Stephanie Doig

And now for something completely different, I’ve been wanting to acquire a Western romance, a la Elsie Silver or Devney Perry. I’ve always loved the city-girl-goes-country trope, and Westerns are such a good opportunity for fish-out-of-water/opposites attract. #mswl

Greek myths are still going strong! I’d love a dark romance that incorporates Greek myth in some way. Think the Hades/Persephone saga by Scarlett St. Clair, or Blood of Hercules by Jasmine Mas. #mswl

I’m also still eagerly looking for the right romantasy project. The market is very saturated right now so it’s important to think about what makes your book stand out—maybe an x meets y layered hook, etc. #mswl

I’m really interested in acquiring dark and dark-ish romance right now. The theme of this #mswl is the morally gray hero, lol. In that vein, I’d love to see more mafia romance in my inbox.

Some #mswl admin:
• At Carina Press we accept both agented and unagented projects
• Our word count minimum is 50k; we don’t technically have a max but my personal preference is under 125k

Right now I am hungry to acquire for our Carina Press imprint, which is digital-first (and therefore targeting digital readers). There is a lot of crossover with print, though! #mswl 2/?

It’s been a long time, Twitter, but I’m going to do a 2024 (2025, in publishing, really) #mswl post! I am a senior editor at Harlequin, acquiring for digital and trade paperback imprints. 1/?

Hello #mswl and #amquerying friends! We have updated our imprint-wide wishlist. You can find what @CarinaPress editors are looking for at the @Write4Harlequin website: writeforharlequin.com/carina-press-m…

Returning to this thread to make it clear that I would VERY much like to acquire both a sexy monster romance and what I am thinking of as “dirty sexy faeries” for Carina Press. Just FYI. 😈 #mswl

And just because I didn't add any historical romance, romantic suspense, etc. doesn't mean we're not acquiring it! I'd love to read those projects too. :) Check the guidelines for a full list of genres we're currently looking for.

That's it for now! I'll pin and add to this thread in future. In the meantime, if you're thinking of submitting a project to me (or to anyone at Harlequin!) take a quick look through our submissions guidelines: writeforharlequin.com

The other is, and I cannot stress this enough, super sexy. If you’ve been dying to write an emotionally distant alphahole who only learns to love once he’s met the right person for him (and antagonized them lightly before learning his lesson), please, please send it to me. #mswl

Fantasy romance/paranormal romance: This is another one where I’m on the lookout for two different things. 1: cozy, feel-good fantasy, the kind of romance you can sink into and know nothing bad is ever going to happen to anyone. A warm bath of a romance (is that gross?!). #mswl

The romcom market is very full right now, so if you're writing romcoms, think about what might make yours stand out from the crowd. Consider, perhaps: a cozy mystery romcom? I'd love to see it. Think Mia P. Manansala's Arsenic & Adobo. #mswl

Also in contemporary romance: melodramatic romance. HUGE emotions, big plot twists, big conflict. Messy characters who don’t always act in their own best interests in the heat of the moment. This is where I’d love to see my fave hero type: the jerk with secret feelings. #mswl

Contemporary romance! I'm looking for two different things here: first is complex, emotional, upmarket contemporary—think Kate Clayborn or Lucy Parker. Love caretakers for this, especially if they’re kind of grumpy/seem uncaring on the outside. #mswl

All right, it's a new year, and I am ready to do some new reading! Acquiring romance novels for Carina Press, Carina Adores, and the occasional Harlequin project. Here are a few things I'd LOVE to see in my inbox in the next few months #mswl 🧵

Today is brought to you by the thesaurus, which reminded me of the word "fussbudget." I would like to read a romance novel featuring a fussbudget hero, please. (And, obviously, the person who undoes him.) #mswl

All right, all right, one last one. I don't know exactly how you could execute this and make it a romance, but I am VERY into Succession right now so I'm going to throw "rich and extremely dysfunctional family with twisted but loving sibling dynamics" out there. #MSWL

SPEAKING of tropes, have you heard about Carina Adores, our new contemporary romance trope-driven LGBTQ+ line? I would love to see your submissions. You can find more info here: carinapress.com/blog/carina-ad… #MSWL