Name: Elizabeth Mazer Title: Editorial Assistant, Steeple Hill/Silhouette
Role: Responsible for providing administrative and editorial support to the Senior Editor of Love Inspired/Love Inspired Suspense and the Executive Editor of Silhouette Books primarily through evaluating submissions, providing author support and guiding manuscripts through the stages of production.
Publishing Background: I began at Harlequin in my current position in April, 2007. Prior to that, I worked in the editorial department at what was then known as Bookspan (now Bertelsmann Direct North America) first with Crossings Book Club, and later with Book Development.
Submissions: We’re actively looking for new authors for Love Inspired, Love Inspired Suspense, and the Silhouette lines, and will consider both agented and unagented submissions.
As for formatting, I’d prefer to receive a full synopsis along with the first three chapters. Please list the specific line you’re targeting.
Pet Peeve: Insufficient research! Misspelling my name, or the name of the line in the cover letter can make it very hard for me to give the rest of the submission serious consideration.
The author has to sell me not just on the qualities of her book, but also on how well her story would fit into our line, and I become very hard to convince when I sense that the author hasn’t done her homework.
What I Want to See: Strong, sympathetic characterization. The harder I have to work to relate to the characters, the more likely I am to give up on the book altogether!
Thank you, Elizabeth. So there you have it--I couldn't add a thing. Which comment, coming from an editor, is a real compliment!
