soon.
Laurie Sanders
Editor, Black Velvet Seductions
www.blackvelvetseductions.com
Dear Friends,
I want to tell you about an exciting new market that you may not have heard
about.
Black Velvet Seductions is a brand new publisher specializing in erotic
romance. We seek romances that may not quite "fit" other lines. They will be
too erotic for contemporary lines like Silhouette Desire and Silhouette
Intimate Moments. They may lack the graphic language and quick advancement
to intimacy that many of the erotic romance publishers require.
What we are looking for first and foremost is a marriage of the romance
genre (think Harlequin, Silhouette, MIRA) with a much higher degree of
eroticism. In other words, we want all of the emotional impact, all of the
angst, all of the character development, and all of the conflict you would
find in any traditional romance novel. Then we want it to contain a very
high degree of sexuality and eroticism. We especially seek books that
explore the eroticism of offbeat sexual practices. Show us the eroticism of
spanking, of bondage, of dominance and submission, or of voyeurism.
Stories may include any of the tried and true contrivances that have worked
in romance novels for years. For example, you can use secret baby, forced
marriage, marriage of convenience, revenge, etc. as elements of your story.
You do not have to use the old stand-bys but they are acceptable to us if
you want to use them.
Many erotic romance publishers want sex in the first few pages and want it
to occur frequently thereafter. We do not require that. We do not want to
sacrifice the romance's story line for increased eroticism. Your specific
story and the make-up of your characters should decide the placement and
frequency of love scenes, not our guidelines. What we want is for authors to
take the time to develop their characters, their plot, their conflicts, and
the sexual tension that exists between their characters. Then when it is
time for their characters to make love we want them to deliver something
beyond the realm of what traditional romance publishers have allowed. We do
not particularly want stories in which the hero and heroine rush into bed,
unless this is part of the conflict, plot, or is important in the
development of the story.
We like stories in which the character's sexuality is a part of his or her
total make-up, rather than being something that is tacked on as an
afterthought. We like to see characters with well-developed back stories and
well-rounded lives. We prefer characters that have careers, children,
families, hobbies and religious beliefs as opposed to one-dimensional
characters, which start the story in the bedroom and end the story in the
same bedroom without ever having gotten out of the bedroom.
Although we will be publishing a very few exemplary examples of paranormal
romance, vampire romance, science fiction romance, and fantasy romance the
majority of our books will be contemporary, contemporary romantic suspense,
and historical romance. All of our books will feature a high degree of
sexuality.
Length is open and should be determined by the author and the story the
author is telling. We will publish everything from short to very long.
Shorts however need to deliver in the short format everything that is
expected in a longer format in terms of plot, character, eroticism, and
emotional impact.
We are acquiring books in two distinct areas. We are looking for traditional
boy meets girl romances where the hero and heroine meet, fall in love and
have a happy ending.
We are also looking for stories in which the hero and heroine are already in
a committed relationship that has suffered difficulties. In these stories
the focus of the story should be on the rebuilding of the relationship and
reaching a happy ending. This could be as simple as a couple realizing that
they have drifted apart during the years their children were growing up and
defining a new relationship in middle age. It could be as complex as a
relationship suffering because of one party's unfaithfulness and the
difficulties of establishing trust after this type of betrayal. It could be
one party in the relationship deciding that he or she needs something sexual
that hasn't been present in the relationship previously. These books will
likely be more reality based, and more problem focused than more traditional
romance. We are particularly looking for emotional impact in these stories.
Although we are actively acquiring books in all erotic romance categories,
contemporary, romantic suspense, and historical we are especially interested
in acquiring books in the following sub-categories:
Capture/Bondage/BDSM - We are especially looking for books that go beyond
the norm in this genre. We want real, well-rounded characters who are not
JUST into BDSM but who have lives outside the BDSM world as well. The idea
that people who are into BDSM wear black leather and spiked collars all the
time is false. People who are into BDSM have children, families, lives,
careers, churches, hobbies, etc. They look like the rest of us. They have
lives like the rest of us and their sexuality is just one part of their
lives. We would like to see BDSM stories in which this reality is explored.
Dominance/Submission/Power Exchange - Dominance and submission is sometimes
confused with BDSM as there is some overlap in activity. In
dominance/submission/power exchange the aspect of one party having power
over the other either consistently or intermittently would have a strong
emphasis in the story. In other words, the sharing of power within the
relationship, and how this is accomplished and negotiated within the
relationship, would be a strong element of the story.
Weight-positive heroes and heroines - We are particularly interested in
acquiring stories with rounded and or curvy heroines who find love with
wonderful erotic men who love their rounder, curvier figures. All stories
with overweight heroines should portray women of size as erotic and sexy and
sexually adventurous. Even if the heroine loses weight within the story it
should be clear that she is sexy to the hero at any size. We are also open
to heroes who are sexy and sexually adventurous with a bit of extra weight.
There are very few sexual taboos in our lines. We tend to give our authors
the widest latitude. If it is safe, sane, and consensual we will allow our
authors latitude to show us the eroticism. However, we will not consider
manuscripts with any of the following:
NO bestiality.
NO necrophilia.
NO pedophilia.
We believe that sexuality in many forms is beautiful, healthy, and
enjoyable. We want stories that portray the message that sex is fun, loving,
and healthy. We want nothing that portrays sex or sexual adventurousness as
dirty or perverted.
To give you an idea of what we like I've included a list of stories that we
would have loved to publish had they come across our desks first:
Secret Submission by Diana Hunter-published by Ellora's Cave
Wanted: Kept Woman by J.W. McKenna-published by Ellora's Cave
Cowboy Captive by Lora Leigh-published by Ellora's Cave
Phobia by Nikki Soarde-published by Ellora's Cave
Promises Linger & Promises Keep by Sarah McCarty-published by Ellora's Cave
Her Wildest Dreams by Shiloh Walker-published by Ellora's Cave
Virtual Reality & Snow Angel by Joey Hill-published by Ellora's Cave
Besieging is Lady by Sarah Winn-published by Whiskey Creek Press
What We Offer Authors
At Black Velvet we believe that a publishing company and its authors have a
symbiotic relationship and that it is important to value and nurture the
relationship We believe in treating our authors with respect, dignity, and
fairness.
We strive to have the most talented authors and to pay them the top
royalties they deserve. We pay a higher percentage in royalties than any
other publishing house. With many e-publishers authors work to produce their
story, turn it over to the publisher who agrees to publish it. The publisher
keeps 60 to 65% of the cover price, giving the author only 35-40% of the
cover price in royalties. The publisher then saddles the author with the
majority of the marketing for the book. At Black Velvet Seductions we don't
think this is a fair split of the proceeds or of the workload. We pay 50% of
the cover price in royalties on all books sold from our website. For books
sold via other venues we pay 50% of the profit (not 50% of the cover price).
In addition, we handle many of the marketing tasks for our authors. We are
constantly pursuing new markets and building new marketing relationships
both over the web and in brick and mortar establishments. We submit books
for review, we announce new releases to our list of customers and potential
customers who have opted to receive this information, we work with industry
partners to secure promotional opportunities for our authors and we talk up
our author's books at every opportunity. We also offer marketing support to
our authors via newsletters, yahoo groups, and so on.
Many companies only offer e-books and eventually paperback books, which have
a small profit margin for publishers and a small royalty rate for authors.
At Black Velvet Seductions we are moving in new directions. All books will
be offered first as e-books and as e-books on CD. This allows our authors to
have something to autograph and sell when they have signing opportunities or
when they participate in workshops or conduct classes. For books that
attain good sales figures we will release audio CD versions. These audio CD
books will be marketed through brick and mortar locations as well as on our
website and on other Internet sites. There are greater profit margins with
both e-book CD's and audio CD's than with paper books, allowing us to pay
authors larger royalties on these e-book CD's and audio books than they
would receive on paper based books. Like e-books, audio books sold from our
site will earn royalties of 50% of the cover price. Audio books sold from
other sites will earn royalties of 50% of the profit (not the cover price).
Authors don't need an agent to publish with us. All our authors are offered
the same contract. Submissions are not considered more or less quickly based
on whether an author has an agent. The ONLY thing that concerns us at Black
Velvet Seductions is the story the writer has presented and our judgment as
to whether that story fits into the realms of what we publish. If the story
is a contemporary or historical romance or a romantic suspense and it excels
in plot, character, emotional impact and eroticism we will be interested.
Our only criterion is the story you submit.
If you have a story or a story idea that you think would fit our line(s), we
accept queries, partials, and complete manuscripts. Materials e-mailed to us
MUST be in .doc file format (Word), rich text format (.rtf) or text format
(.txt). We are not picky about what font an author uses. We suggest Times
New Roman, Courier, and Arial, as they are common across most platforms.
Queries, partials, and complete manuscripts may be sent to us at:
submissions@blackvelvetseductions.com
Manuscripts may be mailed by postal mail. The address to send manuscripts to
is:
Attention: Laurie Sanders, Editor
Black Velvet Seductions
1350-C West Southport Road
Box 249
Indianapolis, IN 46217
I hope to work with you on a project very soon.
Laurie Sanders
Editor, Black Velvet Seductions
www.blackvelvetseductions.com
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