Sally Quilford's Blog

What is Category Romance? Category Romances are a clearly designated series of books, usually around 50-55k words in length. Mills and Boon is the biggest publisher of category romances in the world, and their categories, to name but a few, include Modern Romance, Riva, Medical, Historical and Intrigue. The different lines are generally colour coded, each with a with recognisable ‘livery’. Their American arm, Harlequin, publish the same books but in slightly different lines and colour codes. For example, in America, Modern romances are called ‘Harlequin Presents’.   The books are published on a regular basis, with as many as four or five from each line being published each month. This means there are a lot of opportunities for writers who want to break into the category romance market. How does category romance differ from traditional romance? It doesn’t differ that much. Category romances are, for the most part, traditional male and female romances. The main differenc...

The next few articles are part of a magazine series, called Love Craft, that sadly never came to fruition. I've probably given a lot of the same information in previous articles, but this was a simpler way of presenting it. And lists are very popular on the internet! 11 Things You Always Wanted to Know About Writing Traditional Romance There are many different types of romance out there, from historical to contemporary, from normal everyday life to paranormal. However, many of them have something in common. They are traditional romances. The styles may vary, along with the storylines, but as traditional romances they will all have conventions and the readership have certain expectations when they open up the books to read them. There is always a hero and a heroine Traditional romances are always about a hero and a heroine. Please don’t shout at me about this. As I said in last month’s column, there is a growing market for GBLT (Gay, Bisexual, Lesbian...

Originally published in Writers Forum as part of an intended series called Love Craft. Sadly this was the only article published, but I will be publishing the other, previously unpublished articles, on this blog over the next few days or so. Whilst many cover subjects I've already dealt with, they are in a different format, and I hope will be of interest anyway. 8 Things You Always Wanted to Know about Writing Romantic Novels Romance is big business. Mills and Boon sell around 100 million books a year, releasing up to five new titles a month. Fifty Shades of Grey , whatever your private thoughts about its literary quality, has put romance back at the top of a bestseller chart. So what opportunities are available for new writers hoping to break into this market? Top Mills and Boon novelist, Kate Walker, kindly helped me to answer some of your questions. Please note, that whilst Kate concentrates on Mills and Boon here, because she writes for them, the advice she gives is val...

Originally posted 24th October 2012 So what are the conventions of writing a traditional romance? Below is the handout that I give to my pocket novel workshop participants, but I've added a few clarifications here as normally these are covered by the discussions in the workshop. The Conventions of writing a Traditional Romance * Hero and heroine are morally sound, 'nice' people, even if they have flaws. This is particularly important. When I submitted my novella Let Me Be Your Hero for Siren's mainstream romance, I was told that as my heroine, Georgia, is a compulsive liar, it would not fit under that imprint. Whilst I believed (and still do) that Georgia is noble, despite her tendency to lie, I had to respect their judgement. So it was 'sexed up' and turned into erotica - hence my other pseudonym, Elise Hart!) * Traditional romances are always about heterosexual relationships between a man and a woman. (Please don't shout at me, I don't ma...

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Originally published 31 October 2012   I feel duty bound to share this information, and I hope that the people I got it from don't mind me doing so. I've heard through the grapevine that Maggie Seed is not looking for historicals 'at the moment'. (please note that this is very old information and may well have changed since 2012). But she is looking for stories with adventure and excitement. (This is the same and has never changed in all the time I've known Maggie!) This means that I'm trashing my idea of the village murder mystery and have a thriller type story in mind. At the moment I'm thinking trains, McGuffins, stuff that explodes. You know, the regular Bruce Willis type stuff! I'll be in my element! However, I may use some of the characters I've already created, as I think I can easily transpose them from one plot to the other, but just give them different motivations. It will also save me coming up with all new characters! One of t...

Crime Writing and Romance (originally posted on 26 October 2012)   If you're planning to write a romance novel with a crime or intrigue element, the important thing to remember is that you still need to have a relationship at the heart of it. The crime must impact in some way on the hero and heroine, even if they're only investigating. As I said on my Conflict post on the Pocketeers blog , they need a vested interest in the outcome. That said, you'll still be working in the normal conventions of crime writing. Here are some tips to get you going. Most are aimed at murder mysteries, but the conventions are pretty much the same, even if you're you're writing about a non-violent crime. Choose your sleuth One of the most important people in a crime related novel is going to be the sleuth. This is the person that the reader is going to spend most of their time with. The reader will want to feel some connection with them, even if they don't particularly ...

Characters Extra – Piling on the Angst (30 October 2012)   The part on character history in the previous post had me thinking I may need to clarify or build upon it. This is aimed mainly at the romance genre, rather than crime (suspense, intrigue), but I do think the advice probably goes for both in the pocket novel market. It is too easy, when you create your heroine (or hero) to pile on the angst in order to make your readers sympathise with them. My own heroines are often orphans, but I generally put their sad events way back in the past so that by the time the story begins, they're still orphans but they're also getting on with their lives. It can be too easy to pile on the angst so much that in the end your reader actually thinks, 'No? Really?' Recently I read something in which the angst was severely piled on. (I'm not saying where or when, only to clarify that it wasn't in one of the recent pocket novels I've been reading for r...

Character Building (originally published 30 October 2012) First published in April 2009 Writers Forum ...  here are a few tips on building a memorable character. What's In A Name? A name can say a lot about a character, in terms of age (or era), gender, class, status and sometimes personality. Think about all the different names friends, relatives and strangers use for you, including pet names and diminutives. It’s possible different people will also address your character differently. Dickens was the master of unusual names, which told us everything about that character, like Mr Gradgrind in Hard Times. This is a man who puts children on an educational treadmill, grinding facts into them, so they make the grade. More recently Sarah Waters, in her novel, Fingersmith, has the character of Mrs Sucksby, who is not only a wet nurse, but also someone who suckers people into her schemes. However, it's rare for modern day authors to use this device and I’d advise cauti...

Thanks to the wonderful Sue Barnard, I can bring some of my old blog posts from my other blog(s). Sue saved a lot of them and let me have the files so I could re-stock this blog. So for the next few days, I'll be revisiting them. Some may be out of date, as far as some of the information goes, but they are still helpful. I hope! This post was originally published on 29th October 2012. Approachable Heroines and Rewarding Heroes Whilst it may not be everyone's glass of Pinot Grigio, category romance (cat-rom) is big and a great way to make that step to becoming a novelist. Joanna Trollope started her writing career with Mills and Boon, who over 100 years after they started still sell millions of books a year. The prolific and talented (now sadly deceased) Penny Jordan wrote several novels a year for M&B in between penning blockbuster novels. My Weekly and Peoples' Friend each have very successful pocket novel lines, which could be seen as M&B's more cha...

The last three books I have written were all composed in the first person. Two of those books, The Last Dance and Runaway, were the first two books in my Bobbie Blandford series. The third, The Dark Marshes , is a gothic romance that came to me just before Christmas and just wouldn’t go away. <br /> I had written quite a few short stories in the first person, but only one (unpublished) novel, which I wrote one year for NaNoWriMo. Writing a longer piece in the first person is not an easy option. In fact, when I started writing The Last Dance , after being asked by My Weekly Pocket Novel editor, Maggie Swinburne to write a five part series about a sixties policewoman, I began it in the third person. Three grinding chapters on, I felt that I didn’t know my heroine at all, and the novel did not have the warmth and humour that I imagined it would have. As it’s set in the early sixties, I wanted it to have a cosy, humorous tone that would appeal to thos...

I have been away a long time, haven't I? My last post was August of last year. You may notice that the blog has changed titles and urls. It is now sallyquilford.blogspot.co.uk. So it's more about me, and not some vague notion of writing romantic intrigue (though there will still be some of that!) I've been around, on Facebook. But sometimes I think I say so much on there about one thing and another, I leave myself nothing to say on my blog. I am hoping to change that and intend to try and post at least one blog post a week. It might be useful. It might just be waffle. It might even be useful waffle. So what have I done since I last posted? I've completed the second Bobbie Blandford novel, called Runaway. That's out with My Weekly Pocket Novels on around 12th March 2015. However, you can pre-order it from Kindle, and it will be released as an ebook on 1st April 2015. <br /> I have also ha...