The Valentine Challenge by Marisa Cleveland!

Marisa Cleveland's novella, The Valentine Challenge, debuted from Entangled Publishing! Join the celebration by visiting participating blogs and commenting the answer to this question: In your opinion, what's the sexiest part of a man?

 

Between now and February 28th, Marisa's super secret judges will browse the blogs and choose up to three winners to receive Valentine goodies!

                   

No purchase necessary, but a Like on Amazon is always appreciated!

 

Title: The Valentine Challenge
Author: Marisa Cleveland

Publisher: Entangled Publishing (Flirt)

Genre: Contemporary Romance Novella

 

Book Description:

When Stacey Bradford's hot boss convinces his company's board to close her best friend's flower shop - days before Valentine's Day! - Stacey declares war.

 

Intrigued by Stacey's devotion to her friend, the hearts and flowers holiday, and belief in true love, Marsh issues a challenge - prove love exists or deliver the closing documents to her friend herself.

 

Stacey never could resist a challenge, but when Marsh makes Valentine's Day the deadline for their deal, Stacey must decide how far she's willing to go...for love.

 

Author Bio

Marisa Cleveland loves to laugh, hates to cry, and does both often. As a writer, she writes. Every day. Perhaps because she married her best friend, her adult romance novels focus on playfully naughty relationships developed through friendship and family-oriented values. She loves to connect with writers and readers.

 

Author Links

Website and blog: www.marisacleveland.com

Twitter: www.twitter.com/marisacleveland

Facebook: www.facebook.com/marisacleveland00

 

Super Amazing Participating Blogs:

http://amandaflower.wordpress.com/

http://amielouellen.com/

http://www.bethvrabel.com/

http://katemeader.com/blog/

http://www.kateserine.com/blog/

http://jamieayres.com/

http://www.jenjdanna.com/

http://www.jennysulpizio.com/

http://nocturnalreadings.blogspot.com/

http://lynnetteaustin.blogspot.com/

http://www.sarahgagnon.com/

http://sonyaweiss.com/

http://tonyakuper.blogspot.com/

"THE CALL" Blog Hop: Part 3

Happy Friday, everyone! Are you gearing up for the weekend?

Today is Part Three of the Seymour Agency "THE CALL" blog hop hosted by the Seymour Agency Promotions Manager, Tonya Kuper! Want to know what happened in the aftermath of "the call" from my wonderful agent Nicole Resciniti? Check out my answer to the questions below.

TONYA: After "the call." What happened after the day/night of the call? Did you have to give other agents a heads up? How long before you signed papers? How long have you had your current agent? Has your agent sold your work? If so, can you give any details (Title, genre, release date)? Do you have words for aspiring writers or readers of your category and genre?

KAIT: While on the phone with Nicole, I was so tempted to scream right then that I accepted her offer because of how excited I was (which probably would have been a relief to Nic so she didn't have to wait in suspense to find out my decision), but I knew from all the author advice and agent blogs I'd read that I should preview my options before I made a decision. It's important to find who is the best fit for you. I told Nic that several other agents had the full manuscript and that I would get back to her within the next few days once I'd heard from them. 

After that, my night was normal. I went to work (this is when I was still dancing professionally at an Arabic restaurant near Orlando FL) and the whole time all I could think about was the fact that I'd received an offer of representation. And only two weeks after I'd just got engaged! My life felt like pure bliss. When I got home late that night, I emailed the other agents.

As Nic told me in our initial call, once you get an offer from one agent, it's like dropping a bucket of blood into a pool of sharks--they swarm and suddenly everyone is looking for a bite. She was exactly right. After hearing back from the other agents, I couldn't help but feel that their excitement about my manuscript was forced--as if they wanted it only because someone else did. I won't name names, but I even had one agent get mad because I asked her for a response within the next week. She angrily told me that she couldn't fulfill that request and if I wanted to work with her I could be patient, and she should receive fair and ample time to review my novel just like the other agent had. She complained because she'd only had my manuscript for a week when I told her about the offer and she'd been 'so excited for the project'. I informed her "the offering agent" (I wasn't going to drop Nic's name) had only had the manuscript one day before she offered, (much less time than the angry agent had) so there was no "fair time" about it. Needless to say, I respectfully told her I wasn't interested in working with her lol.  The majority of the other agents were much more gracious.

But I digress... 

With Nicole, I knew she genuinely wanted to represent my material since she was the first to offer. Ultimately, (aside from the fact that she is an amazing person and fabulous businesswoman) being the first to offer along with her enthusiasm about my work is what made me choose her above the others. I'm so glad that I did! Though several of the other agents had been in the business longer than Nicole (Nic was still a 'newer' agent at that point), I didn't care. I knew in my heart that Nic would do right by me and that she would champion my work, and she's done exactly that. Now, she's a Publisher's Marketplace top-dealmaker agent! Needless to say, I made the right decision. ;-)

I accepted Nic's offer several days after her initial call and it was about two weeks after that when I signed the agency contract. Nic has been my agent for slightly over a year now, though it seems like I've known her for much longer. She's an amazing person, a great friend, and a wonderful agent to boot. My manuscript went on submission in November of 2011 after several rounds of edits and Harlequin purchased it in May 2012 (they were the fourth publisher to offer, but offered the best deal by far--a three book contract to be exact!). That paranormal romance manuscript Nic signed me for is now titled TWILIGHT HUNTER. It's the first in my Execution Underground paranormal romance series and it releases with Harlequin's single-title HQN line in September of this year (2013). I also have a prequel to the series which Nicole later sold on proposal releasing in July. The prequel is called SHADOW HUNTER and will appear in an anthology called AFTER DARK alongside NYT and USA bestselling paranormal romance author, Gena Showalter.

As cliched as it sounds, my advice to other writers going through the submission process is to never give up! Twilight Hunter was my third manuscript. Though it was picked up within a month or so of me querying it, I'd queried two other manuscripts throughout the course of 3 years before that. I received hundreds of rejections. But you can't let those deter you and you can't give up. Keep striving to improve and some day, you'll get there. Learn from your slip ups and your mistakes and push forward. The difference between writers who will never be published and multi-published bestselling authors is determination and sheer stubbornness (don't take one rejection as the final answer). And pay attention to those rejections also! Once you start getting personalized non-form rejections, (that say you're writing is fabulous, strong, great, whatever [insert personalized compliment], but it's just not what they're looking for) know that you're getting very close! All it takes is one yes for the whole world of publishing to open up to you.

I hope you've enjoyed my "call" story! And thank you to Tonya for hosting this lovely blog hop! Have a great weekend! 

"THE CALL" Blog Hop: Part 1

Happy Monday, everyone!

Hope your week is getting off to a great start! Today is Part One of the Seymour Agency "THE CALL" blog hop hosted by the Seymour Agency Promotions Manager, Tonya Kuper! Want to know what happened before I got "the call" from my wonderful agent Nicole Resciniti? Check out my answer to the questions below.

TONYA: Before "the call." What category and genre do you write?  What to you do other than write? How did you end up in contact with your agent from the Seymour Agency (cold query, conference, etc.)? Did you communicate with your agent before you got "the call" from them (did you talk at a conference, email, do a Revise & Resubmit)? 

KAIT:  I write adult paranormal romance as Kait Ballenger, and Y.A urban fantasy and contemporary New Adult under my maiden name, Kaitlyn Schulz. Other than writing, I work part time at an assisted living facility as an activities director, caring mainly for Alzheimer's and dementia patients. I'm a professional English tutor and I've been known to dabble in professional Egyptian cabaret bellydancing (seriously) ;-) I'm also a student in Spalding University's Masters of Fine Arts program, where I'm earning my degree, so I can teach creative writing at a university level. 

I ended up in contact with Nicole through a chain of very lucky events. I met Mary Sue Seymour, the head agent and founder of the Seymour Agency, on an elevator while at the Romance Writers of America conference in NYC in 2011. When Mary Sue asked what genre I wrote and I told her paranormal, she gave me her card and told me to query Nicole. I sent Nicole a cold query and received a full request for my paranormal romance manuscript the very next day (now TWILIGHT HUNTER, the first novel in my Execution Underground series, releasing this September). It took me a little while to get the full manuscript to Nicole, as there were edits I wanted to do based on things I learned from the conference. But once I sent it to her, she emailed me the next day asking if I'd written the novel targeting Harlequin and asked if I could lengthen or shorten the word count accordingly if it were submitted to a category or single-title line. I replied, yes, that I would be willing to do that. My phone rang with an unknown number several minutes later. I don't pick up numbers I don't know, but then when my voicemail 'dinged' and I listened to it, it was Nicole calling to offer representation. I know now that she had laid in bed that morning and read the majority of my book on her cell phone! The thought of someone being that entranced over my work still amazes me. And Nic was right from the start, my manuscript ended up at Harlequin with their single-title HQN line!

Check back on Wednesday to read about the actual "call" part of mine and Nicole's conversation!

THE CALL Blog Hop

Coming Soon!

THE CALL Blog Hop!

Seymour Agency authors will be sharing 

their "The Call" experience on their blogs!

(The Call is when their agent called to offer representation- a very exciting time for an author!)

Come check out The Seymour Agency authors: who they are, 

what they write, what their call was like, & maybe even some
GIVEAWAYS!

THE CALL Blog Hop will take place during the week of 

January 7th-11th, with authors posting

on their blogs the 7th, 9th, & 11th.

You'll find a complete list of participating Seymour Agency authors, all representing different categories and genres!