Name: Emily RodmellTitle: Assistant Editor
Role: I edit and acquire for the Steeple Hill lines.
Tell us about yourself: I've been at Harlequin since 2004. Before that, I worked as a newspaper editor at several newspapers in my home state of Florida, and then worked at Scholastic here in New York City. I started at Harlequin as an Editorial Assistant, was promoted to Assistant Editor and am now acquiring and editing books for Steeple Hill.
For Steeple Hill, I’m looking for inspirational romance, romantic suspense and historicals for our three Love Inspired lines: Steeple Hill Love Inspired, Steeple Hill Love Inspired Suspense and Steeple Hill Historicals.
We're especially focussed on building our author base for the Love Inspired Suspense line. In addition, I’m also looking for women’s fiction and non-fiction for our single title line. Note that Single Title submissions must be agented, though.
In the past year, I've acquired three brand new authors that we’re very excited about. Missy Tippens’ debut novel Her Unlikely Family will come out in the Love Inspired line in February, 2008. Lynette Eason’s debut novel, Lethal Deception, will be published by Love Inspired Suspense in February, 2008 and her follow-up books, River of Secrets and Holiday Illusion, will be released in August and November. And Dana Mentink will also be writing for Love Inspired Suspense. Her first novel with us, Killer Cargo, will be released in June 2008 and her second, Flashover, will come out in January 2009. They have all been very busy writing!
We’re actively acquiring for the Love Inspired Suspense line these days, and we’re very open to new authors. For publishing in general, I would suggest researching the lines you submit to. Make sure your book will fit in, but also make sure that it has a special, unique quality to it. Don’t send in a cookie-cutter manuscript. But also don’t send it something that is so complely different that it doesn’t fit the line.
What are your pet peeves? Manuscripts that were submitted without the author reading our guidelines first. If you’re going to submit, make sure that your manuscript fits within our word count range and doesn’t contain material inappropriate for the targeted line.
What kind of stories appeal to you now? For my personal reading, I like novels with strong heroines. I also enjoy journalistic memoirs and current events titles.
Do you have a favorite book? My favorite book of all time is Gone With the Wind.
Emily sounds like a true romantic--a requirement to be successful at this job. Thank you.
8 comments:
Very nice interview! I'm glad to get to know Emily better.
Emily, it's great to be able to put a face with your name, now. :)Even better will be to meet you in person someday.
Missy
Hi Emily,
Like Missy, I'm tickled to put a face with your name. Gone With the Wind is one of my favorite books too. Scarlet is one very strong heroine. :-)
Blessings, Janet
Emily it's nice to get to know you. I enjoyed the interview.
I just finished Her Unlikely Family. It's as much fun as I've had reading a book in a long time.
Thanks for the interview. It's exciting to see what's happening at Steeple Hill!
Dear Missy Tippens, Janet Dean, Mary Connealy and Pam Hillman:
You guys are so "On It!" as the New York Con Ed ads say (accompanied by a thumbs up photo).
Thanks so much for making the editors feel welcome and helping me make the case for them to take the time out of their busy schedules to stop by and chat.
I really appreciate it--and I know they do too!
Best, Isabel
Great interview! It's great to get to put a face to Emily's name.
Thanks for doing this, Isabel.
Cheryl Wyatt
I read Her Unlikely Family and Love It! Several laugh out loud moments. Yep, definitely nice to be able to hear your thoughts on things. Thanks Isabelle and Emily, for sharing all this cool info.
Cheryl and Jessica--just wanted to say thank you for stopping by & sharing your comments.
And it wasn't until I went to check the author of HER UNLIKELY FAMILY that I realized that Missy Tippens the commenter is probably the famous debut author as well! So glad you enjoyed her work, Jessica!
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