What’s Hot by Sara Megibow

I brought home 18 books from the recent RWA National Conference in Anaheim. … I also have TONS of great submissions from the pitch sessions and author meetings.

Here are the notes I took over the course of the conference. Of course, Kristin and I are looking for good stories, well-told, but here are some additional behind-the-scenes requests from editors:

• Small town, sweet, contemporary single title romance

• OUTLANDER by Diana Gabaldon for the young adult reader (no, not a re-telling, but rather an epic romance for YA that tells the story of a love-that-will-know-no-bounds and perhaps have a paranormal or time travel element to it)

• 20-45K word stories, preferably with tie-in capability or that can be linked together, to be made as ebook originals

• More contemporary young adult with a strong romance (and yes, you heard me cheering from California – I adore contemp YA!)

• Historical romance in time periods other than Regency (although I had several requests for Regency also)

• No one specifically asked me for “more funny,” but when I said, “I’m personally looking for books with a good sense of humor,” everyone said, “Ooooo, YES!”

• Smokin’ hot and unique paranormals – everyone was talking about FIRELIGHT by Kristen Callihan (Book 2 in her Darkest London Series, MOONGLOW, debuts this month)

We all agreed that authors who are members of RWA tend to present more publication-ready manuscripts. Personally, I find that RWA does a great job of educating writers, so I say join up!

Happy writing to all!

Cheers,
Sara

Sara Megibow is an Associate Literary Agent at the Nelson Literary Agency. This article was taken from their most recent newsletter and posted with permission. To get more great industry news, subscribe to their newsletter. Follow Sara on twitter at @SaraMegibow.