In an unfortunate year of farewells, we have to add another name to websites that are no longer with us.
Romance University is officially shutting its doors on January 27, 2020. This resource was one of the early internet adopters back when eBooks were just starting to hit hard and eRetailers were doing a job of ‘catch-up’ to Amazon’s second-gen Kindle which hit shelves back in 2009.
First and foremost, you DO NOT send an unsolicited manuscript to anyone. All they’ll do is just throw it in the trash; no reputable company accepts unsolicited material.
Second, you DO NOT contact publishing companies. No reputable publishing firm accepts non-vetted material.
Writers don’t need publishing companies. They haven’t needed publishing companies for more than a decade.
Writers also shouldn’t self-publish. With the maturation of the indie publishing community, there are professionals (the exact same professionals who work for publishing companies) who can help any anyone with a manuscript go from writer to author.
Answer: Nope. If you write what you don’t know it rings false, and that transfers directly to the page, and the reader will always pick up on it.
To correct some misconceptions:
This morning I received an email soliciting funds from NaNoWriMo.
NaNoWriMo was an annual writing challenge that took place every November. As it’s popularity has grown, it’s created NaNoWriMo, Camp NaNoWriMo and other annual, Internet-based creative writing contests that takes place throughout the year. The challenge is to a novel (50,000 words is the minimum length of a novel) between a scheduled start date and end date. The winner (anyone who writes the minimum number of words) gets an internet badge they can put on their website or facebook page or whatever. I have several on my site here, as I have often participated, supported, and won the challenges.
