I
had the great pleasure of talking to Lauren McKenna about Pocket Books and the
Sonnet line of historicals. Lauren
is an Associate Editor at Pocket and acquires for their women’s fiction
program, and also some areas of non-fiction books.
Lauren
asks that you send in three chapters and synopsis with your query.
However, it is the chapters that will make her decide whether to request
more of your work. The very cool thing about Lauren is she will always read your
submission in its entirety. She
does about half of her reading at home and half at the office.
I asked what is the biggest problem she sees with submissions today, and
she said greater than fifty percent are written poorly.
I asked her to elaborate on that. She
indicated that the writing does not capture her interest, it is not exciting,
and not fresh. It is boring,
simplistic writing that she has no interest in.
This from a woman who said, the thing that is most fun about being an
editor is that she loves to read!
Turnaround
time is on par with the rest of the industry (read, ‘not speedy’) however,
the agented pile moves faster than the unagented pile. Pocket is very proud of
their informative rejection letters. They try to indicate whether they liked the
writing or not, and are quite complete. They
will indicate if they are interested in seeing any more of your work.
If Lauren is interested in someone’s writing, but knows she cannot buy
the submission, she will try and guide the writer toward more marketable
stories. The writing is always first with Lauren.
She said that several times during the interview, so you know it’s the
truth.
Historicals
are her favorite type of romance and her favorite settings are old England, old
Scotland, and Medieval. Her
favorite hero is dark and brooding, and she likes her heroines strong and feisty
(Writers note: these types of fav hero/heroine are definitely not
exclusive to Pocket).
Pocket
is actively looking for many types of romance -- contemporary, suspense,
historical, and multi-cultural. They
have three lines: Pocket, Pocket Star, and Sonnet. Pocket is the original imprint and has three slots per month,
mainly reprints. This line covers
fiction, contemporary women’s fiction, and contemporary romance.
Pocket Star was developed to provide a larger platform to headline
authors emerging from Pocket’s mid-list.
Sonnet was launched last year as a venue for Pocket’s up and coming,
historical romance authors. Two titles per month are released, all are historical
romance, and this includes time travel and paranormal.
Pocket/
Simon & Schuster is a stellar house with a fine reputation in the publishing
industry. Their website is www.simonsays.com
and their mail address is 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020. Good luck.