I received my first rejection from my agent last week. I was completely surprised by the publishing house, BelleBooks. I googled them and was further surprised to see that they only take "Southern Fiction." I write YA Fantasy. I asked my agent, Al Longden, about it, and he said they are expanding. So I gave them a call in order to share a new avenue with the rest of you.
At 7:30 on a Saturday morning, Sandra Chastian, VP of Public Relations, returned my phone call. To summarize: BelleBooks takes "anything that's good." They are looking for MS that are fresh, new, or unique. She would like to see fiction geared toward an older market, but that doesn't ostracize the younger market (ie-alludes to pop culture events that the younger market wouldn't have a reference for).
They take unagented material.
When asked what advice she would give unpublished authors, Sandra said, "Join the RWA (Romance Writers of America). You may think you don't write romance, so you shouldn't join. You're wrong. Dead wrong. Joining the RWA was one of the smartest moves I ever made in my career."
If you're ready to submit, I'd try sending it to BelleBooks, http://www.bellebooks.com/writers.htm
Good luck!
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Oh, wow. Join the romance group, huh? Hmmm, I think that's possible. What do you have to do to join? I should go look. :)
Thanks for this info! I'm not quite ready to submit, but when I am, I'll send them a query. Thanks!