2007 Romancing The Rockies Conference
Associate Editor: Rose Hilliard
May 11-12 2007
Denver, Colorado
www.stmartins.com
Rose Hilliard is an associate editor at St. Martin's Press, where she handles romance, erotica and fiction for mass market, trade and hardcover. She began her publishing career in 2000 as an editorial assistant at Time Warner Book Group, and went on to work as an assistant editor at Penguin's New American Library. Some of the authors she has worked with include Virginia Henley, J. R. Ward and Judith Gould. She grew up in New Jersey and graduated from NYU.
Recent Interview:
Colorado Romance Writers, Inc
2007 Romancing The Rockies
Editor Interview by Diana Rowe
Associate Editor Rose Hilliard
St. Martins Press
DLR (Diana): Hello Rose, and we look forward to welcoming you to Denver in May for CRW’s Romancing the Rockies Conference. Thanks for agreeing to be interviewed.
DLR first question: Rose, please tell us about St. Martins. How many titles does St. Martins release each month? Are these lines, or strictly single title releases? Anything new, exciting and upcoming at St. Martin's that you’d like to share with us?
RH (Rose Hilliard): At St. Martin's, we don't have lines or a set number of slots to fill. We only sign up books we love, so our pub schedule varies from month to month.
DLR: Will you give us a few examples of “well-known” St. Martin's authors? How about upcoming, those-to-watch authors?
RH: Jennifer Crusie, Janet Evanovich and Sherrilyn Kenyon are long time St. Martin's authors, and Lisa Kleypas, Iris Johansen and Kristin Hannah recently joined our list. St. Martin's is also responsible for discovering Running With Scissors (Augusten Burroughs), Something Borrowed (Emily Giffin) and The Nanny Diaries (Emma Mclaughlin & Nicola Kraus). Keep your eye on Sheila Roberts, Michelle Marcos and Opal Carew--as well as Lora Leigh, Cindy Gerard and Christine Warren. They're going places!
DLR: What makes St. Martin’s books different from other publishers?
RH: We're willing to take chances on books that are risky and don't fit into a neat little box. For example, Emily Giffin's Something Borrowed features a woman who sleeps with her best friend's fiancé a week before the wedding. Many publishers would shy away from such a risky and provocative plot, but SMP published it to huge success. Additionally, we have great author care. We know it's our authors who keep us in business and we aim to keep them happy on every level.
DLR: Tell us a little bit about yourself and your professional journey to St. Martin's.
RH: After working as an editorial assistant to Laura Cifelli (a wonderful romance editor and mentor) at Warner for a year, I followed her over to Penguin's New American Library. I worked there for 3 1/2 years as an assistant, where I was fortunate enough to be able to lunch agents, acquire authors and develop my own list. After one of my erotic romances was a big seller for them, NAL had me spearheading acquisitions for the erotic romance program.
I wasn't looking for another job, but one day, Jen Enderlin from St. Martin's called and asked me to interview for a position at SMP. Jen is a legendary editor and I was flattered just to be asked. The position she later offered me was my dream job. I'd get to leave my assistant responsibilities behind and develop my own list from scratch, buying books I was crazy about and focusing on romance. I took the job and for the past year, I've been having a blast signing up exciting new authors.
DLR: How many authors do you handle personally? Can you give us a few examples (names) of your author clients? How many new authors have you sold in the past year?
RH: Thanks for giving me the opportunity to shamelessly promote a few of my fantastic authors! I have a hilarious, heartwarming women's fiction novel coming out next November called ON STRIKE FOR CHRISTMAS by Sheila Roberts. As Susan Wiggs raves, ON STRIKE FOR CHRISTMAS is "one of the most frank, funny and unforgettable books of the year." And for anyone who's curious about erotic romance, you absolutely have to read Opal Carew's Twin Fantasies (July 07) and/or Charlene Teglia's Wild, Wild West (August 07)--they're the hottest books you'll ever read, and romantic too. I also have an amazing historical series coming out next November from Michelle Marcos set around a fictional bordello called The Pleasure Emporium. The first book is called When A Lady Misbehaves, and it's one of the best historicals I've read since I started working in publishing.
DLR: What is the primary challenge of your job? What aspect(s) of being an editor do you enjoy the most? The least?
RH: Since I've been developing my list from scratch, my focus has been on acquisitions. This entails heavy reading and hustling to get agents to include me on hot submissions. I'm an associate editor, but my goal is to acquire at the same level as an executive editor--and for my books to sell.
DLR: Overseeing so many authors seems like a huge responsibility. How do you stay organized and productive, yet avoid burnout? (Yeah right!)
RH: My list is still growing so I'm not hopelessly overwhelmed yet. But I'm a natural workaholic--I get anxious when I'm not overworked--so burnout isn't an issue for me.
DLR: What is your particular area of interest (i.e. genre, story line, hero, heroine)? What aspect of an author’s work really catches your eye? What are you and/or St. Martin's looking for in a story?
RH: The whole package. I'm a sucker for a strong narrative voice and complex characters. I also love humor--if a book makes me laugh, I'm automatically hooked. A strong concept is also important, and a good title helps as well.
DLR: What do you like to see FIRST from an author? A query? A partial? A complete manuscript? Are you and/or St. Martin's open to unsolicited queries?
RH: A partial and a query describing the story. I'm open to unsolicited queries, but for time management purposes, I give more time and attention to agented projects.
DLR: Can you give us some guidelines or refer us to where we can obtain them? Are your requirements different for unpublished vs published authors?
RH: Send me a query, a synopsis, sample pages and an SASE. If you have an agent, have your agent get in touch with me about the project. If the submission is coming from the author, I prefer that it come by snail mail.
DLR: How do you feel about multiple submissions?
RH: Multiple submissions are fine.
DLR: How many manuscripts do you purchase from the slush pile? How many new authors have you personally picked up this year? Any suggestions for authors submitting or pitching to you?
RH: I've never acquired anything out of the slush, though I've gotten second reads on a few manuscripts that came in unsolicited.
DLR: What are some of the biggest mistakes new authors make?
RH: Weird titles can be a turn off. Nothing grabs an editor's attention more than a kick-butt title. Slow-starters are also common. If the story doesn't take off by page 15, it's hard to keep reading (because we have so many other projects competing for our time and attention). I also read a lot of projects that are professionally written, but the characters and the voice feel cookie-cutter.
DLR: How often do you deal with agents? In your opinion, what does an agent bring to the table that an unsolicited unagented manuscript does not?
RH: I work with many agents every day, and they're wonderful because they act as readers for publishing houses. For every project they send me, they've waded through many other submissions that I don't have the time to read and have pulled out the best of the bunch.
DLR: And finally, what advice would you offer to writers, published, multi-published, and aspiring?
RH: Keep writing and improving your work by getting feedback on it. Most successful authors took a while to get published, but they kept working at it until they got their break.
For more information on St. Martin’s Press, check out their web site: www.stmartins.com
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