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ATTENTION AUTHORS OF EROTIC ROMANCE...
After the success of our three previous Amber Heat Wave™ Contests, Amber Heat (the erotica imprint of Amber Quill Press) has decided to repeat the process again, welcoming you to send us the hottest, steamiest, most sizzling fiction you can create! Think you have what it takes to win a publishing contract with us? Then submit your short Erotic Romance story (see below for content guidelines and word count) to AQP’s Amber Heat™ imprint during the first two weeks of January 2007! Apart from this annual contest, Amber Heat (and its parent company Amber Quill Press) remains closed to all "outside" manuscript submissions throughout each year, therefore, this will be your single opportunity in 2007 to show us your writing skills and possibly become a part of the Amber Quill Press family of authors. Winning entries will be published in electronic format in June 2007 to coincide with our 4th annual Amber Heat Wave™ celebration.
CONTEST DETAILS
To enter this contest, please carefully read and adhere to the following criteria, and also note, the rules and guidelines have changed since last year...
Dates Of Entry:
January 1st through January 15th 2007. (Contest is now closed for 2007!)
Entry Fee:
None!
Author Eligibility:
Both published and non-published authors may submit. (Authors already under contract with Amber Quill Press need not enter.)
Genre:
Erotic Romance—all sub-genres are eligible...Contemporary, Paranormal, Fantasy or Dark Fantasy (ie. Vampire, Werewolf, etc.), Historical (including Western), Science Fiction/Futuristic, Suspense/Thriller, Ménage, Gay/Lesbian, BDSM, Interracial, etc. (Basically, any category, genre, or sub-genre you see listed on the left-hand menu is eligible.)
Sexual Content:
First, please view our Heat Level Info. Stories that fall into any of our three Heat Levels are eligible. Please note: Certainly, we want stories that sizzle with sexual tension and contain explosive love scenes, yet we also want stories with strong and engaging plotlines and characters, stories that could stand on their own even without the sexual content. In other words, a story containing one-dimension characters or a flimsy plot wrapped around an endless string of meaningless sexual encounters will not impress us. Moreover, we are not looking to publish pure erotica, or stories containing hard-core BDSM, pedophilia, incest, bestiality (with the exception of Shapeshifter/Fantasy stories), bodily functions, etc. Each story must focus around a romance, whether Straight or Gay/Lesbian. Even if the manuscript includes ménage or group sex situations, the romance between the main M/F or Gay/Lesbian couple must be front and center throughout the story. We are also not opposed to stories that do not include a "Happily Ever After" ending, so long as it's warranted, although the majority of the work we publish does indeed have an HEA ending. For a clearer understanding of the types of stories we publish, we suggest you sample several of our erotica titles.
Word Count:
Stories should be between 10,000 and 18,000 words.
Judging Criteria:
Each story entered will be judged on the following...
- Plotline and Overall Story
- Story Pacing
- Characterization
- POV (Point Of View) Focus
- Genre Appropriateness
- Descriptives
- Dialogue
- Writing Mechanics (Grammar, Punctuation, Sentence Structure, Etc.)
- Originality of Writing Style
Final Note:
Authors may enter as many stories as they wish, so long as they are not contracted and not under consideration with any other publisher, nor have they been previously published. Authors must have all rights to each story submitted. Sorry, there are no exceptions.
Submission Procedure:
Manuscripts must be saved in either DOC (MS Word Document) or RTF (Rich Text Format) and emailed as an attachment to us at HeatWaveContest@amberquill.com only between the dates specified above. All other formats will be rejected, as well as manuscripts sent outside of the two-week time period. Again, sorry, there are no exceptions. In the "Subject" line of your email, please type THE FULL TITLE of the attached manuscript and its appropriate SUB-GENRE (example: Historical Erotica, Fantasy Erotica, etc.). In the body of the email, please list your NAME, PEN NAME (if applicable), full SNAIL-MAIL ADDRESS, and your EMAIL ADDRESS. Additionally, if sending more than one entry for consideration, please send each in a separate email.
Prize:
Winning manuscripts will receive our standard two-year contract for our popular Amber Kisses™ imprint (short erotica fiction) and be published in June 2007 to coincide with our 4th annual Amber Heat Wave™ celebration.
Winners will be announced on March 1st, 2007 on this page!
Should you have any questions or need clarification regarding any contest details, please email HeatWaveContest@amberquill.com.
Good luck to all!
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