Angela James

Angela and Carina Press are currently acquiring mysteries and romance across sub-genres and heat levels.

However, for publication in 2016 and 2017, Carina Press is particularly interested in:

Paranormals (and urban fantasy): We know other publishers are saying no to paranormals but we are interested in acquiring and publishing them! While we’ll consider manuscripts across the genre, here are some things that currently appeal to us in particular:  Great sexual tension, super sexy paranormals, male/male protaganists, series featuring shifters (wolves, cats, dragons…we draw the line at hamsters), ongoing series or trilogies, unique twist on old paranormal tropes and elements, band of brother/alpha heroes, paranormal with suspense elements, and stories that delve into clan politics.

Male/male romance: Though we acquire across LGBTQ, we have the most success with male/male and are most interested in acquiring within that subgenre. Right now we’re especially interested in paranormal, sexy contemporary/erotic, stepbrother romance, romances that tackle unlikely pairings or more “taboo” subjects, suspense/mystery, and scifi/fantasy series. Additionally, if you’re writing male/male that fits any of our other specific interests below, we want to see it.

Sexy sci fi romance: We’re looking for the fun, the unusual and possibly the little bit trashy. Maybe the hero or heroine is an alien—a true alien, maybe it’s set on different worlds, has a Firefly-esque space opera feel, is a caper or heist set in space, or features space pirates or space cowboys. Bring it on!

We’re always looking to build erotic romance on our list and we’re looking for someone who can write a series or trilogy that’s extremely erotic (maybe even filthy 😉 ). We’d love to see ménage or more, BDSM that’s not set in a club, darker erotic romance and there’s that word taboo again.!

Something we don’t see nearly enough of, ever, and are eager to acquire is capers, heists, jewel thieves, etc. Books, characters and setups that are sexy and possibly cross-genre. You could have an anti-hero (or heroine), or maybe hero/heroine are on opposite sides, or maybe they’re both thieves, thrown together or moving from friends to lovers. Maybe your caper or heist has a fun vibe, or it could be humorous. Give us fast-paced adventure and a fun duo facing off or teaming up!

We also want your cowboys and contemporary westerns. We’re looking for cowboys to add to our list! There are so many possibilities here, give it a unique twist, make it a foreign locale. Or it can be high tension, high stakes American-set contemporary cowboy romance.

This is not a “current” call but a reminder: we are always open to diverse protagonists, and have been since we opened years ago. That’s not changed, we’re still open to diversity across race, walks of life, physical challenges, ethnicity, and more. Diversity is wide ranging and we’ve always welcomed that in our submissions and our publications.  Here’s only a few examples of what we’ve published in the past.

See here for more thoughts on Angela from this post.

Angela James, Editorial Director, and Kerri Buckley, Senior Editor, generated the above imprint-wide list, and welcome all related queries.

Angela is also looking for someone to write a fun, Cannonball Run/Rat Race-type fun adventure romance. Additionally, she continues to look for “contemporary crack” and would also love to see a few projects from the above list with characters who are in their late 30s/40s, dealing with different life issues than those in their 20s do. Not women’s fiction or depressing “death” fiction, she’s still looking for fast-paced and compelling, just with older characters.

Angela James, Editorial Director

Angela James, editorial director of Carina Press, Harlequin’s digital-first fiction imprint, is both an avid reader of digital books and a veteran of and advocate for the digital publishing industry. She has enjoyed more than a decade of experience in her field, including successfully launching, building and serving as editorial lead for two digital-first presses: Samhain Publishing and, since 2009, Harlequin’s Carina Press.

She has edited bestselling authors such as Shannon Stacey, Jaci Burton, Lauren Dane, Ilona Andrews, Lilith Saintcrow, Shelly Laurenston and more. She was profiled in Fast Company magazine as a digital pioneer in the romance publishing industry and is the creator of Before You Hit Send, the popular online self-editing workshop for authors. In 2013 Angela was named New York Romance Writers of America’s Golden Apple Editor of the Year.

You can find Angela on Twitter at @angelajames.

Submission Guidelines

Submissions should be emailed to bit.ly/write4cp

Our submissions guidelines are below. If you have any questions, please first see our Submissions FAQ and our main submissions page. This is only a clip from our submissions page, which has more comprehensive information.

WHAT WE’RE SEEKING…

Carina Press is a fiction imprint. If your manuscript is 35,000 words or longer and fits what we are looking for, as described in the above chart or in the genre categories below, we will consider it! We will not look at manuscripts under 35,000 words, nor will we consider non-fiction.

We publish in many romance subgenres, including science fiction, fantasy, steampunk, interactive adventures, male/male, time travel, Western and futuristics. In non-romance, we are actively acquiring mystery submissions. If you have something new and fresh in a genre we acquire, we would be happy to read your story!

Your passion, quality of writing and voice is what will make your manuscript stand out and be considered for publication.

HOW TO SUBMIT

All submissions should now be submitted via our new submissions website: https://carinapress.submittable.com/submit

Please submit queries for only completed, fully polished manuscripts, unless previously arranged otherwise with an editor. Queries must include the following and will not be reviewed if any piece is missing:

1. Required: In the submissions form, you will be asked for a brief, introductory query letter listing genre, word count and a short description of the book, as well as any pertinent information about the author, including both legal name and pen name and any writing credits. The query letter is your sales pitch and we use the information included in it.

2. Required: The full manuscript saved as an RTF or DOC file and attached, with file name TITLE_MANUSCRIPT where you substitute your book’s title in place of TITLE. (example: WarAndPeace_Manuscript)

3. Required: 2-5 page synopsis of book that details character development, plot, and conflict/story resolution. Attach as an RTF or DOC file with file name TITLE_SYNOPSIS where you substitute your book’s title in place of TITLE. (Example: WarAndPeace_Synopsis)
4. Preferred: A short series/duology/trilogy outline to be included with submissions, especially of paranormal, fantasy and science fiction genres. The series outline doesn’t need to be more than 1-2 pages and outline the author’s plans for related books, including how many books are planned and the overall series arc, themes and characters.

4. Please be sure to put the following information on the first page of all files: manuscript name, author pen name/legal name, email address, phone number, genre and word count. If you don’t include your phone number, it makes it impossible for us to make The Call!

5. Combined size of both attachments must be under 4 MB in size. We’re unable to send files larger than this to our editors due to restrictions in our email system. If your manuscript is over 4 MB, please remove extra images, delete extraneous styles or font use that may increase file size

Please allow 12 weeks for an editorial response to your submission. If a response has not been received after 12 weeks, please follow-up via your submittable account at https://carinapress.submittable.com/submit by adding a note to your submission log.

If you have questions prior to submission, you can email submissions@carinapress.com However, no attachments, query letters or submissions should be sent to this address. Please allow 72 business hours for a response.

All submissions should now be submitted via our new submissions website: https://carinapress.submittable.com/submit

All submissions will receive an auto-response from Submittable acknowledging receipt of submission. If you don’t receive an auto-response, please send a follow-up email, with no attachments, asking for verification of receipt. Please allow 12 weeks for an editorial response to your submission. If a response has not been received after 12 weeks, please follow up via your account https://carinapress.submittable.com/submit. On your submission page you’ll see an option to submit a user note. Please do so and we will receive it.

Guidelines & Details