It worked.

My happy news of the day: Reading one of my newsletters, I just discovered that Harlequin has changed its mind about pulling its historical series books out of American retail outlets. They wouldn't be my first choice publisher, because your book is just out there for a month and then it's gone, but this news has put them back on my list of publishers I'd be willing to go with. But the main reason it's happy news is that I feel like it's a good sign for the historical romance market in general--reports of its death greatly exaggerated and all that.

And they DO reprint old books by authors who go on to publish lots. Look at Nora Roberts. Or Elizabeth Lowell.

Yup. And I'm just starting serious in-depth research to figure out which publishers are the best match for me, but so far I've been very favorably impressed with Harlequin's single title imprints, MIRA and HQN. Which, of course, is a whole different world than the Harlequin series lines, but it says something about the house as a whole.

MIRA I know, but HQN?

HQN.

I'm not 100% clear on the difference in what they publish. It looks like MIRA does more historicals, but HQN does some. Like I said, I'm still in the early stages of this research process. My goal is to finish my next book and have it in submittable form sometime this fall (if the good Lord's willin' and the creek don't rise), and by then to know which editors and agents I want to target.

Huh? Maybe the "sensuality" rating? Or author popularity?

The writing guidelines for all Harlequin imprints are here: [link]

The MIRA and HQN guidelines are very similar, though. I think I still have to do my homework and study what they print. Oh, and find a good agent who knows the business and can get my work to all those places like MIRA that only accept agented submissions!

While I think all of us here are industry-savvy enough not to fall into this kind of trap, I thought this article on PublishAmerica was very interesting.

Also, see this link, where a group of SFWA members deliberately wrote a bad book and submitted it to PublishAmerica, where it got accepted.

The thing is, PublishAmerica isn't really a scam per se, because they don't actually lie. They just prey on writers who are desperate to see their dreams come true, and who aren't industry-savvy enough to know that real publishers don't pay "symbolic $1 advances" or that all "available through bookstores" means in this case is that a bookstore will let customers special-order the book, not that it'll be stocked on their shelves. Etc.

Moral of the story? Do your homework. It always amazes me that people spend years writing a book, and don't spend, say, a month learning about how the industry works, the marks of a legit agent or publisher, etc. The info is out there. Read Writer's Market. Join an authors' organization like SFWA or RWA. Search the web. I may not know yet whether MIRA or Avon or Dorchester or Kensington is the best home for my book, but at least I know they're all legit publishers or imprints thereof whose books are on the shelves at my local B&N.

Sorry if I'm stating the obvious, but that WaPo article got to me.