MEET THE PUBLISHER: Maggie Swinburne of My Weekly Pocket Novels.

Many thanks to Sally Quilford for this wonderful interview with Maggie Swinburne. So many of our members have found success with these Pocket Novels that it is only fitting we start our new series with a firm favourite.

Maggie Swinburne is the editor of My Weekly Pocket Novels. She has worked for DC Thomson for over 30 years, and is always willing to give no nonsense advice to anyone who wishes to try their hand at writing a pocket novel. I have learned so much about writing and pacing romantic novels

from Maggie that I thought it would be great to kick off this new series by sharing her invaluable insights into writing for the romance market.

Hello Maggie, please could you share a quick bio, including your relevant history in romance novel publishing?

My career started in 1979 in My Weekly when we all had to read fiction manuscripts and write a crit of them. Early on I was applying the “tear to my eye” test, which I still use today for deciding whether I like something or not! I took over the Pocket Novels in 2010 and quickly got totally involved with the writers and the novels. I love the thrills and drama of the story lines. I rewrote the guidelines and brought us up to date with current trends in relationships, and introduced some crime titles to the schedule.

How many titles does your company publish each year and where are your books sold?

We publish two My Weekly Pocket Novels each month, and the novels are sold in supermarkets and newsagents. And can be ordered by subscription.

What do you look for in a romantic novel?

Thrills, drama, and exciting story lines; feisty yet charming heroines; gorgeous heroes. I like my men to have something angsty to torture themselves with. It is particularly important to have OMG cliffhanging moments at the end of each chapter so the reader is so enthralled they can’t stop reading.

How might writers improve their chances of being published by you?

By making sure their work as well as being readable is grammatically correct, and if they have used software which converts their speech into words that the resultant spellings are “right” not “write”. I feel totally insulted when I am expected to read something that would shame a secondary school pupil, and this is the same of emails I am sent. You have no idea how illiterate some people can be.

In this office we also produce the weekly magazine, the specials, the Annual and another magazine, The Scots Magazine, therefore the time available to the subbing team is limited.

What reason might you reject a novel/author?

If the story is too short – the novel has to be 50,000 minimum. Also sometimes, towards the end, stories sometimes go off the rails – it is important to keep the suspense and thrills going right up to the end! What I particularly like is a small interlude before the end when our hero or heroine thinks that they have lost the relationship. I love them to contemplate the desert their lives will be without the other person. This makes the ending all the more thrilling! Also I don’t like swearing, or violence in real time.

What do you hate getting from potential writers?

A lengthy email explaining why my criticism was wrong, and if I would only read to the last chapter, I would see how the story worked out. In actual fact, what I want is a story which grips and enthrals the reader, not a marathon endurance test where they have to keep reading while waiting for the story to get interesting. Poor reader – have pity on them.

What do you love to get from potential writers?

A nice email saying they see what I am saying, and attaching the revised story with all the necessary changes and additions, and if I have been extra cheeky, the revisions marked in red so I don’t have to read the whole story again.

 How long can writers expect to wait for a response to their submissions? This includes acknowledgements or acceptances/rejections.

I wish I would acknowledge receipt of a novel as soon as I get it, but sometimes I forget. So please do not worry about sending me an email to ask if I have got a novel if you haven’t heard. I have a printing schedule to fill, so I generally try to buy enough novels at a time for three to four months ahead, so I read my novels until this has happened. So there can then be a lull until the next blitz. It

does make acceptances rather sporadic – either a famine or a feast. If someone has a novel for a specific time, such as next Christmas, please do say in your covering letter, because I really like to have nice romantic Christmas stories. With a Cinderella theme. As my regular writers know!

Do you read romance (in your leisure time)?

Yes, I do! In fact I love re-reading my favourite author, who is DE Stevenson, and if anyone out there reads her novels, please do get in touch, because I hardly ever meet someone who likes her books.

How do you see the future for writers of romance and the romance publishing industry in general?

I think the whole industry will continue to thrive because as we all know, it is love that makes the world go round.

Do you attend RNA events? (So that our readers might have the chance to meet you)

Yes, I like to go to the parties and events, and love to chat with writers. I am always fascinated by people who have a compulsion to write!

Thank you, Maggie!

My Weekly Pocket Novel Guidelines are available from myweekly@dcthomson.co.uk 

About Sally Quilford

Sally has been writing for DC Thomson since 2008/9. Her latest two novels, Big Girls Don’t Cry (the third in the Bobbie Blandford series) and Eye of the Storm, will be published in the New Year. Sally

has also presented several successful online workshops in the writing of pocket novels. You can find tips and tricks, on all things romance, on her blog.

A great start to the series, Sally. We look forward to next month’s instalment!

The RNA blog is brought to you by,

Elaine Everest & Natalie Kleinman

If you would like to write for the blog in 2016 please contact us on elaineeverest@aol.com

Lynne Pardoe: Joan Hessayon Award Contender 2015

Today we welcome Lynne Pardoe to the blog. Lynne is another of our contenders for the Joan Hessayon Award 2015

Can you tell us when you first decided that you wished to become a romantic novelist? 

I’ve always loved reading, I started with pony novels and in my teens read just about anything I could get my hands on. I’d read a telephone directory of there was nothing else! In my early teens I discovered medical romance, Dr Kildare was popular and I used to love that. It was then that I forged my love of writing and medicine, but I knew that I had to work in medicine first and the writing would come later. In time I moved to social work, which really forged my writing career but more on that later.

How many years were you a member of the NWS scheme and did you submit a different book each year?

I was a member of the NWS for about ten years on and off because I kept going back to work. I sent three different books to the NWS. It was the fourth I graduated with, I’m slowly publishing the others.

Which year’s book did you graduate with?

It was a book I’d written jointly with my mother in my ninth year that was first accepted, because I was working part time by now. The book was ‘Meant for Each Other’ which I jointly wrote with my mother.

 

How did you find your publisher?

My publisher was D.C.Thomson, whose work I’d read since I was a child. My mother was ill and we made up a story. I wrote and submitted it   and they accepted it. I was delighted, as is my mum who says she never thought to get to 86 and have a book published!

How do you promote your novel?

Since then I’ve built my own website for publicity and am going to add an email list to it. I will do a lot more promotion via foster carers groups etc. which I will do when I have more published.

What has happened to you as an author since that first sale?

I’ve discovered books by foster carers Casey Watson and Cathy Glass. I realised I want to write similar fiction about social work. I have one complete already and published through Amazon and another almost. They show that just about all people have a good heart. Mine are not that different to ‘Call the Midwife’ or a medical romance, they all have a happy ending.

 

How did you celebrate that first book sale?

I took a photo of the cover, framed it for mum and hung it on her wall! She loves it. Otherwise we celebrated with a cup of tea! But once I’ve written a few more, I want to take the family out to lunch to really celebrate.

About Lynne:

Writing isn’t all I do. I love old buildings and run a history group. I love the countryside and animals and we have dogs. My husband and I are really homely people so we spend a lot of time at home. But for now it’s caring for people I really want to write about. It’s a bit corny to say, but social work is an amazing job, you get to be with people at some of the most challenging times of their lives and it is really rewarding. If I can change the negative image social work has just a bit, then I’ll be delighted.

Links:

Amazon

Website

Cornish Myths and Giants

We are delighted to welcome Angela Britnell today to tell us about her latest book and a few things we may not have known about Cornwall.

Angela grew up in Cornwall and met her husband Richard, a US Naval Officer, while serving with the WRNS in Denmark. After multiple moves and having three sons they settled in Nashville, Tennessee where a creative writing class awakened her passion for writing. Since that she’s had short stories published, several pocket novels with DC Thomson and eight contemporary romance novels. Her latest ‘Celtic Love Knot’ was recently published by Choc Lit.

Can two tangled lives make a love knot? Lanyon Tremayne is the outcast of his small Cornish village of St. Agnes. Susceptible to fits of temper and with a chequered past behind him, he could even be described as a bit of an ogre. But nobody knows the painful secret he hides.

Olivia Harding has learnt a thing or two about ogres. She’s a professor from Tennessee, specialising in Celtic mythology and has come to St. Agnes to research the legend of a Cornish giant – and to lay to rest a couple of painful secrets of her own. But when Olivia meets the ruggedly handsome Lanyon, her trip to Cornwall looks set to become even more interesting. Will she get through to the man beneath the bad-tempered façade, or is Lanyon fated to be the ‘ogre’ of St. Agnes forever

I’m sure we’ve all heard the ongoing discussions about whether authors should primarily write about what they know and having grown up in Cornwall I freely admit it’s been the inspiration for many of my stories. It was only when I was writing my new contemporary romance ‘Celtic Love Knot’ that I discovered how little I really did know!

I must confess that I don’t plot and at the most have a vague idea of my main characters when I sit down and start to write. When I started the first draft of ‘Celtic Love Knot’ Olivia Harding soon revealed that she was a Celtic mythology professor from Nashville, Tennessee heading to do research in Cornwall around the St. Agnes area where my hero, Lanyon Tremayne, lives. I’d visited St. Agnes several times so that wasn’t a problem but my knowledge of Celtic mythology would have fitted on the proverbial head of a pin. I immediately delved into a lot of research and as Lanyon is a physically big man came up with the idea to link him with the legends of the Cornish giants. I had vague memories of hearing about the giant at St. Michael’s Mount but the existence of any others was a complete mystery to me. If you’re interested in reading a little more you can check out one of the sites I used here.

The story that particularly caught my imagination was of a giant called Bolster. He was supposed to have terrorised the local people until the brave St. Agnes outsmarted him causing his death. I became increasingly fascinated by the story and the way in which it’s still celebrated in the local community today. Its place in my book crystallized when I discovered a You-Tube video of the annual Bolster Festival held every May in St. Agnes. The story is re-enacted and culminates on the cliffs where Bolster is reputed to have died. Here’s a link to this fascinating video. Going to see this is definitely on my list of things to do!

Lanyon Tremayne’s links with the festival begin in his childhood when he takes part in the pageant along with his brother. Circumstances conspire to make him something of an outcast in the community until Olivia arrives and challenges him to find a way to change both his own and other people’s perceptions of himself. His re-involvement with the village and the Bolster Festival are interwoven with Lanyon and Olivia’s growing relationship until the two stories merge in a fascinating and unexpected way. It was totally unexpected to me anyway!

‘Celtic Love Knot’ became more than a ‘normal’ book as I discovered so many things I should’ve known about Cornwall and its rich history but didn’t! This story proved to me that writing what you know is often maligned as being an easy option which can be a million miles from the truth. Instead it can be an open door to even more interesting stories.

Contacts:

Website

Facebook

Twitter

Amazon US 

Amazon UK

Very interesting and informative. Thank you, Angela

This blog is brought to you by Elaine Everest and Natalie Kleinman. If you would like to write about the craft of writing or perhaps be interviewed about your writing life please contact us at elaineeverest@aol.com

What's in your Pocket?

Today we are delighted to welcome Tracey Steel who works as part The People’s Friend fiction team, with special responsibility for Pocket Novels. We asked her about these books, complete in their own right but following a very different path to publication from the ‘norm’.

Did you work for DC Thomson before taking on your current job?
I joined DC Thomson straight from school at the tender age of 18! That was way back in 1987 and my first job was writing the horoscopes on Jackie magazine. It’s true….they’re made up! From there I worked on most of the teenage titles then I had the brilliant job of serialising books for the Dundee Courier. One month it was John Grisham and the next, Joan Collins!

How many Pocket Novels are published each year?

Twenty-four. Two a month.

Where can we purchase Pocket Novels? Twenty-four novels a year is a huge amount. Can you tell us something about their ‘shelf life’?

Each Pocket Novel is available for a fortnight. They are available from most supermarkets or you can order them on line at www.dcthomsonshop.co.uk

What happens then, after you withdraw them?

The author can then self-publish or sell to Large Print AFTER we’ve published it. They also have to use their own original manuscript i.e. not the one we’ve edited.

What would you say is the best word count for a People’s Friend Pocket Novel

With our new larger print they tend to come in between 40,000 and 43,000 words.

How does an author submit and does she/he have to have written for the People’s Friend Magazine?

Anyone can submit a Pocket Novel manuscript. All I need is a synopsis and the opening three chapters…anyone can have a go!

What would be the normal lead time before you can reply with an answer?

It really does vary as I’m part of the weekly Fiction team as well, so please bear with me! We have rather a lot of manuscripts

How long does it take from acceptance to publication?

It can be anything up to around six months.

Is there a genre that readers prefer?

We had a pretty detailed survey done a couple of years ago and no one genre came out on top. As long as the story’s engaging it doesn’t matter where or when it’s set.

What are you looking for at the moment?

Family sagas, ‘gentle’ crimes, but not murder, and romance!

What do you enjoy reading and how do you spend your leisure time when not working on Pocket Novels?

I’m a crime fan! I love forensic-based books and thrillers!

Thank you so much for joining us today. I hope there’s room in you inbox after our followers have read this.

To submit your novel to Tracey, please contact her by email on tsteel@dcthomson.co.uk

And here are the People's Friend guidelines for those of you who would like to see them. http://www.thepeoplesfriend.co.uk/footer/guidelines/

This blog is brought to you by Elaine Everest and Natalie Kleinman. If you would like to write about the craft of writing or perhaps be interviewed about your writing life please contact us at elaineeverest@aol.com