Samhain Publishing Ltd. Weblog

Contest: You choose the blurb

We have two blurbs* for one book, Close Encounters by B.H. Dark. The authors, the blurb writer and I like them both. So I’m asking you guys, the readers, which one would be more likely to get you to buy the book? I’ll choose a winner from all the commenters to get a free download of their choice from Samhain, as well as an electronic ARC of this book when it’s ready for review (probably not until August or September).

*please note, these blurbs are not finals, but we don’t want to polish either until we choose one!

In space, nobody can hear you cream.

BLURB ONE :

Imagine. One day, you’re singing “Danke Schoen” to screaming girls in Vegas. Or having dinner with the man you think you want to marry. Or going to a high-society charity ball in a virginal white dress. Or hanging out with your dog and fixing cars.

And then, all of a sudden, you’re transported into a blue tube filled with these chemicals that make you want to have sex with somebody you’ve never met before.

And then you’re not in a tube anymore; you’re in a dungeon, or a Wild West whorehouse, or a soap opera hot tub, or a seventies disco, or Regency England. And you still want to have sex with this stranger. Over, and over, and over again.

The whole thing feels like some sort of weird X-rated movie. And actually, you’re right. Because you’ve been abducted by aliens who are using you to form an intergalactic porn empire. What would you do? Relax and enjoy the ride? Try to escape?

Or maybe even fall in love?

If the tube’s a-rockin’, don’t come a-knockin’…

_Warning:
This book contains voyeuristic aliens, hologram cowboy orgies, big dildoes, disco, and gratuitous use of the word “baby”._

BLURB TWO:

In space, nobody can hear you cream.

Odilia is a nice planet. The sky is purple, the grass is yellow, the property prices aren’t that bad. But reproduction is painful, solitary, and asexual. Which is why the Odilians find the recently discovered “X-rated” disks from Earth so fascinating.

The Odilians’ plan is simple: abduct four Earthlings, plop them in a variety of titillating holographic scenarios, and help things along with a special mixture of chemicals and pheromones. Then market the results as reality entertainment—for vast profits.

The four chosen humans are strangers to each other, but not to life’s disappointments. Leandros, a lounge singer who’s never committed to anything longer than an Elvis medley. Eve, a interior designer who’s living a life much more beige than bold. Beau, a laid-back car mechanic who wants more from life than oil changes. And Cassandra, an innocent debutante who’s learned most of her sexual know-how from self-help books.

The Odilians put them in a blue tube, pump in the juice…and sit back to watch the show. But with all their plans and calculations, they never factored in the one thing that could spell failure for their money-making scheme.

The power of human emotion.

_Warning:
This book contains voyeuristic aliens, hologram cowboy orgies, big dildoes, disco, and gratuitous use of the word “baby”._

Bloggy Giveaway winner!

Thanks to everyone for visiting Samhain Publishing. If you didn’t win, please browse our books and give one a try!

The winner of the Starbucks gift card and two print books of her choice is CherieJ. Congratulations, Cherie!

Bloggy Giveaways! Win books and a Starbucks gift card

Welcome to those of you finding your way here from the Bloggy Giveaways.

As part of the Bloggy Giveaways Carnival, we’re offering the winner’s choice of two of our print books:http://samhainpublishing.com/print and a $25 gift card to Starbucks.

To enter, go to our main website (first tab at the top left that says “Samhain Home”) and browse the books. In the comments, tell us what cover most caught your attention. It cannot be one of the five or six covers on the home page listed as new releases. Sorry, we’re going to make you work just a little for your prize and we want you to browse the site! All other entries will be deleted.

Make sure you leave a valid email address so we can contact you to collect your prize. Entry is open to those in the US and Canada for the books and Starbucks gift card. If you are an international reader and win, we will substitute an extra print book (for a total of three books) in lieu of the Starbucks gift card. Prizes unclaimed after one week are forfeited and a new winner will be drawn.

Contest closes Saturday, April 26th around noon and we’ll draw a winner on Sunday the 27th.

If you’re new to the Bloggy Giveaway Carnival, make sure you visit the main page where last I looked there were over 300 giveaways posted!

**Note, when leaving a comment here, the blog first takes you to a preview screen, and then you have to hit submit again, so make sure you post your comment and don’t leave it on the preview screen.

Who needs sleep?

If you’ve never been to a Romantic Times conference before, the one thing you might not know that everyone packs is bags under their eyes. RT is a frantic pace of morning until late (late) night activities, dancing, drinking, and talking with friends. In the morning and into the afternoon there are mixers, Club RT, workshops and more to attend.

In the evening it’s parties, sitting in the bar with friends, and hanging out in your room with your roommate until the early hours of the morning catching up on life and gossip.

One thing there’s not much of is sleep. Most of us have good intentions. I repeat to myself every day, “I’m going to go to bed no later than midnight. I’m going to lay down in the afternoon. I will not run my body on only five hours of sleep a night.”

Ask me how that’s working out for me.

Today I’m setting this post up early. I’ve been up since 7:30, after going to bed around 2am. I have a full schedule—Samhain Publisher’s spotlight in the morning, lunch with an author, a stint at the ARe Club RT table, an Interracial Panel and then dinner with the other Samhain admin tonight.

Not much time for napping in there. But everyone who’s ever attended RT knows one thing—there are simply too many people to see, too much to talk about and too much to do to waste time on sleep. We have 51 other weeks out of the year to catch up on sleep. This week is for catching up on other things!

The good news (for me) is that I’m going home tomorrow. For most convention-goers, the craziness is only starting and lasts until Sunday when, by the time most of them board the airplane, they’ll be lucky if the airline doesn’t charge them for the extra weight of the baggage under their eyes.

Samhain Submissions Re-open

As of today I’ve re-opened submissions at Samhain. Please keep in mind that we have refocused our efforts and the accepted genres have changed.

Additionally, we’ve clarified and/or changed some of our submissions guidelines.

http://samhainpublishing.com/submissions

Questions can be sent to editor@samhainpublishing.com

Call for Submissions: Fall 2008 Menage and More anthology

Call for submissions: Samhain Publishing 2008 Fall Ménage and More anthology.

Two men focused on her pleasure. One night of indulgence with her best friend and her man. Three men…one love. What’s your fantasy? More than any other, we hear from our readers that the ménage and more is the fantasy they most love reading in erotic romance. In Fall 2008, Samhain Publishing will present three red hot ménage and more stories to our readers…your book could be one of them.
This anthology will consist of three novellas to be released individually as eBooks in September 2008 and combined into one print title for 2009 release.

I am open to any romance genre (historical, paranormal, contemporary, etc.) but the stories must involve a ménage (or more). Though the ménage does not need to be the central relationship in the story or end in a HEA for all three, I am looking for romances so there must be a happily ever after for at least two of the characters.

Submissions are open to all authors previously published with Samhain as well as authors aspiring to publish with Samhain. Submissions must be new material—previously published material will not be considered.

Additionally, we will not consider manuscripts previously submitted whether individually or for past anthologies. Please be aware that manuscripts submitted to this anthology cannot be resubmitted at a later date unless by invitation from an editor.

To submit, please include the full manuscript of 24,000–30,000 words with a 2–5 page synopsis. Also include a letter of introduction/query letter if you are an author not previously contracted with Samhain.

Submissions are open until May 15, 2008, and the final decision will be made by June 1, 2008. Submissions should be sent to editor@samhainpublishing.com . Please put Ménage Anthology Submission in the subject line. If you receive an auto response, your submission has been received. Anthologies are special projects exempt to the general closing of submissions.

I’m happy to answer questions about this anthology either on the Samhain Author loop, Samhain Café , on the Romance Divas forum or by private email.

*permission to forward granted

Hiring Editors and Copy Editors

Samhain Publishing is looking for content editors and final line editors.

At this time we are searching for motivated individuals interested in working part time (one to two releases a month) as an editor in all genres of romance and erotica. Preference for both positions is given to non-authors or to writers not actively seeking publication/pursuing a career in writing. Anyone accepting a position editing with us will not be eligible for future publication/submission to Samhain as an author.

Duties include but are not limited to reading and responding to submissions, contracting books, editing and finalizing manuscripts, communicating with authors, final line editors, other content editors and Samhain executives about various things such as cover art, excerpts, blurbs, promotion and more.

We are especially interested in finding editors who, once they’ve learned and been with the company for a period of time, would be interested in traveling and attending conferences/giving workshops and talks to RWA groups throughout the year as a representative of Samhain.

Compensation involves both monthly flat fees as well as royalty based pay on ebooks and print books. Residuals are paid on all of an editor’s backlist and pay is monthly.

Compensation for copy editors is on a per word basis.

Interested applicants for the content editor position should email Angela James at
CE-employment@samhainpublishing.com

For the final line editor (copy editor) position: employment@samhainpublishing.com

Hiring for content editors will be done as I find qualified applicants. I will close hiring once I feel I’ve found a sufficient number of editors. Hiring for final line editors is ongoing. Please check the employment page at Samhain Publishing if you are unsure if job positions are open. http://samhainpublishing.com/employment

permission to forward granted

Do you own a Sony Reader?

Samhain is going to work on converting our backlist to a readable Sony Reader format (specially formatted PDF) and from now on, new releases will have this format offered as well (expanding our current list of formats offered to seven: Adobe/PDF, Microsoft Reader/LIT, Mobipocket/PRC, Ebookwise/IMP, HTML, Rocketbook/RB, and Sony Reader).

Currently, there are three books only available in that format (at a customer’s request) but if you are interested in purchasing a book in the Sony Reader format, just email books@samhainpublishing.com and we’ll make those available. Please understand that converting our backlist will take a while—there are around 600 books—but all you have to do is ask!

Contest Extended! Win an Ebookwise reader!

We’ve extended the contest deadline another week due to the holidays, so there’s still time to win an Ebookwise or free books! Details below:

We’re looking for your logo and catch phrase ideas!

Samhain Publishing is looking for both graphic logos as well as “just word” catch phrases to use on our marketing and promotional items. Currently we use “It’s all about the story.” and while we love that and will continue to use it, we’re hoping that you can help us come up with some new, fun, fresh ideas. Graphics/logos/phrases will be used for a variety of promotional and marketing items and can be serious, funny, sexual, sweet, professional or otherwise. The only limitation is your imagination!

Prizes will include a brand new Ebookwise reader, print books and ebooks from Samhain Publishing.

The contest begins today and entries will close on Saturday December 1st. Graphics should be sent in .jpeg/.jpg format and all entries should be emailed to:

logocontest@samhainpublishing.com

All entrants agree that by sending their entries containing logo/catch phrase ideas to Samhain Publishing, that they give up all rights to future use of those graphics, words, logos intended specifically for the contest. By submitting their ideas, entrants give Samhain Publishing permission to use the logos/graphics/phrases in any advertising/promotional capacity without expectation of future compensation if entry is awarded a prize.

Winners will be announced on the Samhain blog (http://samhainpublishing.com/blog) in December and will have 2 weeks from the date of the announcement to claim their prize.

Any questions regarding this contest can be directed to Angela James, Executive Editor either on the Samhain blog or via email at angie@samhainpublishing.com

*permission to forward granted

Contest! Win an Ebookwise reader!

We’re looking for your logo and catch phrase ideas!

Samhain Publishing is looking for both graphic logos as well as “just word” catch phrases to use on our marketing and promotional items. Currently we use “It’s all about the story.” and while we love that and will continue to use it, we’re hoping that you can help us come up with some new, fun, fresh ideas. Graphics/logos/phrases will be used for a variety of promotional and marketing items and can be serious, funny, sexual, sweet, professional or otherwise. The only limitation is your imagination!

Prizes will include a brand new Ebookwise reader, print books and ebooks from Samhain Publishing.

The contest begins today and entries will close on Saturday December 1st. Graphics should be sent in .jpeg/.jpg format and all entries should be emailed to:

logocontest@samhainpublishing.com

All entrants agree that by sending their entries containing logo/catch phrase ideas to Samhain Publishing, that they give up all rights to future use of those graphics, words, logos intended specifically for the contest. By submitting their ideas, entrants give Samhain Publishing permission to use the logos/graphics/phrases in any advertising/promotional capacity without expectation of future compensation if entry is awarded a prize.

Winners will be announced on the Samhain blog (http://samhainpublishing.com/blog) in December and will have 2 weeks from the date of the announcement to claim their prize.

Any questions regarding this contest can be directed to Angela James, Executive Editor either on the Samhain blog or via email at angie@samhainpublishing.com

*permission to forward granted