Which Best Celler entry will be named Fan Favorite? You decide! Cast your vote now.
November 9, 2009
Borders is the primary sponsor of the 2010 RomCon, a conference aimed primarily at romance readers and scheduled to take place July 9-11 in Denver.
Published authors may want to take note of their Reader’s Crown contest. The books will be judged by selected romance readers, and the winner receives special display space in Borders stores and coverage on Borders’ True Romance blog. Then again, it also costs $75 to enter. Worth it if you win, but at almost twice the cost of entering the Ritas, it’s hard to give a wholehearted endorsement.
Readers can get five free books and $10 off conference fees if they’d like to apply to be a judge.
November 5, 2009
America’s Best-Celler semi-finalists
Posted by Leah under General interest, News | Tags: contest |[76] Comments
Dorchester and TextNovel.com have announced the top vote-getters for America’s Next Best Celler contest. These entries are now semi-finalists in the contest to win a book contract. Dorchester editors will choose 10 from the following list to be our finalists. On Nov. 16th voting will open once again. [Edited: Sorry, my mistake.]
Meantime, take a look and tell us your favorites.
1. Manhunt
2. Muse Struck
4. Stay
7. Confessions of the World’s Oldest Shotgun Bride
8. Fae Nights
9. How to Lose a Demon in 10 Days
11. Courting Demons
12. Daughter of Fire
13. Vampire Vacation
15. Enchanted Season
16. Death Waylaid: Passion of the Psychic
17. Primitive Nights
18. Tossing the Gloves: How to Love a Hockey Player
19. Highland Magic
20. The Hooded Man
21. Enchantment
August 26, 2009
Query critique postponed
Posted by Leah under News, Submissions, Writing & Editing | Tags: contest |1 Comment
Because of ongoing issues with the Dorchester message boards, we have postponed the query critique. We’re going to relaunch it when we have brand new forums set up, so stay tuned. And thanks for all your patience.
July 31, 2009
New ‘Home in the Heartland’ series
Posted by Leah under News, Previews | Tags: contest, historicals, Westerns |[4] Comments
Not too long ago we noticed we had several books on our list of a similar style: sweeter, heartfelt Americana romances. They have wonderfully in-depth characters and a lot of emotional pull. And, don’t get me wrong, even though I say ”sweeter,” we’re not skimping on the love scenes. 
We wanted to showcase these books in a special way. Hence a new Home in the Heartland banner, making its first appearance with Caroline Fyffe’s debut, WHERE THE WIND BLOWS.
This is not a new line. There is no set number of titles we’re looking for.
Future books in the series include Lisa Cooke’s A MIDWIFE CRISIS, which is currently featured on my sidebar, and Sharla Rae’s debut, HOW TO TAME A TIMBERMAN, coming in May 2010.
A quick way to get a feel for the books is to watch Caroline Fyffe’s video preview. Invest the extra time to write your version of the last line of her book, and you could win a stay at a California dude ranch. Check out her Under the Western Sky contest for further details.
July 8, 2009
Some points of interest from around the web:
More details on America’s Next Best Celler contest sponsored by Dorchester and TextNovel in a special interview at Romance University. If you haven’t yet registered, definitely check it out. There are already some fantastic entries garnering a lot of votes.
BooksOnBoard is offering all Rita-nominated books for 26% off. Just use promo code RitaOnBoard before midnight on Friday to claim the discount.
Concoct a drink based on Leslie Langtry’s Greatest Hits series, and win a set of signed books. Why do I have a feeling there’s going to be a lot of Sapphire Bombay gin involved? And is it happy hour yet?
June 1, 2009
New contest for unpubbed authors
Posted by Leah under News, Submissions | Tags: contest |[3] Comments
Do you have America’s Next Best Celler?
Dorchester Publishing has teamed up with TextNovel.com, a company that specializes in delivering free serialized fiction to cell phone and email, in a new contest for unpublished romance writers. The winner will receive a publishing contract with Dorchester.
We’re looking for any kind of romance subgenre: historical, paranormal, futuristic (or sci-fi romance or whatever you want to call it), urban fantasy, humorous contemporaries or time-travel. Finished manuscripts should be roughly 50,000-75,000 words. Please note, this is shorter than our regular submission guidelines, but we felt that the nature of the medium allowed for a more concise format.
Entrants will be asked to post short “chapters” from today until Nov. 1. Posts can be made as often as you’d like, as long as there’s at least 6000 words posted by Nov. 1. The top 20 finalists will be determined by number of subscriptions and reader feedback. And then Dorchester editors will narrow the field to the top 10 to keep posting.
Further contest details can be found here.
And the official contest press release here.
May 19, 2009
Horror line puts out call for ‘fresh blood’
Posted by Leah under Submissions | Tags: contest, horror |1 Comment
If your writing is more scary than sexy, you might want to check out this new contest:
Leisure Books, the company “leading the way in publishing paperback horror,”* is partnering with Rue Morgue magazine in association with horror fiction web site ChiZine, to present “Fresh Blood,” a new writing contest specifically for unpublished horror authors. The winner will receive a contract for publication in Leisure’s 2011 lineup, as well as a contract from ChiZine Publications for a limited-edition hardcover release, also in 2011.
Leisure is looking for finished horror novel manuscripts, either supernatural or non-supernatural, of 80,000 – 90,000 words. A panel of experts, including Leisure Executive Editor Don D’Auria and editors at ChiZine, will judge entries. The finalists will be announced in November 2009.
*CNN.com
May 4, 2009
Mother’s Day Matchup – Win free books!
Posted by Leah under free stuff | Tags: contest |[13] Comments
The Easter egg hunt was so much fun, I thought we’d do another giveaway for Mother’s Day.
The prize: a pack of books from participating authors worth more than $50, including three June releases before they’re available in stores
The game: Match each baby photo below to the author bio photo. Send a list of your results in the following manner:
1. a
2. b
etc.
to lhulten @ dorchesterpub.com (no spaces), subject line Mother’s Day Contest, by noon EST on Tues., May 12. Everyone with the correct listing will be entered in a random drawing for the grand prize. Those with a correct listing but not the winner of the grand prize will each receive a coupon for the Dorchester website. So it pays to play!
Hint: Some of the authors have included their baby photo somewhere on their website. Check your answers by visiting.
- 1.
2.
3.
- 4.
- 5.
- 6.
- 7.
And now, all grown up (each photo links to author’s site):
- a. Trish Albright, author of SIREN’S SECRET
- b. Lisa Cooke, author of TEXAS HOLD HIM
c. Christie Craig, author of GOTCHA!
d. Alissa Johnson, author of McALISTAIR'S FORTUNE
e. Tracy Madison, author of A STROKE OF MAGIC (July)
f. Joy Nash, author of A LITTLE LIGHT MAGIC
- g. Elisabeth Naughton, author of STOLEN HEAT (Aug.)
The books for the winner:
April 15, 2009
Congratulations to Larena W., winner of the great Easter Egg Hunt!
And there are a load of others getting $5.00 off their next purchase at the Dorchester website.
Thanks so much to everyone who participated. There were 16 eggs hidden throughout the site, although those super achievers who included extra links generated from each page and the tag cloud were also counted for the drawing. Most of the “close but no cigar” entries were missing the links to the pages of June and September releases. The complete list of pages:
- http://romanticreads.net/2009/04/06/saving-big-on-books/
- http://romanticreads.net/2008/08/28/how-unpublishe…me-recognition/
- http://romanticreads.net/2008/09/26/shelley-mosley…-local-library/
- http://romanticreads.net/2008/11/11/inside-a-pub-meeting/
- http://romanticreads.net/2008/11/24/cover-story/
- http://romanticreads.net/2009/01/21/what-an-editor-wants/
- http://romanticreads.net/2009/02/25/deal-alert-flo…el-in-30-years/
- http://romanticreads.net/2009/03/31/inside-a-sales-call/
- http://romanticreads.net/2009/03/02/toning-up-flabby-writing/
- http://romanticreads.net/coming-soon/june-releases/
- http://romanticreads.net/coming-soon/september-releases/
- http://romanticreads.net/april-releases/
- http://romanticreads.net/about/
- http://romanticreads.net/2009/01/15/timeline-of-a-book/
- http://romanticreads.net/2008/08/26/save-the-date/
- http://romanticreads.net/2009/04/09/easter-egg-hunt-for-free-books/
And talk aboutgood karma–the wonderful participation here convinced me to try the hunt at BooksOnBoard over the weekend. Last night, I was notified of being a winner. I think we need to have more Easters during the year.
